The Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) published a list of corporates funding the political parties. The statistics is interesting as it spans the period between 2012-2013 and 2015-2016. The corporate funding forms 89 percent of the parties’ total funding from declared sources.

Interestingly, the BJP is topping the chart, but not surprisingly, as the nexus between the Bania (and increasingly Brahmin) capitalism with the RSS/BJP was always there. If we look at the figures, the topmost recipient is the RSS/BJP and the topmost donor is “Satya Electoral Trust”. The Electoral Funds are interesting entities in India in which several corporates come together and form a “fund” which is then given to various political parties.

The Election Commission of India compiles the list of the “Electoral Funds” and how the money is distributed. This is interesting as it brings out the connections between various political parties and the money they receive. The notable absence among the list of the recipient is the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) which was India’s third largest political party a few years ago.

The BJP alone received 193 crores from Satya Electoral Trust, compared to the INC which received 57 crores from the same trust. One of the interesting recipient party is NCP, the party founded by the long standing politician, Sharad Pawar, which has a little base in India.

It has been proved that the Corporate India is caste insensitive and that the Corporate India is nothing but the hegemony and monopoly of the India’s Brahmin and Bania. Therefore, it shows the pattern that Corporate India will naturally ally with the “Brahmin-Bania” parties and when the capital mixes with Brahminism, it creates a lethal combination that destroys the rights of India’s 54 percent OBCs, 20 percent SCs, 9 percent STs, and 14 percent Muslims.

The RSS/BJP was not satisfied with this scheme of receiving money and in the last budget they hatched a meticulous plan to get as much money they want from the corporate through a scheme called “Electoral Bonds” which means that the corporates through RBI can float the bonds in the name of any political party and it should be “anonymous”, that means, no one will know which “corporate” has donated money to which “political party”. This might do away with the “electoral trust” and give way to more unholy “electoral bonds”. Figuratively, the move from “trust” to “bond” is significant and an indication of the things to come.

The OBCs and the Dalits will be party-less and no party should work for them. If at all, the OBCs and the Dalits have to raise any voice, it must be done within the political framework of the RSS/BJP.

Therefore, the revival and survival of the mass based parties like the BSP depends on the social movements and the cultural movements, without this base, the BSP cannot succeed and the failure of the parties like the BSP is the failure of Indian democracy.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist