The judiciary needs to challenge the electoral bonds scheme for free and fair elections in the country. Comment (200 Words)
Refer - The Indian Express
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 3 years
KEY POINTS
· India’s apex court will hear the petitions challenging the electoral bonds scheme. Two prominent non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in India Common Cause and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) — have legally challenged the scheme that was started in 2018.
· The electoral bonds scheme was first mentioned in 2017 when then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented it as a way to reform electoral funding in the country.
· Until then, most political parties used to bypass scrutiny of their finances by claiming that they received most of their donations in cash.
· Further, since cash amounts less than Rs 20,000 were exempted from scrutiny, parties routinely claimed that most of the donations they received were in cash and in amounts less than Rs 20,000.
· This advantage with the ruling party allows the possibility for the government of the day to either extort money or victimise those individuals/ entities that fund the Opposition.
· Another key area of concern is that the government, as part of the introduction of the electoral bonds, had removed the cap on how much money a company could donate.
· A quick closure in these matters is necessary to ensure transparency in campaign financing, critical to the integrity of the electoral process.
Shobana Krishnasamy 3 years
Please review
IAS Parliament 3 years
Try to stick to word limit. Good attempt. Keep Writing.
