Given that, there is no cap on expenditure by political parties for propagating their program, candidates’ account of expenditure incurred doesn’t even cover a fraction of the actual spending in many cases. In this context, do you agree with the view that a limit should be imposed on the amount of money that parties can spend during an election campaign? Justify your stand. (200 words)
Refer – Financial Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
Arguments in favour
· Cap on candidate meaningless – So far, there is no limit on what a political party can spend during the election.
· This makes the limit on what the candidates can spend absolutely meaningless because if the candidate spends more than the stipulated limit, it can always be shown as part of the expenditure incurred by the party.
· Level playing field – This could provide a level-playing field for everyone contesting elections and ensures that a candidate cannot win only because she/he is rich.
· Unaccounted money – It would also curb the menace of unaccounted money in elections.
Arguments against
· Under-reporting – As per an analysis of expenses in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, as many as 176 MPs (33%) had declared election expenses that were only less than 50% of the limit.
· This clearly indicates that candidates may not be providing true accounts of their poll expenses to the EC.
· There is no reason why the same phenomenon of under-reporting will not transpire amongst parties.
· Difficult to implement – It would be very difficult to fix an actual, viable limit of such a cap and then implement such a cap.
· Popular support – Political parties mobilise funding on the basis of their voting support base and their membership.
· Any amount of money spent forwarding the agenda a party espouses will only reflect its support base’s voice.
· Hence, there is no reason to introduce any cap on such collection or expenditure.
· Weak assumption – It is based on a weak assumption that voter decisions are swayed by party’s spending power.
· Encourage Caste politics – Campaigns led by the political parties are based on vision documents.
· If this is limited in any sense, it would certainly encourage politics based on caste and individual influence.
· Therefore, the EC may moot for better transparency than limit the expenses.
Tapasvi 6 years
Please review
IAS Parliament 6 years
Justify your view with more points. Keep writing.
Nandadeep 6 years
Kindly review
IAS Parliament 6 years
Justify your view with more valid points. Try to be more legible. Keep writing.
