ELECTIONS AND CORRUPTION
ELECTIONS AND CORRUPTION: A PERSPECTIVE FROM INDIA
Shri Satya Narayana Sahu1 is Joint Secretary in the Rajya Sabha Secretariat. He served as an Officer on Special Duty to the late President of India, Shri K.R. Narayanan and as a Director in the Prime Minister’s Office. The views expressed are personal views of author and are not of the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.
Referring to India’s audacious tryst with democracy, Sir Antony Eden, former Prime Minister of United Kingdom observed: “Of all the experiments in government which have been attempted since the beginning of time, I believe that the Indian venture into parliamentary government is the most exciting. A vast sub-continent is attempting to apply to its tens and hundreds of millions a system of free democracy which has been slowly evolved over the centuries in this small island, Great Britain. It is a brave thing to try to do so. The Indian venture is not a pale imitation of our practice at home, but a magnified and multiplied reproduction on a scale we have never dreamt of. If it succeeds, its influence on Asia is incalculable for good. Whatever the outcome, we must honour those who attempt it.”2
Source of Corruption is Election Expenses
Certainly the Indian venture into democracy has succeeded and it is of significance not only for our country but for the whole world. However it has been facing mounting problems one of which is the evil influences of the power of money on the electoral
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process. While intimidation and use of muscle power in elections has been checked with a great deal of success, the power of money in polluting the election process and compromising the probity of electoral democracy remains a huge a challenge. In fact it has been
persuasively argued that the cause or causes of corruption can be traced to the enormous amount of money spent by political parties during elections and if measures could be taken to successfully deal with it then the very root of corruption can be struck with a decisive blow and a clean polity and society can be established.
The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption established in 1964 by the then Home Minister of India, Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri observed, “The public belief in the prevalence of corruption at high political levels has been strengthened by the manner in which funds are collected by political parties, especially at the time of elections. Such suspicions attach not only to the ruling party but to all parties, as often the opposition can also support private vested interests as well as members of the Government
party. It is, therefore, essential that the conduct of political parties should be regulated in this matter by strict principles in relation to collection of funds and electioneering. It has to be frankly recognized that political parties cannot be run and elections cannot be fought without large funds. But these funds should come openly from the supporters or sympathizers of the parties concerned.”3
In Common Cause (A Registered Society) Vs. Union of India (AIR 1996 SC 3081), the Supreme Court dealt with the issue of election expenses. While holding that the purity of elections was fundamental to democracy and the Election Commission could ask the candidates about the expenditure incurred by the candidates and by a political party, it held: “ ...when the elections are fought with unaccounted money the persons elected in the process can think of nothing except getting rich by amassing black money. They retain power with the help of black money and while in office collect more and more to spend the same in the next election to retain the seat of power. Unless the statutory provisions meant
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