By Seema Sengupta
KOLKATA ― The Indian province of West Bengal witnessed a historic electoral verdict that has drawn the curtain on the longest-serving Communist regime anywhere on earth after 34 years of uninterrupted rule.
However, allegations of rampant use of black money and illegitimate foreign funding in the recently-concluded polls have added a new dimension to the entire debate of political corruption. The robust opposition campaigning instigated a bitter war of words between the primary contenders along with the Communists going to the extent of accusing the United States of meddling in India’s political affairs.
The U.S. diplomatic mission was targeted for supposedly acting as the catalyst of opposition unity. American diplomats were suspected of pressuring the ruling Congress Party of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to strike a deal with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress party at all cost.
A classified consulate cable leaked by the infamous WikiLeaks website added fuel to the fire. The U.S. State Department was disinclined to be dragged into an essentially political controversy by refusing to confirm or deny the allegations when approached by this author.
Even the former chief electoral officer of West Bengal, Debashis Sen, refuted this unsubstantiated accusation. “There is no evidence to my knowledge that foreign powers, as distinct from illegal or black money, being used in elections,” Sen said. With high profile personalities including Hotmail inventor Sabir Bhatia lending his vast experience to the opposition hi-tech campaign, the ruling Communists tried desperately to establish a nexus between tax evaders and the opposition alliance.
But then it is expected of the railway minister’s party with seven representatives in the union cabinet to be cash-rich. In fact a survey conducted by an independent election watch group showed a rapid rise in the wealth of opposition legislators in West Bengal between 2006 and 2011.
The income of the Marxist party which claims to pool their resources from mass donations has significantly gone up over the years. The party of the proletariat has even outsourced their political and ideological propaganda to a private television channel.
It is not unnatural for industrialists to furbish the election exchequers of political groups having representation and lobby within the government of the day. And this is exactly at which point corruption initiates.
According to constitutional experts, it is the single most important reason for corruption, particularly political corruption in India’s electoral system. It remains the root cause of corruption in politics since a huge amount of money is required to conduct electoral campaigns, organize political meetings and eventually register a resounding victory in polls.
Since a large chunk of cash is generated from unlawful activities, India has witnessed a spurt in both criminalization of politics and politicization of crimes in recent years. It is therefore not unnatural of the lower house of the Indian Parliament to boast 175 members with criminal backgrounds.
India’s huge unaccounted economic underbelly is often attributed to the increasing demand for black money at the time of elections. Even the Election Commission of India has pinpointed India’s electoral system as the exacting trigger of political corruption. Yet, they are loath to the idea of doing away with private donations by introducing state funding of elections.
Election officials believe that this cannot be a deterrent to black money inflow during the poll process. Poll experts like Sen said the moneyed class may always pump in more money into elections through political parties in the hope of reaping dividends later.
The commission is instead lobbying for executive and legal powers to expel candidates accused of falsifying expenditure amount. “Unfortunately, there is not much compliance and candidates find ways and means to spend beyond limit,” Sen said. Given his vast experience of supervising elections, Sen has no qualm in acknowledging the role of money power in the entire process.
Since a majority of candidates have a tendency to undervalue expenditure in their reports submitted to the authorities, the Election Commission is toying with the idea of drafting income tax officials in expenditure monitoring units. Such units will be stationed in each district where polling is scheduled.
With a whopping $20.32 million in black money being seized by authorities during the 2009 general elections and $220,000 having been confiscated in West Bengal so far, officials are preparing to tighten the noose on unfettered cash.
Some results are showing already and the system is under pressure, said Sen, adding that there certainly is more talk about money power than previous elections. India, the largest democracy on earth surely needs to do something urgently in clearing this muddle.
In the words of Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), corruption is latent with the power to shake the very foundations of society. Perhaps, legalizing black money by granting tax exemptions to donors funding political campaigns can be an option for curbing this menace that is fast consuming Indian politics and polity.
Seema Sengupta is a journalist based in Kolkata, India. She can be reached at sengupta.seema@gmail.com.