Hindu Business Line: Opinion:
Wednesday, June 12, 2013.
The term
‘income’ has not been defined exhaustively in the income-tax law. Indeed, that
is neither feasible nor desirable, given the myriad ways income can be
generated. The Government would be shooting itself in the foot if it were to
give a comprehensive list of incomes.
But while
making the Right to information Act (RTI), Parliament has given considerable
latitude to the Central Information Commission (CIC) to interpret whether a
body is indeed a public authority as to come under the machinations of RTI.
‘Any body directly or indirectly substantially funded by the Government’, the
seemingly innocuous words occurring in Section 2(h) of the RTI, have, in fact,
been giving rise to both unintended and bizarre consequences for no fault of
the CIC. The latest is its interpretation that political parties must reveal
all to the public when faced with a query.
Open-ended
definition:
The UPA
government that thumps its chest for ushering in the RTI also, from time to
time, goes into a sulk and rues its decision when its ministers and others face
the music, thanks to the revelations made under RTI. What it must be ruing more
is the slack in drafting that gave the CIC the power to put in the dock pretty
much who it pleases.
The Congress
and other parties may have to bare their books and other confidential papers to
public gaze and scrutiny.
The CIC’s
interpretation that political parties are public authorities on the ground that
they get government accommodation and public broadcast time free and hence must
be deemed to have been substantially funded by the government, albeit
indirectly, would have irked the political parties no end.
The entire
UPA dispensation can be counted upon to rise as a phalanx to annul the CIC’s
alleged creative interpretation in branding political parties as public
authorities. And in this self-serving retreat, the Opposition parties may well
play ball.
Privileged
information:
Politicians
cut across party and ideological lines for giving themselves more and more
salary and perquisites. They can be similarly counted upon to close ranks to
defeat the incipient trouble posed by the CIC before it snowballs into a major
embarrassment for all of them. Skeletons might well tumble out of each one’s
cupboard if an RTI activist imbued with evangelical or mischievous zeal demands
information of political parties. Therefore, whether an ordinance is brought on
the Food Bill or not, an ordinance retrospectively amending the RTI to save
political parties from its clutches should not come as a surprise.
The political
class may well argue that if income-tax returns constitute privileged
information, available with the public authority called the income tax
department, it is equally true that the information with the political parties
too is privileged. Asking political parties to make their documents public
would be as unacceptable as asking competitors to bare their trade secrets.
That said, there
is nevertheless a compelling case for bringing funds of political parties on a
par with others.
There is no
reason why an activist should be silenced when he wants to know the sources of
funding of a political party.
One hopes
what is denied by the political parties would be provided by the Election
Commission, that is admittedly a public authority armed to the teeth with
information on political parties.
But no amount
of disclosures would make a dent on the pernicious role played by black money
in political funding.
Political
leaders have been caught on camera scooping up black money but treasurers of
political parties of all persuasions are busy counting mountains of cash, and
recording the source and amount in clandestine ledgers.
Political
funding indeed cries for reforms, but not through RTI, because clandestine
ledgers would always remain beyond the public gaze. State funding comes out as
the most effective solution to this vexed problem because corporate funding can
never be kosher, with its potential to make governments subservient to
corporate interests always looming large.
Conferring
blanket exemption from income tax to political parties encourages the mafia and
crooks to form political parties.
In fact, the
Election Commission has gone on record castigating the mindless exemptions to
political parties and political donations and blaming these for the mushrooming
growth of political parties in this country. Money laundering has never been so
easy.
(The
author is a New Delhi-based chartered accountant)
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