DailyPost 2729
IN WHOSE COMPANY ARE YOU IN?
Companies, companies and companies is what we have hearing off, since the electoral bond’s details tumbled out of SBI’s closet, after being reprimanded by the Supreme Court. Are our parties bothered about the company they are in? Day in day out, we hear of politicians being involved in gravest of criminal cases and any number of them who facilitate these acts and even larger number being beneficiaries of it. Even if a small percentage of our elected representatives were to divulge all what they know about criminal activities around them and what their party has been indulging in, we would have been a radically democratic country by now.
Indian democracy is a tacit understanding between businesses and politicians, while we keep getting enthralled about our franchise and fulfilling our duty towards the nation by casting our vote. When any political party gets power, they are duty bound to understand and be conversant in the use governmental processes, terms, conditions, procurement mechanisms, black listing, endless regulations, clarity on the nature and flow of money; what we can call as structural due diligence mechanisms before any task, transaction, engagement, commitments etc when money is involved. Large number of parties are running governments and even if you don’t all the governmental processes; general financial rules and how to maintain forward and background integrity of funds is known to one all.
Not getting into every single legal detail, suffice to say, the condition regarding the maximum percentage of its profit a business enterprise could donate to political party, was done away with the passage of electoral bond law. So, no due diligence of even the most cursory kind was required was the vision behind the legislation. One party designed it and all other parties were fine with it, at least in its operations but for the Communist parties. Do political parties don’t believe in due diligence before taking donations? Do the parties have any mechanisms in place or it a free for all; men, material, money, facilities, ghost funding, you name it and you had it.
Who gives you money you are not aware of and you are fine with, is biggest financial leap of faith, which even a mythical enterprise might not be able to achieve? The company which gives the donation being happy with the fact that the recipient will not be able to know the name of the donor, is the ultimate euphoria which the Indian democracy has been able to create. Black, white, blue; any color of money is fine. Shell, fraudster, trickster, under the financial crime scanner, any company was fine. If the company is black listed by the government run by the same party still its fine. Acceptance of funds from rotten companies is anti-democratic and immoral, it propagates the support to a wrong type of business, what it has done to our politics is now out in the open for everyone to see.
TIME TO DECLARE POLITICAL PARTIES AS POLITICAL COMPANIES AND BE FORCED TO OPERATE UNDER THE AMBIT OF COMPANY LAWS.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.