Editorial 1 : Transparency at stake
Introduction: A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, on November 2, reserved its judgment on petitions challenging the validity of the electoral bonds scheme.
What is electoral bond?
- The electoral bonds system was introduced in 2017 by way of a Finance bill and it was implemented in 2018.
- They serve as a means for individuals and entities to make donations to registered political parties while maintaining donor anonymity.
Features:
- State Bank of India (SBI) issues the bonds in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore.
- Payable to the bearer on demand and interest-free.
- Purchased by Indian citizens or entities established in India.
- Can be bought individually or jointly with other individuals.
- Valid for 15 calendar days from the date of issue.
Authorized Issuer:
- State Bank of India (SBI) is the authorized issuer.
- Electoral Bonds are issued through designated SBI branches.
Eligibility of Political Parties:
- Only the political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and have secured not less than 1% of the votes polled in the last general election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly, are eligible to receive electoral bonds.
Purchase and Encashment:
- Electoral Bonds can be purchased digitally or through cheques.
- Encashment only through an authorized bank account of the political party.
Transparency and Accountability:
- Parties must disclose their bank account with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
- Donations are made through banking channels, ensuring transparency.
- Political parties are obligated to explain the utilization of the funds received.
What is being challenged in SC against electoral bond?
- The proceedings focused on arguments about the voters’ right to information vis-a-vis the right to confidentiality of donors.
Government’s stance
- The government held that the anonymity of donors is essential to save them from harassment.
- There is a limit to citizens ‘right to know’ and a reasonable restriction is allowed over ‘right to know’.
Issues with electoral bonds
- The ECI, in a letter to the Ministry of Law and Justice, warned that electoral bonds, coupled with preceding legislative changes, could lead to the proliferation of shell companies to channel black money into the political system via these bearer bonds.
- The limit of 7.5 per cent of profits that a company could donate was not just raised but eliminated, allowing a company to donate 100 per cent of its profits to a political party.
- Even loss-making companies could now make political donations, potentially legitimising crony capitalism.
- the BJP government passed a retroactive amendment via a 2016 finance bill, replacing the 1976 Act with the modified 2010 statute.
- This move effectively shields any foreign financing of Indian elections from scrutiny. This is a matter of great national concern.
Citizens ‘right to know’
- The citizens’ right to know was settled by the apex court in 2003 when it mandated candidates to declare their financial dealings and criminal cases while filing nominations.
- In the 2003 ruling in People’s Union for Civil Liberties v Union of India and the 2002 judgment in Union of India v Association for Democratic Reforms, the Supreme Court mandated the ECI to obtain and disclose to the public background information relating to candidates running for office, including information on their assets, criminal records, and educational background.
- The Court ruled that the right to know about public officials is derived from the constitutional right to freedom of expression.
Way forward
- One option worth considering is to eliminate private funding and introduce public funding for political parties.
- This might not exceed ₹10,000 crore every five years, based on cumulative party collections as declared.
- Another option to do away with the “need” for secrecy would be to establish a National Election Fund to which all donors could contribute.
- The funds could be allocated to parties based on their electoral performance. This would eliminate the so-called concern about donors’ reprisals.
Conclusion: Without transparency of political funding, free and fair elections are not possible. Free and fair elections and the integrity of our electoral process have been repeatedly declared by the apex court as a part of the basic structure of the constitution.
Editorial 2 : A matter of greying
Introduction: The UNFPA recently released the India Aging Report, 2023. It declares that “globally, there are 1.1 billion persons aged 60 years and above in 2022, comprising 13.9 per cent of the total population of 7.9 billion.
The 2019 UNFPA report findings
- It noted that by 2027 India will have the highest population increase, overtaking China as the world’s most populous country. India did, in fact, overtake China as the most populous country this year.
- The report predicts that between now and 2050, India, along with Nigeria, Pakistan, Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt and the United States, will show the highest increase in population and will make up over half the world’s population.
- Further, the population of Sub-Saharan Africa will double by 2050.
- But, the rest of the world presents a very different picture.
- The world is greying faster than ever.
- David Bloom, writing for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2020, observed, “greying” is the dominant trend in the 21st century.
- According to him, “this is a cumulative result of increasing longevity, declining fertility and the progression of larger cohorts to older ages.”
- Three decades ago, in the 1970s, “the world was populated by more than three times as many adolescents and young adults (15 to 24-year-olds) than older people.” By 2050, these age groups will be “on par”.
India’s case
- The UNFPA recently released the India Aging Report, 2023.
- It declares that “globally, there are 1.1 billion persons aged 60 years and above in 2022, comprising 13.9 per cent of the total population of 7.9 billion.
- Over the next three decades, the number of older persons worldwide is expected to double to 2.1 billion by 2050, with the share rising to 22 per cent of the total population.
- In 2022, there were 149 million persons aged 60 years and above in India, comprising about 10.5 per cent of the country’s population.
- By 2050, the share of older persons will double to 20.8 per cent, with the absolute number at 347 million.”
- The report points out that “the unprecedented rise in the ageing population will have significant implications for health, economy and society in India”.
Different Challenges of ‘aging populations’ for the developed and developing countries
- The UNFPA sets out the challenge of declining fertility rates that developed and developing countries will experience at different points in time.
- The report points out that developing countries are presently witnessing a significant drop in fertility levels far sooner in their development journey than developed countries did.
- Most of the developed world had much higher per capita income levels when their populations began to age, which made it easier for them to handle the economic pressures caused by ageing populations.
- Developed countries, in other words, had a far bigger economic pie that they could use to sustain their elderly people when their populations began to age rapidly.
- Countries like India do not enjoy that luxury.
- The UNFPA sets out, through an array of statistics, that in some developing countries the old age dependency ratio could “more than double in 50 years, while it took about 150 to 200 years for the same thing to happen in the developed world.”
- The report has estimated that India’s elderly population (people over 60 years) will grow at a rapid 41 per cent between 2021 and 2031.
- It further notes that the number of elderly people will be larger than the number of children (those below 15 years) by 2046.
- Ageing populations mean fewer workers, fewer taxpayers and hence, a reduction in a country’s ability to generate wealth. It also means enhanced burdens on healthcare systems.
Peculiar case of China and USA
- A study on the population decline, published in Lancet in 2020, throws up some important findings about how population is intertwined with politics.
- China is expected to replace the United States by 2035 in terms of the largest total gross domestic product (GDP).
- However, the rapid decline in China’s population means that the United States will reclaim the top position soon since its population will grow consistently if sustained by liberal immigration policies.
- China, led by Xi Jinping, is trying to reverse its population decline by suggesting that women stay home from work and have babies.
Lancet’s observation on population and geo-politics
- Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of Lancet, makes two important points based on his research.
- First, that “by the end of this century, the world will be multipolar, with India, Nigeria, China and the US as the dominant powers,” buttressed in great part by their working age populations.
- Second, that “immigration and strong reproductive and sexual rights for women will be key as the world will undergo radical shifts in geopolitical power.”
- He argues that soon the influence of both Europe and Asia will decline.
- By 2100, most of the fastest shrinking populations will be in Asia and Europe.
- For instance, China will decline from 1.4 billion in 2017 to 732 million people in 2100, Thailand from 71 million to 35 million, Italy from 61 million to 31 million and Japan from 128 million to 60 million.
Conclusion: By the turn of the century, India will have declined in numbers and will have a substantial senior citizen composition. It must be prepared. It must enlarge its economic pie so that the large dependent population would not become a burden on the earning population.