Needed: Solutions for political finance

With the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing the poll schedule for the 18th Lok Sabha, the nation is gearing up to participate in the world's largest democratic exercise by far.

- RAJESH KUMAR

Amidst the focus on the upcoming elections over the coming weeks, two significant recent developments have provided citizens with ample food for thought about improving the country's electoral and political process. The first is the Ram Nath Kovind committee report, which studied the feasibility of simultaneous elections. The second significant, and certainly more consequential, development is the Supreme Court judgment on the electoral bond issue.

The Kovind committee has unanimously supported the idea of simultaneous elections and given a road map for moving forward in this direction. One of the driving reasons for simultaneous elections is to reduce policy and governance uncertainty. Political parties are often led by the compulsions of the next state election. The technical work presented in the report showed simultaneous elections can improve outcomes in areas such as growth, inflation, and public expenditure. Although there is merit in the idea of simultaneous elections in principle, attaining it will be difficult. Thus, if the next government wishes to take the suggestions forward, it would be well advised not to rush the process.

However, the more urgent issue that needs to be addressed is the state of election/political finance in the country. A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has declared the electoral bond scheme unconstitutional. The court rejected the secrecy built into the scheme and found no justification to restrict citizens' right to information under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, which can only be restricted under conditions stipulated in Article 19(2).