The biggest democratic exercise of the world namely the Lok Sabha elections is over and the public attention is fixed on the emerging political equations and finally the formation of the new government. It is expected that within a week the new dispensation at the Centre would be in place.
Serious thinkers and well-wishers of the country are aghast at the part played by money in recent elections. Election Commission has imposed several restrictions to check malpractices and unbridled use of money. It capped the total expenditure of a Lok Sabha candidate at Rs. 25 lakh. Every candidate has to submit a detailed account of all his election expenditure on public meetings, vehicles, printing pamphlets and other material, advertisements in newspapers and so on. He has to give details of money paid to workers also. Usually each candidate shows total expenditure not exceeding the Rs. 26 lakh limit. But knowledgeable sources reveal that the total expenditure by each candidate far exceeds that limit. In most of the cases it is several hundred times more than the permissible limit. By a conservative estimate every candidate spends about Rs. 25 crore. In this way the total expenditure by candidates of all parties for 543 Lok Sabha seats comes to a staggering and unliveable 25,000 crore to 50,000 crore. It may be even more as corruption knows no bounds and our rich people have unlimited black money which is used to earn more money.
From where do the candidates get this money? It is an open secrete that every candidate is not so rich to bear these huge expenses. Most of them get money from those financial sharks who know that they can increase their wealth several times by being in touch with these modern day rajas, maharajas and king-makers. For them it is the most profitable investment to get in return illegal favours in the shape of economic concessions and favours from the would-be rulers of the land. We know how every scheme and every government agency is being used by unscrupulous politicians to make or mar the fortunes of their favourites and opponents.
The people who finance the candidates know well how to extract their not pounds but tonnes of flesh, even if it means murder of democracy and bleeding to death of millions and millions of common men and women of India who are struggling to make their both ends meet with greatest difficulty. So deep and pervasive is the greed and deceit of these inhumanised people. It is indeed sad that corruption has an unbridled sway in our national affairs.
We are faced with the danger of reducing the whole electoral process to a farce. Therefore the need of the hour is more teeth to laws to combat unethical and corrupt electoral practices. Besides, we need to start a debate in media on this subject. The political parties must give more serious thought to promote cleaner, transparent and ethical electoral practices. The civil society must do its utmost to save democracy by putting an end to unhealthy and unethical practice of use of money and muscle power. This is a must for the health of our democracy and strength of our country.