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ITANAGAR, 29 Jul:<\/strong> Lack of moral values among voters is the key factor which encourages money culture during elections in India, experts in diverse fields observed during a media conclave here on Saturday.<\/p>\n They were also of the opinion that the government-appointed Election Commission of India (ECI) failed to perform its duty as a neutral body, because of which the menace of money culture during elections has become common.<\/p>\n “Political analysts agree that without money, democracy cannot run and the ghost of running an election or to become a candidate is not possible without money,” said Arunachal Chamber of Commerce &<\/p>\n Industries secretary-general Toko Tatung during the conclave, conducted by the Arunachal Electronic & Digital Media Association (AEDMA) on the topic ‘Money culture in elections’ to mark its 11th foundation day.<\/p>\n Tatung said that, approximately Rs 600 billion was spent during the 2019 election by political parties.<\/p>\n Stating that money culture in elections is “a simple economics of supply and demand,” Tatung added that the menace could be checked through self-realisation among clans and communities for a change.<\/p>\n Stating that elections in Arunachal are all about money and mithun feast, retired IAF wing commander Gyati Kago opined that “moral values in the Arunachalee society have dipped.”<\/p>\n “In the 2019 assembly elections, the average of buying and selling of votes stood at Rs 25,000 per voter,” Kago pointed out, and added that, “due to this (money) culture, people cannot speak against their leaders, even if they commit something wrong.”<\/p>\n Kao added that “corruption and nepotism are the order of the day in Arunachal, and journalists should take up the responsibility to create awareness among the youths to check the menace.”<\/p>\n Former All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union general secretary Tobom Dai suggested that people should take a firm decision to end the menace.<\/p>\n “When the government appoints the ECI, how can it work in a transparent manner and bring electoral reforms in the country?” Dai said, and added that money culture in elections has direct ramifications in the development process.<\/p>\n The speakers urged the members of the AEDMA to compile a report on the outcome of the conclave and submit it to the government, so that steps may be taken to curb the menace. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ITANAGAR, 29 Jul: Lack of moral values among voters is the key factor which encourages money culture during elections in India, experts in diverse fields observed during a media conclave here on Saturday. They were also of the opinion that the government-appointed Election Commission of India (ECI) failed to perform its duty as a neutral […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-221498","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}