Limits On Election Campaign Spending: Way Forward to Free and Fair Elections in India

Context

This editorial is based on the news “We need limits on election campaign spending” which was published in the Hindu. There is a trend of  governments at both the Central and State levels consistently allocating substantial budgets for pre election advertisements over the past two decades.

Issues With Respect to Election Campaign Spending

• Campaigns of the ruling party before elections: before elections tend to be campaigns of the ruling party and establish personality cults. 
  • Example- According to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Central government had spent ₹3,020 crore on advertisements between 2018-19 and 2022-23. 
  • This expenditure is likely to rise in 2023-24 as the general elections are due in April-May. 
• Limits on election expenses for candidates in India: 
  • The election expenditure limit for candidates is ₹95 lakh per Lok Sabha constituency in larger States and ₹75 lakh in smaller States. 
  • However, candidates of almost all major political parties breach this limit by a wide margin.
• No limits on the expenditure of political parties during elections: A report by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) states that political parties spent about ₹50,000 crore during the elections with the BJP spending about 50% of this amount and the Congress about 20%. 
  • The report suggests that 35% of this money was spent on campaigns, while 25% was distributed amongst voters illegally. 
• Nexus between Donors and elected representatives: Most of this funding comes from corporate houses and businessmen. This creates an unholy nexus between donors and elected representatives.
• Opaque nature of donations: 
  • It is the opaque nature of most of the donations coupled with the distribution of cash for votes that weakens the process of free and fair elections in India. 
  • Stuck down of Electoral Bonds: The Supreme Court has struck down the electoral bonds scheme that will remove opacity in legal donations. But, the majority of the funding continues to be in unaccounted cash.

Towards a Level Playing Field

• Indrajit Gupta Committee (1998) and the Law Commission report (1999):  It advocated State funding of elections. 
  • This means that the government will contribute money to political parties or candidates for them to contest elections. 
  • It requires consensus among all the political parties and discipline in following the norms of such state funding.
• Solutions as per the report, ‘Proposed Electoral Reforms’, submitted by the Election Commission of India in 2016:
  • Government advertisements:  should be banned six months prior to any general election. 
  • Election Expenditure Limits: The law must be amended to state that a party’s ‘financial assistance’ to its candidate should also be within the limits of election expenditure prescribed for a candidate. 
  • Ceiling on expenditure by Parties: There should be a ceiling on expenditure by parties. This may be kept at no more than the expenditure ceiling limit provided for a candidate multiplied by the number of candidates of the party contesting the election. 
  • Additional judges:  can be appointed in High Courts for speedy disposal of election-related cases that would act as a deterrent against the violation of norms. 

Conclusion

These reforms need support from all the political parties and in the absence of reforms the people of India will end up bearing the high costs of elections.

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