Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, Chapter: 825
Palash Biswas
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Donations for political apolitical organisations in India lacks transparency and it is never regulated.Non political organisations tend to practice money laundering and extortion even on the expiry of registration. They continue the donation business thanks to these cash machines all on the name of ideology and mission, say social change or liberation without any valid permission, without filing income tax return. The economic offences in this field remain unabated. Several organisations engage themselves in free for all extortion with same registration number. The leaders of these organisations never see any change for decades and assets created on personal names and the followers are blinded in either personality cult or caste or community identity and so called ideology. Intense hate campaign is also excellent tool to mobilise resources.No one questions against this blatant economic offence committed so often and sustained without any fear of law. Black money seems not to be the monopoly of the corporate as political as well as non political organisations also have a lion`s share!If 'reforms' is the buzz word, then electoral reforms should be on top of the list, and the funding of political parties foremost among them.
In a detailed analysis of the Income Tax returns filed and donations received by the political parties, the National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms have raised several questions on the lack of transparency regarding the source of funds that the parties claimed to have received in the past years.Money laundering is abundant in Indian Politics. On the other hand, apolitical organisations also lack transparency from top to bottom.
Ten main political parties of the country had a whopping Rs 2,490 crore of tax-exempted income in the last five years, according to information from the Income Tax department through an RTI plea.
Of this the ruling Congress and the main Opposition party BJP have cornered more than 80 per cent. The figure could be higher since the political parties' income figures between 2007-08 and 2011-12 received from the Income Tax department through an RTI plea does not incorporate the large number of small donations or income below Rs 20,000.Only 11.89 per cent of the Congress income and 22.76 per cent of the BJP income in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 financial year have come from donations received in excess of Rs. 20,000, the two parties have claimed in contribution reports submitted to the Election Commission of India.
Congress and BJP on Monday defended receiving donations from party workers and other sources as two NGOs released a report that said political parties in India have 'earned' over Rs 4,662 crore since 2004.
The Congress had a tax-exempted income to the tune of Rs 1,385.36 crore, more than double of the BJP, which recorded an amount of Rs 682 crore.
The report by Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch, which relied on the IT returns and list of donors submitted to the Election Commission for the period 2004-11, said Congress' income was Rs 2,008 crore while BJP earned Rs 994 crore.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said the party would comment only after going through the report, but a senior leader defended the donations, saying there was nothing "illegal or unethical."
Echoing same sentiments, BJP spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain said the party receives funds from its workers through a "transparent system of fund collection."
The NGOs said donations and voluntary contributions seem to be one of the major sources of income for most political parties and demanded more transparency in functioning of electoral trusts run by corporates added that political parties must be declared as public authorities.
BJP ally JD(U)'s tax free income in this period except for the year 2008-09 has been Rs 15.51 crore.
Mayawati's BSP recorded an income of Rs 147.18 crore in three financial years 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2011-12. The party filed incomplete return in 2009-10 and had no tax-exempted income in 2010-11.
Sharad Pawar's NCP had a tax-exempted income of Rs 141.34 crore in the five-year period.
According to the information provided by the IT department, CPI(M) recorded an income of Rs 85.61 crore in four years in this period while it had nil income in 2008-09.
CPI's income in 2008-09 and 2009-10 is pegged at Rs 28.47 crore.
JD(S) had an earning of Rs 7.16 crore in 2009-10 and 2010-11 while Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP had a tax-exempted earning of Rs 2.55 crore in four years from fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2011.
Lalu Prasad's RJD earned Rs 2.85 crore in three years from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2011.
The information came through a petition filed by Hisar-based RTI activist Ramesh Verma before the IT department.
Political parties are exempted from tax on their income through section 13(A) of IT Act 1961. However, they have to maintain a book of account for donations or income above Rs 20,000.
The Central Information Commission (CIC) in November 2012 said it will seek a report from Income Tax department and Directorate of Estate regarding tax exemptions claimed by political parties and their assets to ascertain whether there is enough indirect funding from the government to bring them under the ambit of RTI Act.
According to the I-T returns filed by various parties and contribution reports submitted to the EC which are accessed by these two organisations through the Right to Information Act, the top five parties with the highest income between 2004-05 and 2010-11 were: the Congress with Rs. 2,008 crore, the BJP - Rs. 994 crore, the BSP – Rs. 484 crore, the CPI(M) – Rs. 417 crore and the SP – Rs. 279 crore.The Hindu reports.
While donations and voluntary contributions accounted for a major source of income, donations from named contributors (those who donated more than Rs.20,000 and are to be mandatorily declared) formed a very small percentage of the total income of the parties.
For 2009-10 and 2010-11, while 81 per cent of the BJP's funding accrued from donations (total income: Rs. 426 crore, total donations: Rs. 347 crore), only 22.76 per cent of the total income came from named donors who had contributed over Rs. 20,000.
The corresponding figures for the Congress indicate that while donations accounted for only 14.42 per cent of the total income, a mere 11.89 per cent of the total income was from named donors. The Congress has raised Rs. 573 crore of its total income of Rs. 774 crore from 2009 to 2011 through sale of coupons.
Interestingly, the BSP, which declared an income of Rs.172 crore for the past two years, said donations accounted for Rs. 99 crore, but stated that it received zero donations over Rs.20,000. The two organisations cited these figures to state that the public could deduce very little on who funded India's political parties.
While the CPI declared that 57 per cent of its income from 2009 to 2011 (total income - Rs. 3.41 crore, donation in excess of Rs. 20,000 – Rs. 1.94 crore) came from named donors, the CPI(M) (total income - Rs.149.85 crore, donation over Rs. 20,000 – Rs. 1.93 crore) said only 1.29 per cent of its donations were in excess of Rs.20,000.
Among the top donors for the national parties include a number of trusts. The General Electoral Trust has donated Rs. 36.46 crore to the Congress and Rs. 7 crore to the BJP from 2004 to 2011. Electoral Trust made donations of Rs. 9.96 crore to the Congress. A company called Torrent Power Ltd. has donated Rs. 11.85 crore to the Congress, Rs. 10.5 crore to the BJP, and Rs. 1 crore to the NCP between 2004 and 2011.
Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of the Vedanta group that is listed on the London Stock Exchange, donated Rs. 6 crore to the Congress in 2004-05 and 2009-10 while the Madras Aluminium Company Limited, also a subsidiary of Vedanta, contributed Rs. 3.5 crore to the BJP. The Public and Political Awareness Trust of Vedanta has made an overall contribution of Rs.9.5 crore to the BJP during 2003-04 and 2004-05.
According to the National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms, the other trusts and companies which have made contributions to the political parties include the Bharti Electoral Trust, ITC Limited, Asianet TV Holding Pvt. Ltd., Ambuja Cement Ltd., Harmony Electoral Trust, Mahindra and Mahindra and Larsen and Toubro Ltd.
Only five regional parties have regularly filed their contribution reports from 2004-05 to 2010-11 to the EC. Eighteen regional parties have never submitted their contribution reports.
At the last count, India had 1,396 registered political parties, names of most of which you might never have heard. Between them, these parties received a whopping Rs 4,662 crore through donations and other sources between 2004 and 2011. But, if the amount isn't surprising, here's a factoid: over 85 per cent of this amount received as donation by political parties came from unnamed sources, that is, people and organisations that "donated" amounts lesser than Rs 20,000.
As per figures collected by the Association of Democratic Reforms, the BSP collected Rs 172.67 crore through donations during just 2009-2011. But, not even a single donor is named in its records submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Ideally, the ECI, which has the duty to regulate and conduct elections in the country — it is also tasked with the job of registering parties and allotting symbols — should be able to ask political parties to explain the manner in which they collect and disburse funds. But this power doesn't lie with it. In fact, no agency is empowered to take stock of funds of political parties.
Some parties, senior politicians and ECI officials say, exist only for the purpose of channelising black money into the system. Despite repeated promises, no government at the Centre has made a serious attempt to make our electoral system more transparent. Much-needed electoral reforms are stuck as parties refuse to open themselves to scrutiny.
In 2004, the then chief election commissioner T S Krishnamurthy wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention in clearing urgent electoral reforms.
ome areas on which successive CECs have been seeking the government's intervention include tackling criminalisation of politics, restriction on the number of seats from which a candidate can contest and compulsory maintenance of accounts by parties and their audit.
A few months back, the ECI again wrote to the government seeking amendment to the law to give it power to regulate political parties in matters of funding. But, it is still awaiting the response of the government.
As recommended by the Law Commission of India, the ECI must have the power to discipline political parties and, if required, deregister them.
Maneesh is a senior assistant editor based in Delhi
THE GREY AREA OF POLITICAL FUNDING
Karnataka political parties raise 1000s of crores, somehow
INC, BJP, JDS and other parties receive huge sums of money as donations from corporates and individuals - who has given how much?By Samuel Jacob
23 Nov 2012, Citizen Matters
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printIf 'reforms' is the buzz word, then electoral reforms should be on top of the list, and the funding of political parties foremost among them. Currently there is a lack of transparency in how political parties and candidates solicit, collect and disburse funds. These issues were highlighted in a widely distributed report released by two NGOs, National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, published this September.
Legally, the activity of fund-raising, expensing, accounting and reporting of funds collected by political parties fall under the ambit of various acts including the Representation of the People Act, 1951; The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010; Companies Act, 1956; Trade Unions Act, 1926 besides the Election Commission of India's "Model Code of Conduct for the Guidance of Political Parties and Candidates." But, more often than not, parties end up circumventing these rules.
In an analysis of funds received by the top three parties in Karnataka, the NGOs' report reveals that in the last four years, the Congress (INC) got Rs 1,492.35 cr, the BJP Rs 769.81 cr, and the JD(S) which has filed returns only for two years (07-08 and 09-10) Rs 4.63 cr.
Interestingly, the Congress got Rs 1,171 cr. from "Sale of coupons", Rs 183.82 cr. as Donations/Contributions and Rs 82.15 cr as Interest. The BJP on the other hand got Rs 644.77 cr. from Donations/Contributions, Rs 53.41 cr as Interest collected and Rs 50.34 cr. from "Aajiwan Sahayog Nidhi". The JD(S) got Rs 4.58 cr. from Donations/Contributions, Rs 94,000 from Interest collected and Rental income of Rs 2 lakhs.
| Party | Total Income |
| Indian National Congress | Rs 1492.35 crores |
| Bharatiya Janata Party | Rs 769.81 crores |
| Janata Dal (Secular)* | Rs 4.63 crores |
| For FY 2007-08, 2008-09, 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 * For Janata Dal (Secular), donation figures are available only for FY 2007-08 and 2009-10. ITR has not been filed for FY 2008-09 and FY 2010-11 |
Meanwhile, of the funds received, the Congress spent Rs 716.03 cr on Elections, Rs 131.18 cr. on Aid and Rs 271 cr. on Publicity. The BJP spent Rs 271 cr. on Advertising and Publicity, Rs 141.15 cr. on Travelling and Rs 77.97 cr. on Meetings. The JD (S) did not file Income/Expenses statement.
With parties receiving huge sums of money as donations from corporates and individuals, it becomes important for voters to know who is giving what and if and whether there is any effect of this funding on policies pursued by the party or candidates. The current state of affairs is such that parties exploit the "loopholes" in the law to structure the inflow as well as outflow of funds from their coffers. One such loophole is the requirement to report the names of donors only for sums above Rs 20,000. Thus you have a situation where the parties club most of the money they receive under donations less than Rs 20,000.
For example, in Karnataka, the Congress has shown only 9.1 percent of their income received as donations above Rs 20,000. The corresponding figures for BJP and JD (S) is 21.71 percent and 23.75 per cent respectively.
Further analysis of the figures submitted by the parties reveal that overall, the number of donors giving more than Rs 20,000 has been increasing year on year. In 2010-11 the Congress had 399 such donors, the BJP 474 donors while the JD (S) has not filed their corresponding figures for this year though they reported one donor for the year 2009-10.
For the year 2009-10 when the general elections were held, the top three donors for the Congress Party was the Birla's General Electoral Trust (Rs 13.95 cr.), Tata Group's Electoral Trust (5.64 cr.) and Infrastructure Development and Consultant (I)(P) Ltd (Rs 5.5 cr.).
The BJP's top donors were the General Electoral Trust (Rs 16.60 cr), Asianet V Holding Pvt. Ltd. (Rs 10 cr.) and Torrent Power Ltd. (Rs 5.50 cr.). The JD (S) had only one donor Lakshmi Narasimha Enterprises (Rs 1.10 cr.).
For the year 2010-11, the top three donors for Congress was Torrent Power Ltd. (Rs 2.3 cr.), Russell Credit Ltd. (Rs 1.5 cr.) and ITC Ltd. (Rs 50 Lakh). For the BJP it was Torrent Power Ltd. (Rs 3 cr.), Sai Regency Power Corporation Pvt Ltd. (Rs 1.2 cr.) and Lodha Construction (Dombivili) (Rs 1 cr.). The JD (S) has not filed its ITR for this year.
Who are the donors from Karnataka?
Similarly, the top donors from Karnataka to the three main parties include Lakshmi Narasimha Enterprises, Shobha Developers, R V Deshpande, M R Jaishanker of Brigade Group, Irfan Razak and Razwan Razak of the Prestige Group, and several individuals who have all donated anywhere from Rs 21,000 to Rs 1.1 cr.
Contributors to BJP
SHOBHA DEVELOPERS Rs. 5,000,000
SHRI M R JAISHANKAR Rs. 2,000,000
Irfan Rajak Rs. 1,250,000
Razwan Rajak Rs. 1,250,000
M.R.Jai Shankar Rs. 500,000
Contributors to JD(S)
Lakshmi Narasimha Enterprises Rs. 11,000,000
Lakshmi Narasimha Enterprises Rs. 1,000,000
Contributors to INC
R.V. Deshpande Rs.2,000,000
Krishnappa, MLA Rs.1,000,000
R.V. Deshpande Rs.500,000
S.T. Somashekar Rs.500,000
Dr. K. Sudhakar Rs.500,000
Nazeer Ahmed, MLC Rs.300,000
Nazeer Ahmed, MLC Rs.300,000
Shri Mohammed Yousuf Rs.200,000
Shri T.V. Mohandas Pai Rs.200,000
M. Narayanaswamy Rs.200,000
Vasu, Ex-Mayor Rs.200,000
S.E. Raghavendra Rs.200,000
B.A. Basavaraja Rs.200,000
Shri Ramdas Kamat Rs.100,000
T. John,MLC Rs.100,000
Manjunath Kunnur, EX-MP Rs.100,000
C.G. Chinnaswamy Rs.100,000
Of course, we do not know the source of most of the money that parties get because these are all less than Rs 20,000, which they don't have to report. And it looks strange if not suspicious that the names of quite a few top industrial houses are missing from the list of donors, because it is highly unlikely they are not giving any money to the parties. It could well be that they believe in funding the candidates directly rather than give to the parties they represent.
The funds that parties report is not even 1 to 2 per cent of what they actually get, says RK Misra of Nav-Bharat, a political initiative seeking to reduce the role of money-power in fighting elections as well as transparency in how funds are received and spent. According to him, the laws are fine, but the problem is when funding is made anonymously for vested interest and not for furthering democracy or any such reason.
Any solutions?
Interestingly, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), earlier this year, came out with its position on "Funding of Political Parties for Election Purposes". It favored a dual approach of part financing from a Public Fund and part from public and corporate donations. It also favored removal of all caps on income as well as expenditure of political parties.
In fact, the Companies Bill, 2011, which is pending in Parliament and which would replace the Companies Act, 1956, seeks to increase corporate funding to political parties from 5% to 7.5% of the average net profits earned by a company in the three immediately preceding financial years. This money can also be given to any person who the company believes represents a party or political cause. Whether this is desirable or not is highly debatable though not much serious debate has really taken place on corporate funding of political parties.⊕
Samuel Jacob
23 Nov 2012
Samuel Jacob is a Bangalore-based journalist. He writes on urban infrastructure, planning and development issues.
http://bangalore.citizenmatters.in/articles/view/4673-karnataka-political-parties-raise-1000s-of-crores-somehow
Striking at the root of corruption
Shailaja ChandraShare · Comment (33) · print · T+
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crime, law and justice corruption & briberyIndia
Cleansing political parties and elections of illegal money is the first step towards tackling the evil of graft
Corruption is nothing but a reflection of the distribution of power within societies. The country is where it is because the political system is self-perpetrating and no party is accountable to anyone except a coterie of people that dominates all decisions. Unless the political system is accountable, going after individual cases of corruption will achieve little.
Slew of anti-corruption bills
By making a single point demand for a Jan Lokpal, to the exclusion of all else, Anna Hazare's agitation became circumscribed by its own rhetoric. Expectedly, the government response was a slew of anti-corruption bills that have been introduced in Parliament, unheard of in the annals of the past six decades. From 2010, in a span of just two years, as many as 10 anti-corruption bills have been tabled including the disputed Lokpal bill, the forfeiture of benami property, foreign bribery, money laundering, and whistle-blowing bills plus five more — all aimed at deterring specific acts of corruption or purporting to give corruption-free public service as a right. And it was not just the Central government that showed this eagerness. Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha have actually enacted laws which can result in the attachment of ill-gotten property of public servants — sometimes pending investigation.
Undeniably, the citizenry will applaud such measures, frustrated and angry as people are about corruption. But wittingly or unwittingly, this response has deflected attention from a much larger issue. None of the bills or laws addresses the fountainhead of corruption — the opaque management of political parties which includes the source and deployment of their funds.
The second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC 2009) underscored the large-scale criminalisation of politics, illustrating how the participation by criminals in the electoral process was "the soft underbelly of the Indian political system" leading to "the flagrant violation of laws, poor quality of services, protection from lawbreakers on political, group, class, communal or caste grounds, partisan interference in the investigation of crimes, the poor prosecution of cases, inordinate delays that last for years, high costs of the judicial process, mass withdrawal of cases and indiscriminate grant of parole."
What is of great importance is the open admission that votes are in fact secured through large, illegal and illegitimate expenditure on elections. This has been termed as the starting point of corruption making cleansing elections the most important route to bringing principles into politics. The Lokpal brouhaha has deflected attention from issues infinitely more important for going after dishonest politics, which seems to be all-pervasive.
And the context matters too. Much of India lives in as unequal a world — comparable in fact to pre-industrial Britain. Feudal mindsets prevail and the exercise of patronage is expected. In addition, in India, money power can control decisions the voter makes. Bound by the mores of a largely agrarian way of life, the poor remain simultaneously protected and penalised not by the law and the police as much as by feudal lords, often having criminal records. Indian political parties had long used these local sardars and strongmen as trusted allies for defeating opponents. But the latter have moved up in life by increasingly joining the political fray as candidates — not just supporters, and they have joined to win.
According to the Annual Report of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), among 543 elected Members of Parliament who were elected in the 2009 election, 162 (30 per cent) had criminal cases pending. Five years earlier, that figure was 24 per cent. Meanwhile, the votes needed to win a seat have fallen to as low as 15 per cent. Criminal elements that once pulled in votes for party candidates are now getting voted to power themselves, gaining social respectability and public esteem in the bargain. Meanwhile, campaign-spending limits being easy to flout, buying the voter is easily managed.
More worrisome than individual corruption is the widespread concern that funds are collected by political parties and parked in secret bank accounts abroad to be ploughed back to finance elections often by hook or by crook. Since fund management is confined to a handful of people in each party, it gives enormous power to the top leadership which controls the deployment of funds and all that accompanies it. When the choice of candidates is intrinsically linked with money power, quid pro quos, and IOUs, clean candidates without money or political pedigree do not stand a ghost of a chance. And it goes without saying that once illegal and illegitimate expenditure is incurred on winning elections, there can be no prospect of honest dealings thereafter.
In the OECD countries with which we frequently draw comparisons, three qualities on a scale of eight, considered the most important attributes required from members of the political executive are objectivity, impartiality and neutrality. In those countries, a Minister is expected to publicly commit himself to observing ethical principles if he is to set an example to public servants.
In India, talk of ethical conduct is laughed at; civil servants take their cue from the standards of probity they are witness to — superiors in the service and their political bosses. Until political parties field clean candidates and promote and reward them, a climate of ethical dealings simply cannot emerge.
Expecting the clean up to come only by reinforcing anti-corruption laws though necessary, will divert attention from the real issue of corruption — how political parties collect funds and give tickets. The only way this can change is by educating voters on the dynamics behind the power play. Simply put, it means having knowledge about the origin of party funds to provide insights into the interests that back a political party. Equally how such contributions might influence future policies —including the future outlook for using public funds and natural resources.
It should come as no surprise that when ADR sought information on political party funding, using RTI, all political parties with the exception of the CPI (M) responded that they were not bound to provide such information. This, when income tax exemptions worth hundreds of crores of rupees, land and accommodation at nominal rates, and free airtime, are all provided at public cost. A full bench of the Central Information Commission (CIC) met in September to take a view on this. But major political parties shied away.
The key issue
Whatever the outcome, it is unlikely that the sources of party funding would be declared in the foreseeable future. But that is the key to understanding the compulsions of political parties and the decisions they make. One way of overcoming the clandestine collection of election funds would be to introduce state funding of elections as so many countries have done. More importantly there is a need for laws that mandate transparency in the deployment of political party funds coupled with rules that democratise inner party functioning. Unless the monopoly that a small clique that holds the reins of power in almost every party is freed, new blood can never transfuse into the political arena.
A Bill called the Registration and Regulation of Political Parties (2011) has been drafted by a committee chaired by Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah, former Chief Justice of India. The bill includes a democratic process for selecting party office-bearers as well as those given the ticket. It talks of limits on donations by individuals and corporations, suggests penalties for non-compliance and addresses the vexed question of how to deal with support groups that spend money that remains unaccounted for in the candidates' election expenses.
It is legislation like this that the country needs. Much more than a Lokpal. It is only when political parties become answerable that clean candidates will emerge. Then alone might the use of public funds for private gain halt.
(A former civil servant, Shailaja Chandra is the Vice President of Initiatives for Change-Centre for Governance, a think tank that supports social reform.)
Keywords: India corruption, anti-corruption bills, Jan Lokpal, politics criminalisation, Indian political system, Regulation of Political Parties
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/striking-at-the-root-of-corruption/article4137685.ece?homepage=true
New law to make election funding more transparent
Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, November 11, 2012
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First Published: 15:30 IST(11/11/2012)
Last Updated: 02:21 IST(12/11/2012)
With political debate heating up on need of bringing political parties under ambit of Right To Information law, the government has firmed up a new law to make funding to political parties more transparent. The new 'election finance' law aims to give election commission powers to
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scrutinize the funding of political parties for elections.
"We want to have an effective system to check corruption in the political system," said a senior government functionary.
The idea to have a model law was first mooted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh about two years ago but it did not get much steam from the Law ministry, empowered to pilot a key electoral reform initiative of the UPA government.
With the change in guard, the ministry has decided to finalise the draft financial transaction law in consultation with the Election Commission within a month. It also wants to hold an all party meeting so that the bill can be introduced in the Parliament's budget session.
A senior government functionary said that the bill would be major electoral reform after 2003 when the government changed the Representation of People's Act to allow corporate and individuals seek income tax exemption on donations made to political parties of Rs. 20,000 or more in a year.
This also provided for the parties to file annual returns and details of those who have donated more than Rs. 20,000.
But, since then influence of black money in elections has increased and was evident from seizure of over Rs. 100 crore each during last Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
The government believes that the bill could probably reduce use of black money in electoral politics with the parties having to declare their funding sources to a government agency.
As the proposed law could shrink funding sources of smaller political parties, the draft bill also provides for guidelines for partial state funding to the recognised political parties for certain election works such as publishing of publicity material.
Limited state funding is already there with free air time given to major political parties on public broadcaster Doordarshan and All India Radio during elections.
While seeking existing state funding does not make political parties accountable, the new law aims to bring in some accountability. Government officials, however, point out that achieving political consensus on the proposed law would not be easy.
With this, the government also wants to counter the debate on making political parties accountable under Right To Information Act.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/New-law-to-make-election-funding-more-transparent/Article1-958008.aspx
Adivasi Warlord Kundan Pahan and Jharkhand's Maoist Mess
G Vishnu reports from Jharkhand's killing fields where Kundan Pahan, a 'most wanted' Maoist, has become a metaphor for the frightening chaos spawned by a plethora of armed groups at war with each other
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KUNDAN PAHAN — perhaps only the second Adivasi from Jharkhand to become a member of the CPI(Maoist)'s Bihar-Jharkhand-North Chhattisgarh Special Area Committee (SAC) — had first grabbed the attention of the national media in October 2009 with the abduction and gruesome beheading of Francis Induwar, 37, an Adivasi police officer working with the intelligence wing of Jharkhand Police. Induwar was picked up by Kundan's squad from Arki market in Khunti district and taken to the forests near Bundu in Ranchi district. The Maoists demanded the release of three leaders, including politburo member Kobad Ghandy, currently lodged in Tihar jail in Delhi. A week later, Induwar's body, along with the severed head, was found at Namkum, 12 km from Ranchi. This brutal murder sparked outrage in civil society and was even criticised by the then CPI(Maoist) spokesperson Azad.
With a bounty of Rs 5 lakh on his head, Kundan is today one of the 'most wanted' Maoists in Jharkhand — and a symbol of all that is wrong with the state. With a section of the political establishment in cahoots with crony business houses, the state has become a battleground for a whole array of violent militant groups, promising nothing but a slow bloodbath in the coming decade. The shocking brutality of Induwar's beheading is just one strand of the narrative of Kundan's life, which intermeshes with other threads of a sad yet significant tale of how young Adivasis in Jharkhand's impoverished hilly and forest tracts end up as Maoist outlaws, hunted by, and hunting, other Adivasis — not just members of security forces, but also of rival armed groups (which are sometimes encouraged by the police to take on the Maoists and then disowned). The story of this Adivasi Maoist leader also shows how the CPI(Maoist), despite its claims to be fighting for the rights of Adivasis, seems to operating more like a brigand's gang in Jharkhand, with high stakes in the "extortion economy" and involving a bloody turf-war with other armed groups.
More than two years before the infamous beheading of Induwar, Kundan's squad had been named in the March 2007 killing of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Sunil Mahato in Baguria. Another high-profile murder followed in July 2008; this time the victim was JD(U) MLA and former minister Ramesh Singh Munda. Many believe the killings were "punishment" for breaking the promises made to Kundan during elections. "Show me one politician in Jharkhand worth his salt who has not struck a deal with the Maoists or other militant groups during elections. Without Maoist support, no politician can ever find a foothold in the hilly, forested constituencies," says a top cop, who has worked with the Intelligence Bureau (IB), on condition of anonymity.
In May 2008, Kundan's squad looted Rs 5.5 crore from an ICICI Bank van (sources say he sent less than Rs 1 crore of this to his party). Two months later, they triggered a landmine blast killing six cops, including Bundu Deputy SP Pramod Kumar.
According to sources, Kundan's squad has killed over 100 people in the past four years — alleged police informers, Special Police Officers (SPOs), dissenting villagers and security personnel. While sympathisers speak of the dangers of having police informers in the villages, the police hold almost a personal grudge against him for what he has done to their colleagues.
Moreover, Kundan is known to have scant regard even for his party's diktats and has often challenged its "Bengali and Bihari leadership" in this zone. So why did he join the Maoist party? Among several tales doing the rounds, the most cited relates to a land dispute in which his father lost a plot to his uncle.
Kundan, now 35, was born to a family of Pahans (Adivasi priests). His childhood friend Mahadev Munda recalls that he was a slow learner at school. He first left his village Barigada when an engineer from Gaya, who was building a dam across the Kanchi river nearby, hired 12-year-old Kundan to look after a Jersey cow. When he returned after three years, the land dispute between his father and his uncle had begun. Two years later, he joined the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC), which merged with the People's War Group (PWG) to become the CPI(Maoist) in 2004. By 1997, he had become the MCC's Bundu-Tamar area commander.
Bikram Lohra, a rice-mill worker from a neighbouring village, is said to have inducted Kundan into the party. Bikram was shot dead by the Maoists after he became a police informer and SPO around 2001. According to a former aide, Kundan never spoke out against Bikram, possibly because of some strange feeling of servitude. However, nobody harbours any illusion about Kundan's plans for Dhananjay Munda, a close aide who surrendered and become an SPO. Today, Dhananjay is said to be a major asset for the police force, helping in strategising anti-Maoist operations.
BARIGADA IS 18 km towards the forests from the Tamar block bus stand on the Ranchi-Jamshedpur highway. A village with a middle school, it has 75 houses and a population of 450 that depends on agriculture and MGNREGS work for livelihood. Village records show Kundan's father Narayan Pahan as a beneficiary of the MGNREGS. Narayan, 73, is still the village Pahan. "I perform the puja in our village serna (a grove of sal trees and a place of worship) and for our Bonga Buru (tribal deity). That's why the tigers do not attack us. That's why my family still lives with some dignity," says Narayan.
"We urged Kundan, the youngest of our six sons, not to join the party, but he was stubborn. Then he became a leader. Why will a leader listen to us? We kept hoping against hope that he will come back," rues Narayan, who last saw Kundan more than three years ago. His elder sons Dimba and Shyam, too, followed Kundan into the Maoist fold and are said to be part of the same squad, while Hari and Jungal became labourers in Ranchi. Only Lohar, the second youngest son, stays with his father. Kundan has an eight-year-old daughter who doesn't live with her father, and Narayan is happy that she is not part of the violent world that her father has come to make his.
Every villager here remembers what the security forces unleashed during combing operations in the past decade. They recount in hushed voices those horrific nights when all the men would flee to the forest at any hint of a police raid. "Everyone feared for the boys and the village would be empty for weeks. Fed up with being thrashed every time and fearing for my life, I left the village in 2002 and stayed away for seven years," says Eshwar Munda*, a resident of the village. In 2004, Narayan was arrested and accused of murder. He shudders remembering his 11 months in custody. It is suspected that his arrest was an attempt to force Kundan to surrender.
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However, the police no longer seem interested in getting Kundan to surrender. "We will bump him off the moment we lay our hands on him. He has left us with no other option," says a senior cop, a veteran of three operations hunting for Kundan. Indeed, the forces have gone to great lengths to find Kundan and neutralise him. Moreover, his former aides have publicly denounced his leadership and stories of sexual exploitation of women cadres have been highlighted.
"It is out of fear that the villagers feed him. He remains our biggest challenge since 2008, and we carry out at least four operations every month to get to him," says Naushed Alam, Deputy SP, Bundu. Part of the challenge is to take on the military strategy adopted by Kundan's squad. Two columns of 14-15 cadres are deployed at a distance from the core column of 40 to keep a look out for the police. Moreover, Kundan never camps anywhere for too long. "He is always on the run," says Ramesh*, a former aide who is still underground.
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Though many in the security establishment, including Jharkhand DGP GS Rath, deny it, Kundan would surely make a prize catch for the security forces today. After all, he is the only Adivasi to have made it to the leadership ranks after SAC member Samar ji, 45, an educated Adivasi of the Ho community. Given the Telugu-Bengali hegemony in the Maoist leadership, Kundan's Adivasi identity and Mundari mother-tongue make him a necessary prop for the party in the region. Through levy-collection and extortion, he has contributed massively to his party's funds, and brought in new cadres even as the Maoists face attrition in their ranks in Jharkhand, with several cadres joining splinter groups that are easier on the question of discipline.
"Kundan and his party have got into a spiral of violence. He cannot stop and think why he's there, or why he's on the run. I'm sure he cannot speak five cogent sentences on his party's ideology," says SN Pradhan, IG, Special Branch. "The way he perceives violence, he seems closer to the People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI), a violent extortionist outfit with neither ideological commitment nor discipline."
Pradhan, a 1988 batch IPS officer, quotes from WB Yeats' The Second Coming to describe the current violence: "The centre cannot hold and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world..." He says, "There are so many groups here, and they are all contributing to breaking up the Maoist movement. It's good in a way for us, but it's also a tough job to deal with the varied sets of problems posed by different militant groups."
Another top cop, who has led several anti-Maoist operations, says Kundan will most likely meet his death at the hands of another Adivasi. Besides the splinter militant groups that moonlight for the security forces for money and mercy, nearly 100 Adivasi SPOs keep a constant watch on the movement of Maoists in the Bundu-Tamar region. Among those gunning for Kundan's life is Pankaj Purty, a Munda Adivasi, who was earlier with the PLFI and now leads his own group, the Village Republic Guard of India (VRGI), of 50 boys (all in the age group of 15-25), in the Arki block of Khunti district. The group aims to protect villagers from the Maoists and collects "donations" from traders, transport companies and villagers. Pankaj proudly claims that his group has managed to keep Kundan's squad out of the area.
Speaking to TEHELKA, Pankaj revealed that the local police had initially provided "all kinds of support", though it backed off later. "It has been six years since I left home. I can't go back and take up agriculture again until it's more peaceful, but I don't know when this conflict would end," he says.
Indeed, no stakeholder in this conflict expects it to end any time soon. The CPI(Maoist), PLFI, Tritiya Sammelan Pragati Committee (TPC), TPC-1 (a breakaway group of TPC), Jharkhand Liberation Tigers, Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad, Shastra Pratirodh Manch, Swatantra Jharkhand Prastuti Committee and Jharkhand Prastuti Committee are all stakeholders in an "extortion economy" worth over Rs 200 crore per annum.
In fact, the groups have long held each other as enemies, even exchanging fire, killing cadres as well as civilians. Though recently they have made attempts to keep a certain distance from each other, the CPI(Maoist) still considers the splinter groups as "counter-revolutionary", going by their central committee's July 2012 bulletin. Even as the CPI(Maoist) faces attrition in its ranks, the other groups have thrived due to the initial benevolence of the state machinery and the mainstream political parties that nurtured them to serve their own needs.
Jharkhand DGP Rath denied any kind of cooperation between the State and the splinter groups. But another senior police officer admitted that district-level officers have sometimes actively nurtured elements inside these groups to target the Maoists. "Some SPs thought it would be beneficial for us to have these groups fight the battle on our behalf as they know the terrain and the language better, but the groups went on to become very violent and also rich," he says on condition of anonymity. TEHELKA also spoke to two district-level police officers who confirmed this.
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On 6 October, the DGP announced the starting of operations against the PLFI, the second largest of the militant groups. For the first time, the operations would also include the CRPF — earlier used only in operations against the CPI(Maoist). Though only the TPC is, technically speaking, a splinter group of the CPI(Maoist), having broken away from the MCC citing "cultural differences" before its merger with PWG, the State has clubbed all the groups under the Left-Wing Extremist (LWE) category.
"We are very clear and determined that we will not tolerate any non-State actor indulging in violence," Rath told TEHELKA. Another police officer adds: "If we find Dinesh Gop, the leader of PLFI tomorrow, nothing will stop us from going for him. Though there is less political clarity on tackling Maoists in Jharkhand than in Chhattisgarh, even JMM chief and former CM Shibu Soren never stopped us from doing what we had to do, though he said elsewhere that the Maoists are his brothers."
In this scenario, turning those who get caught in the vicious cycle of violence into SPOs is only a cynical "solution", with devastating consequences, to what is otherwise a complex equation – though senior police officers may call it a "trick of the trade". But it's a trick that plays havoc with the lives of people, especially the poor and deprived.
Take the case of Sanjay Purty, an SPO who was close to some VRGI cadre in his village and was shot dead by PLFI cadres in Khunti on 25 September. When asked about Sanjay, Rath says, "He was probably an SPO in the distant past, but had gone astray and developed illicit relationships with some militant groups." TEHELKA has in its possession a Bank of India cheque (No. 009324) dated 23 March 2012 for Rs 27,000 issued by former Khunti SP, M Tamil Vanan, to Sanjay as payment for his services.
IF THE DGP terms as "illicit" the hazy relationships that these foot-soldiers of chaos maintain in their microcosms, the Maoists and other militant groups, too, see the SPOs as "enemy agents". Though it is not a declared State policy, surrendered Maoists and other militants have been turned into SPOs, spies and informers, thus pushing them into the same war they wanted to run away from.
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*The DGP himself admitted the lack of clarity on a surrender policy. Moreover, one of the senior-most cops in Jharkhand revealed that the establishment does not intend to make compromises with the "brains" of the Maoist movement. "In the case of Narayan Sanyal (alleged politburo member) and others in the CPI(Maoist) leadership, we are very clear that we cannot afford to have them out in the open. They will always try to strengthen the movement," says a police officer handling intelligence in the case of 78-year-old Sanyal. The state police have tried everything in their hands to keep him in jail, despite a hunger strike by Maoist cadres inside Hazaribag jail where he is currently lodged.
"They want to make examples out of Sanyal and Sushil Roy, another Maoist leader currently admitted in AIIMS, Delhi, with a kidney ailment. They want both to breathe their last in prison," says a Ranchi-based human rights activist, explaining the difficulties in ensuring human rights for Maoist prisoners.
It is keeping in mind this dark canvas that one needs to reflect on the tale of Kundan Pahan. In this war of all-against-all, where the line between perpetrator and victim is often blurred, the question of who's fighting whom and for what cause becomes the least important factor shaping the fate of individuals. Indeed, Jharkhand's bloody quagmire is pregnant with many Kundans and Bikrams — people swept away by the circumstances of their homes and surroundings into a tunnel with no light at the end.
*Names Changed On Request
G Vishnu is a Correspondent with Tehelka.
vishnu@tehelka.com
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main54.asp?filename=Ne081212Kundan.asp
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