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11^th Annual National Conference on Electoral and Political Reforms: Day 1

The 11^th ADR Annual National Conference commenced today at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture Kolkata with the inaugural speech of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Shri H.S. Brahma.

Address by Shri H.S. Brahma

While addressing the Conference on the issue of electoral and political reforms, CEC Shri Brahma translated the meaning of electoral reforms for the citizens by stating that "Electoral reforms for citizens means to vote responsibly and to vote for good candidates"

CEC Shri Brahma unequivocally stressed on the importance of reforms in the functioning of the Political Parties. He said that the reforms in Political Parties are quintessential to electoral reforms in India.

Shri Brahma elaborated in length on the ECI';s National E-Services Project. He explained to the audience the main features of the project such as roll out of e-services, National Voter Services Portal (NVSP), e-Voting, Encyclopedia of Election Information, GIS based planning system etc. He explained in detail the use of technology by ECI to tackle the issues regarding voter registration.

Shri Brahma exhorted the citizens not to just caste their vote once in every 5 years, but also monitor the working of their MPs and MLAs after elections on a regular basis.

Making flow of money in politics transparent: a case for good governance

[Panelists: Shri Shailesh Gandhi (Former Information Commissioner), Shri P. K. Dash (Director General – Expenditure, ECI), Shri Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (Journalist and political commentator), Shri Subhash Chandra Agrawal (RTI Activist), Shri Nikhil Dey (NCPRI/MKSS); Chairperson: Prof. Trilochan Sastry]

Commenting on the nature of electoral spending, Shri Nikhil Dey of MKSS said that the election spending by candidates and parties is being done like an investment in order to earn huge returns after the elections, when they are part of the government.

Senior journalist Shri Pranjoy Guha Thakurta said that the Politico-business nexus is the Gangotri of corruption. He suggested that the Political Parties should not be free to have their own auditors to audit their annual accounts.

Shri PK Dash said that there is a minimal legislation in field of monitoring of donations received by Political Parties, he added that the present mechanism of monitoring of parties funds is replete with loopholes. He said that when sources of 90% of funds received by Political Parties are not known, it is impossible to monitor these funds.

Shri PK Dash informed that countries such as United Kingdom have tackled the issue of transparency in money in politics through a series of legislations.

RTI Activists Shri SC Agrawal said that the RTI responses have revealed that the electoral reforms recommended by several government commissions have been pending for decades. Shri Agrawal recommended that the Political Parties must be audited by CAG.

Shri Shailesh Gandhi, while lambasting the election spending disclosures submitted by candidates in Lok Sabha 2014 elections, proposed that if limits on electoral spending by candidates are removed then a few candidates may end up revealing their actual spending in elections. Shri Gandhi recommended that the self-sworn affidavits of at-least winners and runners up candidates should be verified by Income Tax Department.

Time to build a functional democracy: Empowering local body institutions

[Panelists: Shri Subhasis Batabyal (AITC, Parliamentary Secretary, ex officio, Dept. Minister for Agriculture, West Bengal), Dr. Gouri P. Dutta (WBEW, former member, State Planning Board, former MLA), Shri Nikhil Dey (NCPRI/MKSS), Shri Sudhir Pal (Manthan Yuva Sansthaan, Jharkhand), Ms. Pankti Jog (MAGP), Shri Chandan Dutta (WBEW); Chairperson – Shri M.N.Roy]

While speaking on the local body elections and empowerment of local bodies, Shri Nikhil Dey (of MKSS Rajasthan) termed the recent Rajasthan Government’s Ordinance of minimum mandatory educational qualification for candidates contesting in Panchayat elections as “undemocratic”. He also stressed on the need for Social Audit of Panchayat funds & delivery of services by Panchayats.

Pankti Jog (of MAGP Gujarat) gave a powerful presentation of how RTI is being used at Panchayat level in Gujarat and how such practices of using RTI are bringing about a positive culture in villages.

Sudhir Pal (of Manthan Jharkhand) shared his experiences of how Panchayats have become instrumental in implementation of State and Central schemes.

Shri MN Roy stressed on the need to provide more power and resources to the local bodies so that they can work efficiently.

Need to enhance transparency and accountability in political parties

[Panelists: Shri T. S. Krishnamurthy (Former CEC), Shri Sukhvilas Verma (INC), Shri Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP), Shri Prabodh Chandra Panda (State Secretary, CPI), Shri Asim Dasgupta (CPI (M)), Shri Amit Choudhary (CPI(ML)(L)), Shri Ravindra Kumar (M.D. & Editor – in – Chief, The Statesman); Chairperson – Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar]

The representatives of Political Parties shared their views regarding transparency and accountability in Political Parties. Shri Asim Dasgupta of CPM while speaking on the issue stated that the meaning of transparency for a party essentially means that the ideology of the party should be stated clearly and not hidden. He recommended the need for state funding of elections and estimated the cost to the state exchequer of being less than 1% of India’s GDP

Shri. Prabodh Panda of CPI said that parties are spending crores of rupees but the source of their donations is not known.

Shri Bhattacharya of RSP opined that with 442 crorepati MPs in the Lok Sabha, it is this "miniscule minority" that rules the country.

Shri Ravindra Kumar, Editor of The Statesman submitted that the Political Parties are guilty of preserving the lack of transparency and further added that the Political Parties should come under RTI until the CIC order is not set aside by a court of law.

Former CEC Shri TS Krishnamurthy said that the Political Parties are the weak links in Indian democracy, and surmised that all the major electoral reforms till date have only been brought by the Supreme Court.

Shri Krishnamurthy recommended the state funding of elections with setting up of National Election Fund (NEF) to which corporates and citizens can donate funds and get 100% tax exemption.

Shri Krishnamurthy also stressed on the need for a separate law for regulating Political Parties functioning and their finances.

Regards,

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