President Abdul Kalam made strong observations about the “dubious and undemocratic” political practices prevalent.  He rightly said, “When politics degrades itself into political adventurism, the nation would be on the calamitous road to inevitable disaster and ruination.  Let us not risk it”.

>President Abdul Kalam made strong observations about the “dubious and undemocratic” political practices prevalent.  He rightly said, “When politics degrades itself into political adventurism, the nation would be on the calamitous road to inevitable disaster and ruination.  Let us not risk it”.

dir="ltr">Can governments of the day advertise their accomplishments at the cost of public exchequer before elections are notified? The question needs to be answered at two levels.

dir="ltr">Under the current law a candidate can contest from two constituencies, but has to vacate one of the seats within ten days - necessitating a by-election. The Election Commission’s (EC) proposal to bar a candidate from contesting in more than one constituency, or seek reimbursement of the expenditure for holding the by-election is perfectly reasonable and fair.

The merit of this proposal could be enhanced by not limiting it to only vacation of a seat upon being elected to two seats in the same House but extending it to occasions when:

dir="ltr">This is the first general election in which disclosure of financial details of all candidates, their spouses and dependents is mandatory, as a necessary part of the nomination. However, the media are regaling us with stories of absurd ‘disclosures’ by may candidates, concealing much more than they reveal, and making amusing reading in some cases. Why is this so?

dir="ltr">The recent enforcement of a ban on political advertisements on television raised some controversy. The Election Commission (EC) and the Union Government are busy throwing blame on each other for this ban. Irrespective of who is right, or wrong, this ban raises several fundamental questions about our democracy and nature of political campaigning. We need to address and resolve them speedily.

dir="ltr">This week, following the Election Commission’s recommendation, the Union government enhanced the election expenditure limits of candidates. For major states, the ceiling for  Assembly now is Rs. 10 lakhs (Rs. 6 lakh earlier), and for Lok Sabha it is  Rs. 25 lakhs (Rs. 15 lakh earlier). This revision became necessary with the recent change of law which plugged the loophole by including party expenditure in ceiling limits. Electioneering costs money, and the new legislation created tax incentive for legitimate funding for political activity.

dir="ltr">A recent vital piece of legislation relating to political funding went largely unnoticed in media and political circles. The Election and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2003 (Bill No. 18 of 2003) was approved by both Houses of Parliament in August 2003, and became law in September with the assent of the President. In any other functioning democracy, such a law would have been hailed as a major reform, and dominated public discourse for months. The deafening silence on the subject in India is a sad reflection of the quality of public discourse.

The events of the past one month in Maharashtra hold a mirror to the crisis in our democratic polity.  Once again, the nation witnessed buying and selling of legislators, party hopping, back room deals, political instability, holding MLAs captive in tourist resorts in other states, a vote of confidence, and the usual scramble for loaves of office in the impending cabinet expansion.  This has been seen in several states all over the country over the years.  Now this culture of ayarams and gayarams has inflicted a grievous blow to India’s most prosperous state.

dir="ltr">As Mark Twain said, nothing concentrates the mind more beautifully than the knowledge that one has only fifteen days to live. As the political and economic crisis is worsening, and as illegitimate and unaccounted election expenditure is skyrocketing (there are instances of candidates buying votes in village panchayats spending Rs 1.5 crore!), parties are showing belated but welcome signs of eagerness for political funding reform.