The Supreme Court in recent past had scrapped the electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding. The top court called it “unconstitutional” and ordered for disclosure of the bond’s donors, amount and recipients. According to SC judgment, the scheme is violative of the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression and right to information. The judgment said “Transparency and not secrecy is the cure and antidote,” and it accorded primacy to the right to know of voters over the privacy claims of donors. While pronouncing the judgment the top court observed that “democracy does not begin and end with elections and the integrity of election process is pivotal for sustaining the democratic form of government.” Leaders of several opposition parties had hailed the judgment and termed it “an important step in ensuring transparency in electoral funding.”
The judgment of the top court on electoral bond scheme has opened up a way to explore ideas on how to clean up politics and its funding. It is time for the country to explore ideas to bring transparency in political funding. Whatever the mode of funding, it should be ensured that true transparency is maintained as the secret funding to political parties does not go well for healthy democracy. The citizens of the country have right to know who are funding the political parties.