A Page from History : A Peep Into Congress Finances

“Sardar has sent a message that there should be a Marwari in your cabinet-Badridas Goenka or Khaitan. It appears to me that it is proper to do it and improper not to do it”—so the  then West Bengal Chief Minister Shri Profulla Chandra Ghosh was directed in June 1947. Shri Ghosh Babu did not agree. Six months later he was “forced to resign” on this issue. “A copy of the requisition letter of the West Bengal Assembly Congress members about making Dr BC Roy the Chief Minister was handed to me by Mr GD Birla—that was the first and last time that Mr Birla came to my residence.”
These shocking revelations were made by Shri PC Ghosh at a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday, February 15. They pinpoint the obvious role that money has played in our national life. We fear that until and unless our political life is washed clean of the dubieties of political finance, public life will get more and more muddied in this country. The only beneficiaries of political corruption will be communists. On the pretext of curing the headache of political finance,  they would like to chop off the head of democracy itself.
Finance entered in a big way in our political life in 1920 when Congress launched the Tilak Memorial Fund. A sum of Rupees one crore—a princely sum in those days-was collected under this head. But no part of it seems to have been spent on its ostensible object of the commemoration of Lokmanya Tilak. To this day no audit or account of this Fund has been forthcoming.
In terms of leadership this meant that Congress leadership went to persons who brought this money from Business and Industry. All Congress leaders drew allowances from this money, and on one occasion a contributing businessman wondered why Pt Nehru should not look after his London Branch, there being precious little for him to do in the country at the time.
Whatever little justification there was for this alliance of   Indian Capital with the Indian National Congress, it ceased completely on the attainment of Independence. But  we are sorry to note that this alliance has only been strengthened since. The Congress and the capitalists have backing each other-outward show of differences notwithstanding-to the disadvantage of the Common Man. For example it is generally believed that food controls were prematurely abolished in 1947 at the behest of dealers, though it was clear that the absolute world food shortage due to war devastation, would force up prices. A businessman close to Gandhiji was heard saying in 1947 : “I can get anything done.”
This Congress-Capitalist axis was further strengthened after Gandhiji. The Income Tax Evasion Inquiry Committee was appointed, ostensibly to recover enormous amounts of evaded taxes during the war period. But this only empowered Congress ministers to settle convenient deals with guilty men. The raising of the Gandhi Memorial Fund saw this axis openly at work. More than half of the Rs 10  crore odd GMF was raised from business houses as such. Sardar Patel called a special meeting of Indian capitalists in Dehra Dun. And Pt Nehru personally received in Delhi what he proudly described “perhaps the world’s biggest single cheque ever issued”. A special legislation was passed by the first Parliament declaring all GMF donations free of tax. In other words businessmen were persuaded to contribute to the GMF, funds, the bulk of which was to have been received by the State as tax revenue!
This is not to denounce the place of money in national politics. Even Rana Pratap needed the helping hand of Bhamashah. But we think it is an
elementary principles of clean politics to have no shady deals in the matter. Surely the Congress has not collected its alleged Rs 6 core election fund as “voluntary” donations, without  any expectation of a manifold quid
pro quo.
Our submission is that all party funds must be acknowledged in writing, audited, accounted, and published for information. We demand that all party funds be publicly accounted for. People must know the backers of parties they are called upon to vote for.  Because, even as a man is known by his means of income, a party is known best by the identity of its financiers. Also, all grants of licences, permits, quotas etc. must be regularly published so that the people may decide whether there is any relation of official favours to contributions to party coffers. This should serve alike to normalise economic life and purify public life, and prevent any politician-cum-profiter conspiracy being hatched against the Common Man.                                 n