Aam Aadmi Party sets bar high, lays bare its fund details

In its first declaration to the Election Commission (EC) on donations received, the Aam Aadmi Party has raised the transparency benchmark for political parties and has declared donations it received from abroad as well.

Updated on: Jan 8, 2014, 14:53:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In its first declaration to the Election Commission (EC) on donations received, the Aam Aadmi Party has raised the transparency benchmark for political parties and has declared donations it received from abroad as well.

Supporters-of-activist-turned-politician-Arvind-Kejriwal-listen-to-his-speech-during-the-launch-of-the-Aam-Aadmi-Party-in-New-Delhi-HT-Photo

The AAP revealed that it got money from Indians living abroad in the US, UK, Singapore and even Romania. Most donations from foreign banks were of Rs. 50,000 or less.

EC regulations prohibit parties from getting funds from foreign sources but the AAP said the donations did not violate EC rules as the money was given by non-resident Indians and not foreigners.

However, there may be trouble for the AAP as Foreign Contri-bution Regulation Act, debars receiving any foreign funding without home ministry’s approval. A probe in this regard has been launched by the ministry.

Read:Home ministry digs deeper into Aam Aadmi Party's funding

In a rare move for a political party, the AAP did not accept any donations above Rs. 20,000 in cash.

Donations above Rs 20,000 made to the AAP were through cheque or electronic transfer and in most cases the PAN number of the donor was also provided. Unlike other parties, the AAP provided complete details of the donors and the mode of the donations.

However, the EC does not have powers to cross-check the claims made by political parties in its contribution reports.

In contrast, the Congress’ contribution report shows that it got many large donation in cash, especially from its functionaries in the north-east with Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma donating over Rs. 15,00,000 in cash. RBI guidelines suggest that transactions above Rs. 50,000 should be through cheque or electronic transfer.

But, the Congress is not the only party hit by this cash syndrome. Donation details show that most national parties, except the Left, received donations of more than Rs. 20,000 in cash. However, the contribution reports also showed that some state political parties such as Biju Janata Dal, National Conference, Trinamool Congress and AIADMK did not get donations of more than Rs. 20,000 even though they are in power in the states.

Bagam Lalitha of Khammam, Andhra Pradesh, Kunal RS Bajaj of Mumbai and Rajnish Verma donated Rs. 1 lakh each to the AAP.

Among the non-resident Indian donators were Mayurnath Konadondla of the US, Hema Dadhwal of Singapore and Sudeep Thakur of Romania.

Political parties are required to submit details yearly of donations received in excess of Rs 20,000 to the EC. The AAP registered with the panel on March 21, 2013 and submitted its donation details recently.

Read: Did not receive foreign funds: AAP

Read:AAP alone cannot improve Delhi: Kejriwal

Read:Cong, AAP workers clash in Rahul's constituency

Read:AAP's anti-graft promise difficult goal to achieve: US political scientist

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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