India, the largest democracy of today’s day, is currently witnessing its much anticipated general elections. With campaigning on full swing across the nation, some intriguing observations have come to light.
Political parties all over are spending an obscene amount of money on campaigning and advertising their candidates. Officially, the Election Commission has not placed a cap on the amount a political party can spend in an election or on a candidate. The commission has taken a superficial interest to check the flow of black money and other illegal incentives and it is an indisputable fact that there is an influx of crores of unaccounted cash. More than 50% of all party funds have been said to be donations from ‘unknown sources’. In part, this is due to the new system of electoral bonds, introduced by Arun Jaitley in 2017, which allow donors – including foreign entities – to remain anonymous, regardless of the scale of their donation.
Various estimates have concluded that the overall expenditure is nearly 9 billion USD, a huge leap from the 6.5 billion USD the United State’s spent in total on the 2015 off-year elections and 2016 presidential election.
The election budget system, as a result of the electoral bond scheme, has opened doors to investments from dubious sources for every single party. While India should be making an effort to create a transparent system in order to fight corruption and ensure a level playing field, the process is becoming more and more opaque.
Moreover, not only is there a lack of detail regarding the sources of election money, there is also no transparency as to where the cash is being allocated. It is true that parties, especially the BJP, have made a great effort to create a nexus of online advertisements and campaigns and have directed large amounts of budget towards social media, there is still sums of money that is largely unaccounted for. Political parties indulge in bribery and provide unethical incentives and tokens to voters all across the country. This fact is out in the open and yet - due to the ambiguous regulations placed on campaigning - perpetrators are not being caught.
One could critique this opulence and largely unnecessary grandeur of campaigning by highlighting the appalling state of the people of India. It is sad to see that while millions in the country fall below the poverty line and are grappling to stay alive, parties are neck deep in cash that is being used for dishonourable and fraudulent campaigning.
