For cleaner, fairer elections

For cleaner, fairer elections

Electoral reforms in the hands of politicians is a classic example of a fox guarding the henhouse. While there are many policies that both major parties disagree with each other on, they form a remarkable tag team when it comes to electoral reforms.

Context:

• The Supreme Court’s recent decision on information disclosure paves a way for future constitutional interventions in India’s party funding regime, including the scheme of electoral bonds.

Disclosure of information:

• In 2002, the Supreme Court, in a landmark decision in Association for Democratic Reforms v. Union of India (ADR), mandated the disclosure of information.
• The disclosure relates to criminal antecedents, educational qualification, and personal assets of a candidate contesting elections.
• Sixteen years later, the court has extended the disclosure obligation to further include information relating to sources of income of candidates and their “associates”, and government contracts where candidates or their associates have direct or indirect interests.
• The principled basis of the court’s decision is that voters’ right to know about their candidate is an extension of their freedom of expression.

Party funding:

• If there is one piece of information that a voter is most deprived of in India, it is that about party funding.
• Representation of the People Act, 1951: Section 29C(1)(a) exempts political parties from disclosing the source of any contribution below 20,000.
• This gives political parties a convenient loophole to hide their funding sources by breaking contributions into smaller sums, even 19,999 each.
• As a result, a vast majority of donations to political parties come from sources unknown to voters.
• The new scheme of electoral bonds takes away even the facade of disclosure requirements that used to exist in earlier law.

Party agenda:

• Parties occupy a special space in India when it comes to agenda setting.
• By virtue of a strong anti-defection law in India, all elected legislators are bound by their party agenda.
• If an elected legislator refuses to toe the party line, she can be disqualified.