One of the most blatant flaws in the existing political system is the domination of money power over electoral contests. Capitalists finance the campaigns of their preferred parties; and the governments formed by such parties act in the interests of the capitalists, making a mockery of the claim that it is a rule of the people, by the people and for the people.
In recent years, electoral bonds have emerged as a convenient vehicle for capitalist companies to finance the campaigns of their preferred parties. The BJP-led Central Government, which introduced the electoral bonds scheme in 2018, claims that this scheme serves to “clean up” political and electoral funding in the country. This claim is based on the fact that electoral bonds are a mechanism for financing election campaigns with white money. However, the replacement of black money by white money does not address the problem of unequal money power in the electoral contest.
The total expenditure of rival parties and candidates in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections is estimated by the Centre for Media Studies to have been more than Rs. 60,000 crores. This means that more than Rs. 100 crore was on average spent per constituency. Parties backed by capitalist billionaires spent tens of crores of rupees in every constituency, while those who fought for the interests of workers and peasants had to manage with just a few lakhs.
Representatives of various opposition parties are objecting to the fact that information about which capitalist group is contributing how much to which party through electoral bonds remains hidden from the public. However, even if such information is made publicly available, the extremely unequal nature of the electoral contest will remain. Can elections be considered a fair contest if the expenditure on the campaigns of the candidates of some bourgeois parties are 50 or 100 times that of the candidates of workers and peasants?
The domination of money power in elections and the domination of the political process by parties of the capitalist class expose the claim that Indian elections are the biggest democratic exercise in the world. Far from being ‘lok tantra’ or an expression of the people’s will, elections in the present system are ‘dhan tantra’, a vulgar display of money power to ensure the rule of the wealthiest.
Parties which are backed by capitalist corporations spend huge amounts of money to buy access to crores of WhatsApp and Facebook accounts. As a result, they are able to send their campaign messages daily to far more people than their smaller rivals. The campaigns of such parties are designed by professional consultants who are paid fabulous fees. They spend enormous amounts of money to advertise on TV, print and social media.
One of the necessary conditions for elections to be a fair contest is that the campaigns of contesting candidates must be publicly financed, with equal opportunity for every contestant to communicate with the people. As long as super-rich capitalists are allowed to finance the electoral campaigns of their trusted parties, it is next to impossible for candidates of workers and peasants to get elected. It is hence necessary to put an end to not only the mechanism of electoral bonds but to all forms of capitalist funding of election campaigns.
The other necessary condition for elections to reflect the will of the people is that there must be a mechanism to ensure that only such candidates are selected who have the support of the people and deserve to be assisted with public funds.
As long as the candidates in elections are selected by the respective high commands of the contesting political parties of the capitalist class, and people have no power to select their candidates for election, state funding of elections will not solve the problem. The masses of working people will be burdened with the funding of candidates of the parties of the capitalists, whose agenda is to enrich the capitalists while making out that they are working in the interest of the people.
It is essential to transform the way candidates are selected for election. The voters in every constituency must have the right to approve or reject anyone who is nominated. They must have a decisive say in selecting the final list of candidates in every constituency.
A new political process has to be created in which the executive is accountable to the elected parliament or legislative assembly; and those elected are accountable to the electorate. In such a political process, people will not hand over all power to those who get elected. We will retain the power to demand a rendering of account by the elected representatives. We will have the right to recall the elected representative at any time, if he or she fails to act in our interests. We will have the right to initiate laws and policies.
With Lok Sabha elections due in less than six months, this is the right time for people to think about the changes which are necessary in the political process and the entire system of democracy, in order to bring decision-making power into the hands of the toiling majority of people.