India: opaque funding of political parties
Supporters of BJP, India's ruling Hindu nationalist party, wear masks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election rally on March 7, 2021 in Calcutta.
© AP - Bikas Das
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The Elections Commission has just released a report on the financing of political parties in India by businesses and individuals.
The ruling Hindu nationalist party, BJP, received the overwhelming majority of these funds.
But what worries is rather the lack of transparency of the origin of these funds.
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With our correspondent in New Delhi,
Sébastien Farcis
The report details the funds received and voluntarily declared by the
BJP
, the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, amounting to 84 million euros last year.
But that only represents the emerged part of its financing.
Because since 2018, an opaque system has been adopted.
It allows companies to buy coupons, called bonds, to fund political parties.
We know the sums spent, which amount to billions of euros each year, but no longer the names of the donors.
And this increases the possibility of mafia collusion between business and politicians.
Laundered dirty money
"
We no longer know who finances the parties and therefore we no longer know whether the decisions taken are made to please the donors or in the interest of the nation,
denounces Jagdeep Chhokar, founder of the
Association for Democratic Reforms
.
Above all, the government ensures that it is legal because these donations are made through banks.
But a lot of dirty money is flowing through the banks.
This system therefore makes it possible to launder this dirty money.
"
The central bank had itself judged that this method of financing would encourage money laundering.
But the government ignored his advice.
The
Association for Democratic Reforms
and another NGO have appealed to the Supreme Court to suspend this system.
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To read also: India: senior officials rebel against the central power
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