“If the Rich could hire other people to die for them, the Poor could make a wonderful living.” - Yiddish
Karaiba James
Asst. prof. Dept of Political Science Sjc jakhama
Some years ago a newspaper offered a prize for the best definition of money. Out of hundreds who competed, the winner submitted the following, “money is the universal provider for everything but happiness and a passport to everywhere but heaven.” When we look at what we want and then compare it with what we have, we will be unhappy. When we think of what we deserve, rather than of what we have, we will thank God.
The increasing role of money power in elections is too well known and is one of the maladies which sometimes reduces the process of election into a mere farce by placing some privileged candidates with financial resources in a distinctly advantageous position as compared to other candidates. The result of such an election cannot reflect the true choice of the people. The system deprives qualified and able persons of the prerogative to represent masses.
The power hungry political class would leave no stone unturned to gravitate towards their singular goal of seats and more seats. This class is known to push their cause for whatever it is worth down the throats of an almost gullible electorate via a universal language called money. Funding is an ongoing process and only each time it is becoming bigger and bigger. Who sets the tempo for corruption and a brazen flaunting of rules? Who sets the ball rolling by simply brushing aside rules that forbid any candidate to spend over Rs. 7 million on campaigns but end up using at least ten times the amount mainly on buying the voters with cash and alcohol?
For all of us to answer. Cash, which is often unaccounted black money, has often been found in transport vehicles, be it helicopters or milk trucks and even hearse vans. Enormous amounts are spent on rallies and high tech media campaigns which also include the sleazy practice of paid news.
This problem persists in India because political funding has not become institutionalized as the conduct of politics costs lots of money, not just to contest elections but also to run a political party. An organized system for mobilizing funds is lacking. It is at this juncture that unorganized funding methods like sale of patronage, extortion and loot of the exchequer creep in.
To counter the problem, it wouldn’t be wrong to cite the statement of Rajiv Theodore, India Bureau Chief, The American Bazaar; “What we need is a body akin to what has been set up in the U.S. under the Federal Election Campaign Act 1974 which created an enforcement agency called the Federal Election Commission. This body supervises all financial transactions by political bodies that have solicited or spent money to support or defeat federal candidates. The organization verifies all reports presented, and discloses the same to the public and the media. Ideally our Election Commission should be empowered to do exactly this, by law. If this is done there is no need for individual parties to give responses under RTI.”
We see that despite several teeth to the regulators no laws are left unchanged or simply abused by the rich and the political. The need of the hour is to enlighten citizens to enable qualified representatives to represent the masses, to facilitate application of the principles of democracy in our system. When people feel their votes do not change things, voters will seek money as short term maximization, fall back upon caste, community, tribe etc.
We need to empower local govt. evolve a new political culture, Internal democracy, primary elections to choose candidates, transparency, independent ombudsmen to for there is no single panacea to solve the menace.
