Nexus of money and politics

The culture of money dominating our political activity and the politicians' thought has had serious consequences on the state of our governance and the quality of administration in general. It cannot be a comfort to know that the decision-making process is predicated largely if not entirely on the consideration of returning favour to those that the candidates are beholden to for the favour that they received particularly in respect of election financing. The collusive nature of politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats holds dangerous portends for us.

The vicious cycle of money-politics-muscle- 'mastaans' is but the consequence of lack of accountability and transparency in our system, which helps breed and sustain this distressing phenomenon. While there is no denying that money is needed to run elections, the culture of one-upmanship in electioneering, as well as the candidates' effort to spend the opponent out of contention, raise the demand for capital, and the consequent expenditure that is made to get elected and to continue in office is made good during the five years in power or in the parliament.

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It is also a well-known fact that the propensity of the party in power to build party funds from slices of the public expenditure has given birth to what can be termed as 'tender politics.'

It is time that all concerned addressed the issue of election financing and financing of the political parties. There is a need to bring not only individual expenditure of the candidates in the election but also party finances under public scrutiny.

This would need revamping of our electoral system and strict overseeing and enforcement of the caveat on electoral expenditure. However, none of these is possible without the active cooperation of the major political parties.