12-27-2008, 11:56 PM
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kull--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/aaskull.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='aaskull.gif' /><!--endemo--> Business of elections
7 Dec 2008, 0010 hrs IST, Neelam Raaj & Amrita Singh, TNN
"Don't worry about terrorists coming by boat, they will end up dead. Worry more about those who come by your vote" - An SMS doing the rounds
his campaign flopped when workers deserted the party and joined the opposition. The money was a lot better there and there were perks such as mobile phones, a daily allowance of Rs 500 and unlimited liquor supplies. Raj, who quit as income-tax commissioner last year to make politics a full-time career, is now having second thoughts. "Elections have become a total farce. It is money that matters. Ideology alone cannot win you an election."
Former prime minister V P Singh tried to legislate to force election spending to be restricted to cheque-payment, but he didn't succeed. "What a third person spends on a candidate is not counted so one can actually spend as much as one wants on a campaign,"' says Anil Bairwal of Association of Democratic Reforms. ADR, an NGO, filed the request that resulted in the Central Information Commission order that all political parties should disclose their income-tax returns. The decision is significant, since, in 2006-07, only 14 of the 50 recognised and 900 unrecognized parties disclosed their accounts to the EC.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion...how/3803133.cms
kull--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/aaskull.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='aaskull.gif' /><!--endemo--> Business of elections7 Dec 2008, 0010 hrs IST, Neelam Raaj & Amrita Singh, TNN
"Don't worry about terrorists coming by boat, they will end up dead. Worry more about those who come by your vote" - An SMS doing the rounds
his campaign flopped when workers deserted the party and joined the opposition. The money was a lot better there and there were perks such as mobile phones, a daily allowance of Rs 500 and unlimited liquor supplies. Raj, who quit as income-tax commissioner last year to make politics a full-time career, is now having second thoughts. "Elections have become a total farce. It is money that matters. Ideology alone cannot win you an election."
Former prime minister V P Singh tried to legislate to force election spending to be restricted to cheque-payment, but he didn't succeed. "What a third person spends on a candidate is not counted so one can actually spend as much as one wants on a campaign,"' says Anil Bairwal of Association of Democratic Reforms. ADR, an NGO, filed the request that resulted in the Central Information Commission order that all political parties should disclose their income-tax returns. The decision is significant, since, in 2006-07, only 14 of the 50 recognised and 900 unrecognized parties disclosed their accounts to the EC.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion...how/3803133.cms