Amidst the continuing debate over funding of political parties, former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi today said there is a dire need to ban private funding of parties to check the menace of corruption.
Pitching in for a 'state funding' model for parties, Quraishi said, "There can be a rewarding system for the parties with a certain amount to be given for each vote in their favour. For instance, if a party is to be given Rs 100 for each vote polled in its favour, with the number of voters in our country, the amount can be sufficient for its funding."
"This practice needs to be implemented and at the same time corporate funding needs to be banned, because that's what is the root of corruption in our democracy," he said here at the launch of his book, "An Undocumented Wonder - The Making of the Great Indian Election".
Talking about the debate on whether opinion polls should be banned or not, Quraishi said though the Election Commission and political parties have been in strong opposition of opinion polls, this remains unexplained as to why parties chose to ban just the exit polls and not opinion polls when the matter went to Parliament.
"There is a huge debate about opinion polls. While the media fully supports these polls, parties and the Election Commission strongly oppose them. But it is not understood that why the parties, who were unanimous in demanding the ban, did not pass it in Parliament," Quraishi said.
The demand for a ban on opinion polls was not a whimsical suo motu act by the EC. It was result of the unanimous demands at two all-party meetings in 1997 and 2004. The only difference of opinion among the political parties whether the ban should apply from announcement of the poll schedule or from the date of notification, he writes in the book.
"In 2008, the matter went to Parliament which banned exit polls but not opinion polls. Soon thereafter, the parties came back to the EC complaining about opinion polls. It is not understood, why they didn't do it when the ball was in their court," he said.
The 416-page book is a first person account of the recent electoral history of India and revolves around the much raised questions about what has been termed as the 'biggest management event of the world'.
The book also covers paradoxical issues like the great elections yet flawed democracy, election as mother of corruption, rise of the rich in politics, participation without representation, protest and participatory politics, and election as a festival and not a funeral.
