How Political parties should lead a genuine anti-corruption movement

very well said: can any political party in India can do it:

The anti-corruption movement shows signs of fizzling out. That would be a pity. A great opportunity awaits a political party that launches a genuine anti-corruption movement by unilaterally announcing total transparency in its own expenditure and funding of that expenditure.

The idea that an ombudsman would wipe out corruption was always silly. India needs a functionalcriminal justice system where prosecution cases are settled beyond final appeal in a couple of years, for criminals, including the corrupt, to be deterred by fear of the law.

More to the point, political funding has to be reformed, if corruption has to be eradicated. Democracy has a cost, in terms of running political parties, which, in the case of national parties, calls for a very large and varied staff to be paid round the year, events to be organised, travel of leaders, often by chartered aircraft, publicity and publications, all quite apart from the expenditure on elections.

All this runs to tens of thousands of crore rupees. But India's political parties claim they receive just a few hundred crore rupees, at the most.

The rest of it is mobilised and spent in unaccounted money. This is the root of all corruption in politics and governance. Since funds have to be mobilised for financing politics, practically all politicians resort to some corrupt means or the other.

Loot of the exchequer, sale of state patronage and plain extortion are the three ways in which resources are mobilised. Since these activities entail collusion by civil servants, they too become complicit and, often, corrupt.

Such a process of funding democracy by means of corruption suborns the entire system and drains it of accountability.

This must change, and the way to begin is for some party to start raising all its funding openly and transparently, and to make all its expenditure open, public and contestable, without waiting for such transparency to be mandated by law.

If one party were to do it, others would be under pressure to follow. And the first mover would have tremendous advantage in terms of public support. Of course, opportunities for private enrichment would come down. But then, no gain without pain, as they say.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/anaemic-anna-political-parties-should-lead-a-genuine-anti-corruption-movement/articleshow/15266217.cms