The Boardroom Votes For State Funding

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: Elections and money go hand in hand. As political parties shift to the top gear of electioneering, it is also time for corporate India to do stock taking. Recently, members of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had a closed-door meeting with Venkaiah Naidu, president of the BJP, and Dr Manmohan Singh, Congress (I) leader. The meeting discussed the issue of poll funding and after the meeting, Anand Mahindra, president of CII and vice-chairman and managing director, Mahindra and Mahindra, issued a letter to CII’s 4,800 members to make payments through only cheques to political parties.

Says Mr Mahindra, “CII has a policy on political funding. We in principle advocate state funding during elections. However, we have advised our members to pay to political parties by cheques to maintain transparency and accountability to shareholders.” He also mentioned that a cheque payment indicates the tilt of the management to a particular party and that is a collective decision of the company’s shareholders.

Echoing a similar view, Tarun Das, director-general, CII says, “We do not endorse any particular political party. It is completely the decision of the companies whom they want to support during the elections.”

On the other hand, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) has not taken a stand on the issue and has left it to the companies to decide on their own. Says Y K Modi, president, Ficci, “Under the law, companies can donate to political parties. There should be transparency in the books of records of the political parties and this will give public the information about the funds given and the influence of money will come down.”

There are as many opinions as companies. Saying that an individual has the right to participate in the process of choosing the candidate he/she supports, B K Modi, chairman, MCorp Global Ltd adds, “The support can be in the form of individual support or through corporate contributions.” Mr Modi outlines two ways of doing it. Firstly, from the corporate side, it could be a contribution from the shareholders’ part. Secondly, it can be a contribution of employees where they can create a fund and donate part of their salary to it. The company can then decide on the basis of a consensus, how much should be given to which party. “Personally, I feel the second option is a better one.”