Foes become friends in passing bill on foreign funding for political parties in elections

Sounds interesting and shocking as well. The two diametrically (idelogically) opposite parties like Congress and BJP and several others, leaving the communists aside, who can’t see each other eye to eye inside and outside parliament on each and every issue have unanimously passed the controvertial Foreign Contribution Regulation Bill with an amendment making it a law thus overruling the honourable Apex court’s decision by getting rid of all the probes in 46 year old cases of foreign contributions/ massive funding to political parties since 1976 and further opening doors of unaccounted foreign political funding to the parties during elections.

After this major amendment in FCRA with the overwhelmning mutual support of diametrically opposite parties like BJP, Congress, SP, BSP etc in both the houses of parliament, now the elections can be massively funded by foreign companies and corporates without any legal restriction or deterrent.

How hypocritical does such convenient passage of bill becoming an act sounds which benefits all the political parties and clears them not only of the four decades old probes on foreign contributions but further also gives them a license to acknowledge as much as foreign contributions they wish, during the elections.

While on the one hand these political parties talk so much of curbing black money and bringing unaccounted unfair money stashed in foreign banks, though having failed till now, on the other hand foes become friends to pass the amendments in FCRA beneffiting all the political parties.

While the implementation of demonetisation and GST talks so much about curbing the illegal practice of money laundering, massive tax evasions, hoarding of unaccounted wealth and currency and resurrecting the country’s economy to streamline financial transparancy for the nation’s progress, allowing political parties of the country uninterrupted supply of foreign funding for elections has raised everyone’s eye brows.

Expressing his deep concern and regrets over this amended FCRA bill while CPM’s former general secretary and polit bureau member Prakash Karat has deplored it in strongest possible terms terming it as opening of doors for open intervention of foreign corporates and powers in our democratic parliamentary system the eminent RTI activist and senior most lawyer Prashant Bhushan has equated it with the re entry of the East India Company into India democratic polity and selling out our sovereignity to foreign powers.

This is perhaps for the first time in India’s parliamentary history that diamatrically opposite ideologies have amicably come together on this issue of foreign funding in elections without an iota of any objection or difference of opinion and got the bill passed seamlessly in both the houses of parliament under the acrimony of passing the thanks on budget proposals. What do you say friends?
SUNIL NEGI