Gandhi’s Views on Political Funding Foreshadowed Crony Capitalism in New India

Notably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alone has accumulated approximately Rs 6,600 crores, significantly more than what other national and regional parties received.

The source and other details of such funding was kept hidden from the public – in violation of the voters’ fundamental right to information as well as the right to make an informed choice before casting their votes. Curiously, only the BJP-led Union government had access to the sources and details regarding the bonds.

The Supreme Court, in its landmark judgement, declared the electoral bond scheme as unconstitutional and held that it created conditions for ‘permitting the unregulated influence of companies in the governance and political process violating the principle of free and fair elections.’ Such categorical indictment of the Modi regime is a first of its kind.

Gandhi’s views on political funding

The Modi regime made funding of political parties completely opaque by the instrumentality of law, impairing a fair and free election process. To assess the extent to which the BJP government has vitiated the electoral process, one must place this in the backdrop of Mahatma Gandhi’s views on Congress getting funds from business houses during the freedom struggle.

As early as 1931, Gandhi was worried that political parties might expend a disproportionately high amount of money for what he called ‘managing elections’. It is illuminating to recall that on September 17, 1931, while attending the second round table conference in London, he expressed grave concern that political parties would run the risk of using a lot of money only on managing elections and very critically remarked that that a candidate spending Rs 60,000-1 lakh for contesting elections in a poor country like India would be nothing but atrocious.

Had Gandhi been alive, and seen the manner in which the electoral bond scheme was made in to law by committing multiple unconstitutional measures – involving amendments to Companies Act of 2013, Representation of People Act, RBI Act and Income Tax Act – he would have been aghast that what he apprehended in 1931 had come true.

Apart from expressing his anxieties about the staggering expenditure on elections, Gandhi had no hesitation in conceding that Congress was being funded by business houses. It is instructive to peep into his interview with American journalist Louis Fischer, who, in 1942, wanted a clarification from Gandhi on the accusations that Congress was in the hands of big business houses and that he himself was being given money by Bombay’s mill owners.

Having been acclaimed for his adherence to truth, Gandhi said, ‘Unfortunately, they are true.’ He explained that Congress, which relied on contributions of four annas a year, found the amounts collected from its member quite inadequate for implementing its manifold activities.

Fischer then asked a very sensitive question to ascertain if the funds being given by business houses had contributed to alter and shape Congress’ politics. Gandhi was frank enough to acknowledge that it ‘was a silent debt’. He then forcefully and unequivocally told Fischer, ‘But actually, we are very little influenced by the thinking of the rich. They are sometimes afraid of our demand for full independence.’

Gandhi’s statement, that there was no quid pro quo involved between Congress and big business houses, stands in sharp contrast to the massive alignment of Modi regime with companies funding BJP through electoral bonds. While Gandhi’s statement in 1942 flagged the autonomy of Congress’ politics from money, his comment on big businesses fearing complete independence revealed their connection and collusion with the British regime.

That historical insight form Fischer’s interview of Gandhi is very refreshing. It is remarkable to fathom the havoc caused by the unconstitutional electoral bond scheme, scripted by the Modi regime, to critically evaluate crony capitalism sustained in a calculated manner as well as the quid pro quo between companies funding political parties and politics of BJP and other regimes.

S.N. Sahu served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K R Narayanan