Public funding: A spoof on election process

The essence of democracy is a free and fair election and election funding plays a decisive role in electoral results. In India election funding is dominated by Black Money. Funding is predominantly done by corporate bodies, which in return receives favouritism from Government that fills the coffers of these bodies. This paper is also endowed with alternative of private funding i.e. Public Funding that will lessen political parties’ reliance over corporate money and also decrease the incentives of corruption. It aims to elucidate and surface up the advantages and disadvantages of Public Funding. It presents a comparative analysis of the conditions of different countries where political parties are funded by Public Funds. The solution of these problems in public funding could be dealt with provisions such as allocation of funds from income tax or rationing and quota fixation of public funding etc. The paper is focused towards detailing the amendments and policies required for making election funding, a corruption free affair.