A Sonagachi Prostitute to give a character certificate to Mother Teresa

The Home Minister, Mr. Sushil Shinde, is enquiring into the foreign funding of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Has he never heard of the saying "those who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others"?

Asking the Congress Party (Sushil Shinde) to enquire into the foreign funding of the AAP is like asking a Sonagachi prostitute to give a character certificate to Mother Teresa.

Each new revelation in the coal scam appears to provide more and more fodder to those who have termed it a classic case of crony capitalism.

It now turns out that the private companies which benefited from the allocation of coal blocks by the government also happen to be the most prominent donors to the two big national parties.

According to a report recently released by the Association for Democratic Reforms, private companies have contributed immensely to the coffers of the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL), which has been allocated as many as 12 coal blocks, donated Rs 1.05 crore to the Congress party between 2004-05 and 2009-10. JSPL is owned by Congress MP Naveen Jindal.

'It is obvious the UPA government has continuously favoured Jindal's group as he is one of their own,' BJP MP Hansraj Ahir told Mail Today. Sterlite Energy Ltd, which was given a coal block in Orissa in 2008, donated Rs 1 crore to the Congress in 2004-05 and Rs 5 crore in 2009-10.

Interestingly, Madras Aluminium, which like Sterlite is a subsidiary of the Vedanta Group, donated Rs 3.5 crore to the BJP.

Firms associated with the Adani Group are said to have donated Rs 2.5 crore to the Congress and Rs 2.75 crore to the BJP between 2004-05 and 2009- 10.

Adani Power was allocated a coal block in Wardha, Maharashtra in 2007.

ACC Ltd, which has been given a coal block in Raniganj, West Bengal, donated Rs 1 crore to the BJP in 2008- 09. On the other hand, Essar, which was allocated two blocks in Jharkhand and one in Madhya Pradesh, donated Rs 75 lakh to the Congress in 2004-05.

Tata Sons, whose entities like Tata Steel, Tata Power and Tata Sponge Iron have been allocated four coal blocks also made handsome donations through the Electoral Trust which it established in 1996.

On the basis of the report, there appears to be a slight preference for non-Congress parties as the Electoral Trust donated Rs 6.8 crore to the BJP, Rs 1.58 crore to Samajwadi Party and a little over Rs 30 lakh to the Janata Dal (United).

Communist Party of India leader D. Raja believes private donations to political parties provides a pretext for crony capitalism, especially as many of the firms end up benefiting from government policies.

Political parties in India are getting richer, but the major source of their funding remains unknown, revealed a study released by NGO Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday.

Twenty three political parties including Congress and BJP earned Rs. 4,662 crore between 2004 and 2011, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said based on the Right To Information replies it received from the Election Commission and the Income Tax department.

But, source of less than 15% of the contributions was known.

“The unknown donation is a black money box of the political parties,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, founder member ADR, on whose petition the Supreme Court had asked the Election Commission to make declaration of assets and criminal record must for candidates.

“By regulating political funding, we cannot end corruption but can make a major dent”.

The NGO claimed that the income of the parties have shown a steady growth since 2004.

The earning of the Congress went up from Rs. 222 crore in 2004 to Rs. 307 crore in 2011.

For BJP, it increased from Rs. 104 crore to Rs. 168 crore during the same period.

In this, BSP was a party with an exception with its income increasing from Rs. 4.2 crore in 2004 to Rs. 115 crore in 2011 with zero contribution from a known donor.

The figures complied by ADR showed that the Congress’ income was Rs. 2,008 crores, mostly through selling of 'coupons', since it began heading a government at the Centre in 2004 till 2011, a reason for its donations from known donors being just 11.89 % of its total earnings.

On the other hand, the BJP’s known donors including several corporate provided 22.76 % of its total earning of Rs. 994 crore during the period.

The CPI(M)'s income from 2004-2011 is Rs. 417 crore, mostly contributions from individuals, just behind BSP's Rs. 484 crore, while other major Left party, CPI, has earned only Rs. 6.7

Among the donors, General Electoral Trust (GET) of the Aditya Birla Group, Tata’s Electoral Trust and Gujarat based Torrent Power Limited have given big donations both to some political parties including Congress and BJP.

While the GET gave Rs. 36.4 crore as donations to Congress, it contribured Rs. 26 crore to the BJP's coffers, the report said. Torrent power gave Rs. 14.15 crore to Congress and Rs. 13 crore to BJP during this period.

Several other corporate such as Videocon Industries, Bharti Electoral Trust, ITC, Vedanta Group, Adani Group and Mahindra and Mahindra had claimed income tax rebate for the political donations.

As per Representation of People’s Act, a person or a company can claim income tax rebate for any amount of more than Rs. 20,000 provided the party makes the declaration in its annual return to the Election Commission.