Election Commission of India
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EXPRESS' DATE: 2 9 SEP 7012
Party to re orm
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If political parties don't change, they must be made to by law
KUMAR DASH
OLiTICALpartiesdidnot
find mention in our Constitution until the Constitution (52nd Amendment) Act of
1985, dealing with defection and
the consequent disqualification
ofthe elected members. However, in his last address to the
Constituent Assembly, B.R.
Ambedkar had cautioned that in
addition to "our old enemies in
the form of caste and creed, we
are going to have many political
parties with diverse and opposing
political creeds and if the political
parties place creed above the
country, our independence will
be put in jeopardy for the second
time and probably lostforever."
In spite ofthis, there is still no
comprehensive law in our country to regulate political parties.
The Representation of the
People Act, 1951, passed within a
year of the Constitution being
adopted, added a chapter, as late
as 1989, to deal with the registration of political parties. Although
parties can be registered by the
Election Commission, there is no
corresponding provision for it to
deregister a political party. The
apex court has held that since
there is no specific provision in
the law, the general clauses laws
do not apply and the EC cannot
assume the power to deregister a
party. As a result, political parties
have mushroomed and today
there are more than 1,396 registered parties in India.
There are instances of regis-
tered parties not carrying out any
political activity. For example,
the EC had referred many parties
to the income tax department
and in two cases it was found that
they had raised substantial funds
and the donors had availed of tax
exemptions, but the funds had
been used by such parties to purchase shares and jewellery. A
large number of parties, although
registered for years, have not
contested in a single election.
This raises serious doubts about
the purpose of registration.
Moreover, there is no law in
our country which provides for a
company, other than a government company. The amended
law provided for one-time disclosure of information about donations exceeding Rs 20,000 to the
EC, atthe end offinancial year.
Income tax laws were simultaneously amended to exempt such
donations from tax. The
amended law incentivised donations to political parties and there
were no corresponding provisions for disclosure of audited accounts, neither were there corresponding penal provisions for
defaulting political parties. So
the income tax returns of many
There are instances of registered parties not
carrying out any political activity. A large number of
parties, although registered for years, have not
contested a single election. This raises serious doubts
about the purpose of registration.
ceiling on the campaign expenditure of political parties. This
sometimes makes the statutory
ceiling on a candidate's campaign
expenditure redundant. In a sting
operation by a media channel on
the eve of recent Uttar Pradesh
election, candidates admitted
that they had spent between Rs
65lakh and Rs 851akh, when the
ceiling is only Rs 161akh. Large
chunks of opaque funds are also
pumped into election campaigns.
In 2003, the Registration of
People Act was amended to enable political parties to accept donations from any person and
parties, including national level
parties, show that the donors of
only a minuscule portion of funds
are disclosed to the EC. Yet the
transparency and accountability
of public institutions are indicative of the health and vitality of a
democracy and citizens have a
right to know what economic
benefits donors have got from the
political system after making the
donation and how the funds are
utilised by the party.
In her recent farewell speech,
former president Pratibha Patil
had spoken of the need for electoral reform, telling law makers
that "there will be arguments in
the process for the search for answers, but it could never happen
that in the din we lose our way
forward". The EC has been demanding electoral reforms since
2004. This has been echoed by
NGOs and citizens' forums as
well. The Confederation ofIndian Industry has made similar
representations, demanding
more transparency in the accounts of the political parties.
The law ministry and the EC
jointly held regional consultations last year with citizens' forums, NGOs and political parties
on electoral reforms which include proposals to debar criminals from contesting polls, ensure
democracy within the parties and
enforce transparency and the disclosure of funds by political parties. But the proposed reforms
are yet to see the light of the day.
Candour, transparency and
accountability are the cardinal
values of a democracy, which political parties are supposed to uphold.If the parties do not exhibit
these values on their own, comprehensive legislation on political parties is a credible alternative. Lack oflegislation to
regulate political parties will result in the public losing faith in
the political system, which wiII be
perilous for any democracy.
The writer is directorgeneral, the
Election Commission of India
Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road, New Delhi -110001
express@expressindia,com