Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Make all political parties accountable' that was published in Newsband

Make all political parties accountable

Indian politicians should be made liable to publicly disclose financial assets. Some parties have been able to hide their sources of funding, and the extent of their assets and financial holdings. It is high time they are brought under the ambit of the RTI. Even the Election Commission has been unable to check financial irregularities among political parties. Although parties have to declare to the Election Commission all donations in excess of Rs. 20,000 they receive, they resort to under-reporting to evade this clause.

Donations to political parties are not always voluntary, and in any case the donors — big businesses and corporate houses — get favours in return when the parties they fund come to power.

Central Information Commission and Supreme Court are doing a great job by trying to bring political parties under RTI. It is the need of the hour. It is also necessary to revamp our financial auditing system in our country so as to curtail the generation of large volumes of black money by the corporates for donating to the political parties. The auditing firms engaged by the corporate also should be made accountable for such black money generation. Now, the auditors could escape easily by giving a certificate in their reports to the effect that auditing has been done based on the records made available to them.

The political parties are representative of people. It’s their responsibility to come under public authority RTI. It will help to reduce corruption and help people to elect the right.

But just because the Supreme Court says so, no party is going to listen and comply. Many SC judgements have been ignored in the past, and there is no way or will to verify what any party reports (or not). SC should take the help of Indian military to implement the order.

Power without controls, accountability and countervailing forces is dangerous and unacceptable. It is high time the political parties became accountable, transparent, law-abiding. Only then they can win the voters’ confidence. Transparency in the affairs of the political parties is bound to end corruption to some extent. It is sad that Supreme Court has to intervene in every matter of public concern. This over activity of the judiciary will only harm the polity of our nation. The political parties themselves should come forward to root out corrupt elements from amongst their ranks and file to win the trust of the voters and general public. Why do they feel shy to disclose the information if they are fair in their dealings?

SC has asked six national parties as to why they should not be brought under RTI. The best thing is that Aam Aadmi Party is the only party that has proved to a great extent that it has received donations in a fair way. Other political parties of India should learn a lesson or two from AAP.