Circle of influence: Letter to BS on electoral bonds for political funding

With reference to “A cloak to hide the daggers” (January 18), Somasekhar Sunderasan has rightly applied the analogy to the government’s method of hiding the real magnitude and source of political funding from the electorate’s knowledge. 

The concept of an identity-concealed electoral bond is only one in the long list of cloaks; Right to Information dilution and avoidance, not having a fully functional Lokpal or Lokayukta, fudging of both campaign and political party’s books of accounts, late or incomplete disclosure of wealth with zero cost of hiding or misrepresenting, not insisting on the tough relatives or insider laws that cover businessmen, obfuscated office of profit definition are among the others. 

Is there one political party or politician who is interested in a fully accounted party and campaign fund flow? It is said that a serious Lok Sabha candidate of any major party has to spend Rs 200-250 million per seat. Add state and local bodies, by-elections, standing fixed cost to maintain thousands of permanent workers and so on. One does not know what is the target return on investment for politicians. It will be quite idealistic to assume that a politician or party will collect unaccounted money and diligently use it to further the party’s cause. 

Almost everybody is happy with the current system — those who give, those who collect, and those who get part of the money. It is a completely self-sustaining circle of influence and money exchange.

P Datta  Kolkata

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