1) Money and muscle power have come to heavily influence politics in India, with many politicians having criminal charges and large assets. The top political parties have hundreds of MPs/MLAs with criminal charges. 2) Various factors like regional politics, liberalization, and splits in parties have contributed to the rise of money in politics. Politicians manipulate business people and get funding in exchange for favors. 3) Reforms are proposed to reduce this influence, including fast track courts for corrupt politicians, monitoring voting, restricting independent candidates, and increasing transparency. Local groups would provide feedback and be funded through corporate social responsibility programs.

1. Introducing Electoral ReformsTo
ReduceThe Influence Of Money And
Muscle Power In Politics
Fairness At Play
By,
Abhinav Saxena-Team Coordinator
Faiz Ahmed Naqvi Rajat Basal
Utkarsh Arya Utsav Jain

2. World’s most ancient civilization, The largest existing
democracy,Yet the most powerful motivator here is the
MONEY.
Of late our Indian democracy being throttled to slow
death by the stinking corrupt politicians.Whole India
is facing this sort of undue advantage by these
political bosses and they dictate who runs the
administrations as well as policies of governance.
The influence is so intense that even the top parties
are entailed in it.
It is well known that all parties take the help of
criminal elements to dominate the election scene in
India. But this process is influencing the mind and the
will of the people both to gain the majority to rule the
country according to their will.
CHANGING FORTUNES :TOP FIVE
PARTIES
Party MP/MLAs
analysed
MP/MLAs
with
criminal
changes
Avg. asset
MPs/MLAs
with criminal
charges
Indian
National
Congress
2451 527 7.98 cr
Bharatiya
Janata
Party
1689 520 3.40 cr
Bahujan
Samaj
Party
430 149 2.56 cr
Samajwad
i Party
418 180 4.12 cr
CPI (M) 520 111 20.91 lac
Source:Association Of Democratic Reforms

3. Why the Money turned so influential in politics ?
• Total Number of Candidates 5398
• IndependentCandidates 2369
• Estimated Expenditure $ 3 Billon (approx.)
2009: General Elections
(Regarded as the most
expensive elections ever)
• Splits, mergers and alliances in recent times have frequently disrupted the
compositions of political parties.
• This has led to a number of disputes.
• The ideological antithesis between these mergers play a serious act in the uneven
flow of money.
Recent Scenario
• Dominance of Congress became shaky with many of the marginalized social
groups – from Dalits to OBCs and Muslims – shifting their allegiance to other
parties and, forming their own parties often based on regionalism and ethnicity.
• This witnessed the consecration into politics of a new breed of politicians with
little respect for parliamentary etiquettes and democratic values.
• Thus, advent of money and muscle power in Indian electoral scenario.
Onset of Regional
Politics: Late 70s

4. •
• The 1991 economic reforms saw enormous
increase in per capita income and purchase
power parity of Indian citizens.
• Many foreign brands started selling their
products such as cell phones, fast food,
consumer electronics, etc.
• By joining hands with regional players not
only increased the brand value of Indian firms
but also their importance in the international
business community.
• So in order to meet corporate bottom lines
businessmen started manipulating politicians
for land allotments, tender distributions etc.
which played a major role in corrupting the
administration to it’s core.
Post
Liberalisation
Era : Early 90’s
0
2
4
6
8
GDP Per capita GDP Industry
Average Growth of Real GDP
over 50Years
1951-60 1961-70 1971-80
1981-90 1991-2000 1992-2000
Source:Central StatisticalOrganisation, National
AccountsAnd Income Estimates, New Delhi

5. So what we need to do ?
IAS and IPS officers will be given supreme
powers to take severe action against any
accused political practitioner irrespective of
his/her position.
Once the convicted politicians are proved
guilty in court, their right to fight elections
ever in a lifetime must be smashed.
Selection of Candidate to
contest elections on a fair
and square basis.
Introducing Fast track
courts to deal with
corrupt politicians.
Closely monitoring the
voting procedure to
avoid objectionable
infiltration.
Contd…

6. So what we need to do ?
Reapplying the RTI act
on political parties.
Prohibition ofTrading of
independent candidates.
Introducing certain laws
to illuminate the deep
rooted Nexus between
businessmen, politicians
and bureaucrats.
Compelling print media
and electronic media to
be unbiased.

7. Implementation
Amend the laws to make bureaucracy as
autonomous as CAG and EC.
Continuously organising awareness camps in
schools and colleges.
Technology will be used to increase the
transparency of voting system
Introduction of local groups on grass root level
which provide constant feedbacks.
Certain intellectual people who have some
influence over the society will be embodied in
this plan.
Monthly camps will be organised in different
regions of a selected constituency
The Companies Bill(investment on CSR),will
provide enough revenues to fund the local groups.
We expect Rs. 63 Billion to flow in from India’s top
500 listed companies, going by the government’s 2
% norm.
If we further extrapolate this calculation by
geography- each of India’s 660 districts could get
over Rs. 18 crore of this investment.
Implementations

8. Impact on society
The GDP (gross domestic
product) of India shall rise
exponentially once the
investor confidence is
reassured in Indian
administration.
More and more people will
cast their vote in Lok sabha
andVidhan sabha elections as
their faith shall be restored in
the system.
The system shall become more
transparent which will help to
solve the problem of brain-drain
in the minds of educated urban
youth.
The citizens will start pondering
about the various aspects of the
system.
Crime rates in the
country will be
reduced, as the
Bureaucracy shall
revive.

9. Challenges
As most of the politicians are neck deep in corruption, the reforms
seem to be far gone.
Black money won’t be easily retrievable from Swiss bank as the
government is reluctant.
70% Indians live in rural areas, this signifies that they are unable to
retain necessary and sufficient information required to understand
political strategies.
The everlasting dynastic politics makes it a tedious task to introduce
any amendment.
A soaring number of fake voters makes it impossible to contest fair
elections.
The consistent adieu of the Indian youth in politics is like adding fuel
to the fire.

10. Mitigation factors
• A cutting edge judiciary system .
• An autonomous administrative system.
• Time to time contact with foreign organisations and constant
analysis at the grass root level.
• Some youth empowerment seminars must be conducted throughout
the country, so as to increase their inclination towards various
political components of the nation.
• Conscience towards positive ideologies are always welcome. And
that is where youth movement like MANTHAN stands apart.

11. REFERNCES
• The EconomicTimes- CorporateTrends
• India: Mounting Influence of Money Power in Elections and the Crisis of
Representation J. Prabhash -Asia-Pacific Journal of Social Sciences
• Economy ,Development Of India-Wikipedia
• Central Statistical Organisation, National AccountsAnd Income Estimates,
New Delhi
• The Hindu-The market for India's criminal politicians,MilanVaishnav
• The market for criminality: Money, muscle and elections in India, Milan
Vaishnav,Columbia University.
• Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India-
http://www.censusindia.net/