Raghuram Rajan’s Post

First there is Zen, then Goodness, then kindness, then justice When none of this remains, Rhetoric stays. Whatever bond or cash or any other mechanism. The way current politics survives is by breaking social bonds. Sir, suggest some ways to recapitalise communities with social capital. These communities are nearly approaching social bankruptcy. Why? because all parties treats them and in turn make them clients who buy democracy by selling their own sovereignty. The key weapon of todays politics is breaking families and communities and individualising a complex human, which need communities to balance himself.

Sir, it's because BJP is popular and is going to win 2024 again with a thumping majority. Also if your whole logic is based on the fact that people will be afraid to donate to the opposition then there is absolutely no clean mechanism that can solve this problem. You are indirectly advocating going back to black economy. Which in turn can mean terrorism, drugs, trafficking etc. PS: Probably what exists is cleanest of them all. And if people are unhappy with govt they will not be afraid to openly donating against the govt. We anyway have armies of trolls who make their bread and butter by going after Modi. I haven't seen govt cracking a whip on them. Infact BJP supporters are frustrated by BJP's inaction towards these good for nothing trolls.

This is one thing, among a few others, of the ruling party that really annoys me. While it is undemocratic, you can guess why a ruling party would do this. It is a major lifeline of the government to survive. I have no doubt the money comes from big corporates which benefit from govt rulings, from debts granted to those who are already sitting on a pile of debt. It would be interesting to see the data from 2004 to 2013 when the other party was in power. My guess is that it would be in line with what we have seen here. It is a vicious cycle then. The strong becomes stronger and the weak weaker. I guess the shift happens when people get frustrated and realise they are being cheated.

Raghuram Rajan . Thanks for articulating the problems. But there are a few aspects where I might disagree 1. The print and TV media ad spend by center constitutes just 3-4% of ad spend if I remember right. I'm not aware of the total spend of all states put together. This includes the spend on things like EOI's and RFP's. A lot of this spend happens all thro the year. I'm not sure if that will influence voting patterns in any way. Pre election spend is usually low from govts (given the restrictions imposed by EC regulations) and comes mostly from political parties. Add to all of these, ads are governed by rate contracts. they aren't very remunerative. The larger danger to media comes from misuse of central agencies. Notwithstanding all of these obstacles, I think in today's environment, digital and social media offers a viable alternative and there field is level. 2. Electoral bonds are certainly one step forward towards transparency. Given that they must be bought from designated SBI branch, I think matching donors to recipients is not difficult. The SC has indeed received sealed covers from parties on donor details, but it opted to faithfully lob the ball into ECs court...

A common man fights with whom - whom. corrupt system, Hindu sena, Muslim sena, inflation, Job uncertainty, daily traffic jams, corrupt traffic police, bed weather conditions in cities, Office politics for salary increment, home loans, car loans, Car parking issues, Personal health issues, family health issues, Family problems, High school fees, Tax on income, cess on tax, We are normal human not superpower despite all problem we are earning and paying tax silently and take caring our families. Today BJP is an ocean of Power, and a common man is tiny sand particle, So he has live in it. 🤐

at one point of time mass had the option of choosing a less corrupt party than a more corrupt party. Now everyone knows that they are equally corrupt and the opposition if elected will assume higher proportion of corruptness. This is a known fact. Now elections are run on direct cash transfer to voters but this also was proved useless as any voter can take the money one party is offering and vote for other. Indian elections no longer won on perceptions in TV and social media--not becoz we have become deep thinkers but the media has overdone things to such an extent that anything they say fall into deaf ears. Ppl will now probably vote in a negative way--i will not vote for this person rather than i will vote for this party..

Political contribution by corporates was banned by Congress to encourage black money for political funding whi ch can come only to party in power because of fear of prosecution. And managed the buying of votes and remain in power. Banning of cash payments and election bonds made the political contributions keep a trail. Who ever has purchased it has to account it in his account and the details are available to election commission. All the adverse features pointed out are the past abuses of the then ruling party of which he is a part rather mastermind. And it is kept open for a particular period and undonated bonds laps and fund goes to Govt. And this data is available. So how much purchased is known and who has received is also known. And who has purchased data is available unlike in the past. And major contributors also may be available from their financials in public domain.

Thank you for sharing your perspective, Dr Raghuram. There are few assumptions in this hypothesis that banks would reveal the information to the incumbents(not to others), agencies would raid the opposition alone etc. I believe, this is still far better solution than we had earlier even though there is some room for improvements. Wish you could share your wisdom on these improvements. One step at a time, Doc!

In which democratic country in the world, election funding is transparent? It is accepted fact that politicians are funded by business entities in general to cover election expenses and ways are designed to keep the source veiled. I see no point in maligning India over this, electoral bonds are improvement over earlier totally opaque funding system.

Few observations relating to housekeeping of the paper. It may be better to have (a) paper title as header on each page (b) name of authors in the footer on each page (c) add total number of pages on each page )1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4), and (d) date of the paper to provide its historical perspective in future and / or the option to issue updated / amended version in future.