The BJP and the RSS are pumping in "humongous" amounts of money never seen before to win the Lok Sabha polls to create a "Hindu Rashtra", the CPI-M said Thursday.
The BJP and the RSS are pumping in "humongous" amounts of money never seen before to win the Lok Sabha polls to create a "Hindu Rashtra", the CPI-M said Thursday.
The manner in which the BJP along with the RSS was spending money to ensure the victory of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi "is indeed unprecedented", the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy" said.
"The volume of money and resources already spent are, indeed, humongous -- a scale that independent India has never seen before," said an editorial in the journal.
It said the recently enhanced Election Commission's limit on expenditures per candidate per constituency of Rs.70 lakh had already been far exceeded by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, on just one issue: in projecting the prime ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi.
"If the expenditure generally incurred by the BJP as a political party on its propaganda and on its other candidates nationwide is added, then already more than double of the Election Commission limit would have been exceeded per constituency."
The CPI-M journal said the BJP was getting away with it without any scrutiny because of a serious flaw in law. Currently, there is no limit on the expenditures incurred by a political party on its election campaign. The CPI-M said it had all along demanded that like a limit fixed for a candidate's expenditure, a limit too must be fixed for party expenditures.
"Not surprisingly, no other national political party agreed with our suggestion! As a result, political parties with access to lesser resources, though with greater support amongst the people, suffer due to the current rules governing the electoral process in our country. There are restrictions placed on wall writings, postering and other means of less expensive propaganda while the more expensive ones like media advertisements, paid news, paid opinion polls, hiring helicopters and private jets to ferry party leaders for campaign have virtually no restrictions imposed. Indian democracy is, in today's conditions, rapidly degenerating into democracy as a right that can only be exercised by the moneyed and the privileged. This does not auger well for the future of our democracy."
The journal said the BJP and the RSS want to convert India from a secular democratic nation to a "Hindu Rashtra". "They see today an opportunity for an unfolding of their vision which they could not on the earlier occasions when the BJP formed a government at the centre."
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