Lingering opacity

In the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, political funding in India had hit record highs, revealing just how much money drives modern elections. The BJP, unsurprisingly, led the pack. It saw donations surge by an incredible 87 per cent compared to the previous year. The party raked in Rs 3,967.14 crore in 2023–2024. But what’s interesting is the shift in how this money is coming in. For years, the BJP relied heavily on electoral bonds, a controversial system that allowed anonymous donations. In 2022–2023, these bonds made up 61 per cent of the party’s funding. This year, however, that figure dropped to 43 per cent. That’s not because the BJP rejected the bonds, but because the Supreme Court scrapped the scheme in February 2024, calling it unconstitutional. The court ruled that the anonymity of these donations violated the public’s right to know, essentially ending a system that many saw as a loophole for big-money influence in politics. While the BJP adjusted to this change, the Congress seemed to go all-in on electoral bonds during their final year of operation. The party saw its donations skyrocket by a staggering 320 per cent, jumping from Rs 268.62 crore to Rs 1,129.66 crore. A massive 73 per cent of that came from electoral bonds, showing just how dependent it had become on this system. The party clearly tried to make the most of the scheme before it disappeared.

The numbers are staggering, but they also highlight a deeper issue—the sheer cost of running elections in India today. The BJP spent over Rs 1,754 crore on campaigns and propaganda last year, including Rs 591 crore on ads and publicity. The Congress spent a more modest Rs 619 crore, but that’s still a massive increase compared to the previous year. This kind of spending is not limited to machinations of contesting elections. It is also about controlling the narrative, saturating the media, and staying in the public eye at exorbitant costs. The Supreme Court’s decision to end electoral bonds was supposed to make political funding more transparent, but it’s clear that the larger problem hasn’t gone away. Corporations and wealthy donors still wield outsized influence, and the lack of caps on contributions means that the parties with the deepest pockets continue to have the upper hand. While the BJP’s shift towards voluntary contributions this year might seem like a step towards transparency, it doesn’t address the bigger question: who are these donors, and what do they expect in return? The stakes couldn’t be higher. When money flows so freely into politics, it’s hard not to wonder about the strings attached. Are these donations coming with quiet promises of favourable policies, contracts, or decisions? Without stricter rules on who can donate and how much, the answer will remain murky.

It is clear that India needs to rethink how political campaigns are funded. Scrapping electoral bonds was a start, but it’s just one piece of a much bigger puzzle. There’s an urgent need for more transparency, tighter regulations on corporate donations, and caps on campaign spending. More importantly, political parties need to start engaging with ordinary citizens as their primary source of funding. That’s the only way to ensure that money doesn’t drown out the voices of voters. If we don’t address the role of money in politics, we risk turning elections into a game of the highest bidder. It’s time to choose transparency over secrecy and fairness over influence. The future of our democracy depends on it.