Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 27: As he immaturely seeks crowd funding for establishing his own political party, former IAS officer who recently announced his entry into politics has put a big question mark over the source of funding of other political parties in Jammu and Kashmir.
Till date, no mainstream political party has sought money from common masses for their activities. It is for the first time that the young turk has come out with the novel idea.
However, by setting such a trend, Faisal has put the other political groups in Jammu and Kashmir in tight spot who so far haven't sought a single penny from people and yet live a luxurious life and don't face any cash crunch.
As per the reports, the mainstream political parties fear that they may come under people's radar over the funding they receive from the sources that they prefer not to reveal. "No this is going to be different. Present age is the age of digital media. Everything is on the internet. Now when the IAS officer has started the trend, no matter how successful he is going to be in his endeavour but such action of his has acted as a spoilsport for other political groups in the state. Now people can raise fingers on all political parties and would ask them about where from they get the money to run their parties. They have to remain prepared for the answers," says a functionary of the national conference.
Across the globe including in India, Political parties are lobbied vigorously by organizations, businesses and special interest groups such as trade unions. Money and gifts-in-kind to a party, or its leading members, may be offered as incentives. Such donations are the traditional source of funding for all right-of-centre cadre parties. Starting in the late 19th century these parties were opposed by the newly founded left-of-centre workers' parties. They started a new party type, the mass membership party, and a new source of political fundraising, membership dues.
Pertinently, Post-liberalisation, real estate and manufacturing have been the two big sources for political funding. This is possibly because land is a core element in both sectors. And given the regulatory restrictions on land, politicians wield enormous discretionary power over business activity in these areas.
According to the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), a Delhi-based research organisation, Rs 35,000 crore was spent in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, though the official estimate is just Rs 7,000-8,000 crore, which suggests the rest- Rs 27,000 crore- was unaccounted for. In the coming general election, the expenditure may go up to Rs 50,000-60,000 crore, says CMS. To contextualise this estimate, the 2018 Union budget allocated Rs 52,800 crore for the health sector and Rs 25,000 crore annually for "revitalising infrastructure and systems in education by 2022". |