Time to explore public funding of polls in India
Hindustan TimesThe Supreme Court verdict on the Electoral Bonds Scheme is one of the most political judgments in recent times. In the first-past-the-post system in India, political parties, not individual candidates, run the show Amendments made to a few central enactments like the Representation of the People Act, the Companies Act, the Income Tax Act and the Reserve Bank of India Act permitted non-disclosure of voluntary contributions to political parties. While reserving the case for judgment, the Court directed the Election Commission of India to collect data on electoral bonds issued till September 30, 2023. In SR Bommai v. Union of India, where the SC held that secularism and federalism are basic features of the country’s Constitution, the Court also explored this fundamental connection. A survey of 175 countries by International IDEA, an organisation that promotes democracy, revealed that public funding for political parties or campaigns is absent only in 47 of them, including India.
History of this topic
Pandora’s box: The Hindu Editorial on the electoral bonds scheme, emerging details
The Hindu
DC Edit | Electoral bond scheme was bound to fail test of probity
Deccan Chronicle
Should elections be state funded?
The HinduAakar Patel | It's time to end the anonymous funding of all Indian elections
Deccan Chronicle
Decoding the Opposition to Electoral Bonds & How Centre is Defending Its Scheme - News18
News 18
A ‘distraction’ balloon in the winds of federalism
The HinduElection campaign funding by political parties
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