2. Some Proverbs…
“Silver key opens every door”
“Money, money, money; brighter than sunshine
and sweeter than honey”
“Money is power, freedom, a cushion, the root of
all evil, the sum of blessings”. – (Carl Sandburg).
3. Is money is needed for doing good
or bad in elections?
Initially the elections were not costly : Rs 10 crore in
the first General Election
Scenario now has changed : In 1998 - Rs 666 crore, In
1999 – Rs 880 crore and in 2004 1300 crore.
Expenses limit : The limit for a Lok Sabha candidate is
Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for an Assembly candidate.
4. Is money is needed for doing good
or bad in elections?
Majority of the people are poor or middle class.
Money has only two uses in Indian elections
Three-fourths of our parliamentarians are either
associated with crime or suspected of criminal
associations
5. Some Facts… million, you are 75 times
If you are worth Rs.50
more likely to
win the elections to the Lok Sabha than if you are
worth under
Rs.1 million.
Twenty – three out of 64 cabinet ministers’ assets
fall in the
Rs.50 million plus category.
The 543 MPs of the current Lok Sabha are worth
Rs.80 billion.
6. Media, Money And Elections
The month long general election beginning April 16
will witness an outlay of something like 100 billion
rupees (two billion dollars).
About 20 billion rupees will be spent by the national
Election Commission and state government on
organizing the actual Polling.
a matter of serious concern and of far reaching
consequences which has surfaced in this year’s
parliamentary election is “paid news syndrome”.
7. Media, Money And Elections
CMS estimating that as much as 20 billion
rupees has been for “unofficial” cash
purchases of individual votes on the even of
balloting.
The blatant misuse of print and electronic
media by political parties and candidates and
also about the media which allowed itself to
be abused by them.
8. Conclusion
Finally, as a matter of reality in political economic accounting, it should
be said that MONEY has only one role during pre-
election/election/post-election: as a capital investment for politicians
to earn more profits for themselves and for their 'hangers-on'!
MONEY is the BANE of our CULTURE!
9. Referances
Inaugural address by Hon’ble Justice G.N. Ray at Seminar on ‘Role of
Money Power in Elections” on 8th August, 2009 organised by Kerala
Journalists’ Union, Palakkad, Kerala.
Report of P. Sainath.
http://abdullah.instablogs.com/entry/election-expenses-in-india/
http://news.in.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4568664