Regulate political parties

Regulate political parties - By Ramesh Ramanathan

Last week's National Anthem fracas saw Narayana Murthy getting roasted by members of the Karnataka State Assembly. While the media hype lasted for two days, what will linger is the subliminal irony of the incident. One of India 's great institution builders got taken to the cleaners by politicians who couldn't spell institution-building if their lives depended on it.

Political parties are the essence of a democracy. They channelise the competing hopes and aspirations of people into a collective, constructive energy for change. Elections are fought and won mainly by political parties – independent candidates are no more than comic relief in these democratic dramas. Most importantly, through these electoral processes, parties have access to the entire human and financial resources of government. Even when they are not in power, political parties influence and set public policy. Samuel Huntington stated that strong parties are “the prerequisite for political stability in modernizing countries”.

India has many outstanding political leaders who have invested their lives in tackling the nation's social and economic challenges. But are political parties only agglomerations of individuals, or should they meet a higher bar of being institutions? Leaders and institutions have a symbiotic relationship: they need each other.

A political party mobilises people, promises them representation, and aspires to to deliver its vision for society by accessing political power. The external work of a political party – complex social processes – needs to be supported by the internal rhythm of an institution – strong business processes. Institutional systems ensure the predictability, fairness and equity that parties need to successfully manage their various stakeholders . Indeed, they cannot practise democracy in the public arena if they don't practise it within their own parties.

How do Indian political parties rate as institutions? In a word, abysmally. No political party in India files audited financial statements. No data on size of membership is publicly available. No transparent rules for candidate selection are defined. No decisions are decentralised. No clear guidelines for the development of policy positions are outlined. In sum, these are institutions only in word, not deed. Each political apparatus twirls on the whims and fancies of individual leaders.

Why don't our political leaders build their parties? After all, this isn't rocket science, it's basic organisational development. Business leaders constantly ponder, “How do we sustain our success, strengthen the institutional fabric, nurture talent and remain relevant to our constituencies?” It can't be that our political leaders don't worry about the same issues.

Part of the answer is that India 's current political culture doesn't incentivise institution-building. It isn't possible to come clean on finances when illegal funds are sloshing through the system. Personality cults are easier to establish than organisational discipline. Fragmentation and identity politics still allow the tail to wag the dog, however small a particular vote base.

If political parties are unwilling to build robust institutions themselves, this discipline must be forced upon them. If a company wanted an exchange listing, it would have to satisfy SEBI's conditions – registration under the Company's Act, quarterly audited financial statements, disclosure about the Board of Directors, etc.

In sharp contrast, the regulatory environment for political parties is laughable. Other than Article 19 of the Constitution which affords the right to form associations, there are no regulations for political parties. Our illiteracy has created some back-door regulation. The Election Symbols Order, 1968 allows the Election Commission to declare a political party as a “state party” and allot a symbol if it fulfils certain conditions of longevity and electoral success. Any party satisfying these conditions in four or more states is recognized as a “national party”. We have 7 national parties and 48 state parties in India today. In this distorted political marketplace, we have handed over the keys of our public institutions to this ossified oligopoly.

We urgently need a muscular regulatory environment for political parties. The Election Commission of India needs to be given more teeth. The National Commission to review the working of the Constitution (NCRWC) strongly recommended regulation of political parties. It stated, “There should be comprehensive legislation [the Political Parties (Registration and Regulation) Act], regulating the registration and functioning of political parties in India .” Among other things, this proposed law would require party accounts to be audited, and open conventions to make leadership selection more “open, democratic and federal”. This 5-year old proposal gathers dust.

Amartya Sen said, “Countries should not become fit for democracy, but become fit through democracy.” Political parties are at the heart of this. All change is path dependent – we cannot change where we are, only where we are headed. One key step in this direction is for us to start thinking of political parties as institutions, and demand organisational accountability from them. Maybe they could take some tips from Murthy.

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The author is Co-Founder of Janaagraha.