Two NGOs, namely Association of Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch have claimed that after great effort they have been able to gather interesting information about the financial position of country’s main national level political parties. Thanks to the Right to Information Act that sensitive information could be brought to the public domain. For all the six decades and more of our independence, no mainstream political party at any point of time disclosed even the faintest of information about its financial assets. Calling them the richest political parties in the world, the report of the NGOs says that during 2004 to 2011, a period of 7 years, total amount of 4662 crore rupees came to the coffers of mainstream political parties which has been shown as income through donations. Big business houses are among their donors though CPI (M) has stated that its assets have been raised only through individual donations from members. The interesting thing is that some rich business houses have made donations to more than one party and thus tried to maintain political balance. The Congress is the recipient of largest amount to the tune of 2008 crore with BJP showing 994 crore rupees. While making enormous donations to political parties cannot be objected or made a cause of complaint but transparency is what is expected from the recipients especially when they advocate transparency in all Government deals. Furthermore, the general belief is that political funding is the basis of corruption in our country. It is true that during the freedom struggle, Indian National Congress survived on donations and funding by nationalist organizations. But the cause for making donations then and now is entirely different. Political parties cannot function and perform their role unless they are financially well established. But transparency, nature of relationship between the party and the donors should also be brought to the knowledge of the people. Interestingly the NGOs also said 18 regional or state parties have never filed their contribution reports to the Election Commission since 2004. If transparency is the mantra for good governance, then regional parties should disclose their assets for the information of the general public under RTI.
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