Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Rewrite the Indian Constitution' that was published in Newsband

Rewrite the Indian Constitution

Without even waiting to legally challenge the order of the Central Information Commission bringing parties under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, the Union Cabinet has decided to amend the Act to nullify the effect of the order. Political parties will have to accept the fact that they are accountable to their members, and to the people they seek to represent. Transparency in the funding of parties and monitoring of their expenses are essential in any functioning party-based democracy.

Everyone knows that political parties lean on business houses for expenses at the time of elections and public events. Inevitably, there is a price to pay when these parties come to power, a price that is often willingly paid in terms of policies and concessions tailored to the needs of the election-time benefactors. This nexus between industrial houses and political parties operates in the shadow economy. As with all corrupt exchanges, both giver and taker are benefited.

At present, parties are required to declare to the Election Commission donations in excess of Rs. 20,000. However, non-reporting and under-reporting is common, and the EC does not have the power or the capacity to verify declarations. Opening up the ledgers of political parties to public scrutiny could be the first step in making them more accountable.

We have no right to boast ourselves that we are a great democracy when the leaders of political parties of all hues unanimously proclaim that laws are meant to be enacted only for others to obey excluding themselves. They think they are a class by themselves forgetting the fact that they are elected by the very people whom they are trying to take for a ride without compunction. This is height of hypocrisy of the political class.

Political parties with diverse ideologies forming nexus to safeguard their corrupt interest are not new. They have circumvented many laws in many ways.

For clean governance, people should vote for the political parties who are in favour of full RTI without any amendments for the political parties, accountability and transparency in all their dealings.

It is found that all the disagreeing parties come under one umbrella when it is about displaying the transparency in their financial transactions. RTI Act which has given some access to the otherwise toothless citizens of our country seems nothing more than a propaganda by the government. These parties who boast about their honesty and sensitiveness for common man hide the corruption nexus running inside their parties by stating the CIC suggestion as frivolous. What is more surprising is that our Opposition who attempts to take a sneer at every move taken by the government is so far silent on this issue. It is more like the Opposition telling the government "Let's loot them together" or rather like "It's your turn now and we will do the same when we come to power".

There is urgent need to review our constitution and election system, and rewrite it. India needs a better system for the better life and welfare of the people. It is not democracy that is going on in the so called ‘worlds largest democracy’. Our politicians are behaving as the French monarchs behaved before the French revolution. India is more than ripe for a revolution to stop this utter exploitation of Indians by the political class.