Have Indian elections funded by 'invisible money' become dirtier?

Indian laws punishing dirty political funding remain unchanged since the days of the British raj

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s scathing indictment of the Election Commission of India for its failure to check the influence of black money in elections since independence could be a double-edged sword for the Modi government. Jaitley exhorted to an audience at a conclave in Delhi last week, “For 70 years, India’s democracy has completely been funded by invisible money — elected representatives, governments, political parties, Parliaments. And I must say that the Election Commission completely failed in checking it.”

“I am delighted with his statement. But the action does not match the avowed intentions and the words. Instead of making political