Ex-CEC SY Quraishi calls for more transparency in political financing
Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi on Friday called for more transparency in political financing and said people should know who gives money to parties.
In a video interview with PTI, he said transparency of political financing is extremely important for free and fair elections.
“Free and fair elections are the basic structure of the Indian Constitution,” he underlined.
He said it’s important for people to know what kind of money — dirty money or drug money — is coming.
He said it was important to know the relationship between donors and government policy “as there are no free lunches”.
People want to know who is funding the government (apparently referring to the ruling party), he said.
He said there may be cases where those who donate end up getting licenses, contracts and bank loans “that they default on.”
“All these things should be in the public domain,” he said.
His comments come against the backdrop of the Supreme Court on Friday admonishing the State Bank of India for providing incomplete information on electoral bonds.
It said the bank was required to provide the number unique to each electoral bond that would reveal the link between the buyer and the recipient political party.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: March 16, 2024 | 7:04 am IST