The Interplay Between Elections And Dirty Money: An Indian Perspective

Kaustubh Mani Nanda, Student, Amity Law School, Amity University, Noida, U.P.

The Dirty Money & Indian Elections:

The Black Money (BM) is not a new acronym for any one world over as it keeps making headlines in different avatars (forms) and it has deep roots in many countries. It has indeed a potential not only to derail the economies but also to destroy the prevailing social fabric in countries and bring enough miseries & sufferings in the form of organized crimes, terror and as a result the hunger to the humans in various ways. It is the single most contributor to the inequality and its unprecedented rise every year.

India is one such country that has been hit by this monster in all walks of life. Hence, we need to relook at the growing size of this monster very minutely by taking into consideration, every source of its generation and spread, and especially used in destabilizing the democratically elected government under-mining the sanctity of the electoral processes. Elections lie at the very heart of democracy. It is through elections that people in a democracy participate in public affairs and express their will. It is again through elections that power changes hands in a peaceful and orderly manner in a democracy and the authority of government gets clothed with legitimacy. Elections, thus not only sustain democracy but enliven it as well. Holding of free and fair election is, therefore, a sine qua non of democracy.

India is both the largest and one of the most populous democracies in the world. This apart, in comparison to most of the developed democracies of the world, problems of illiteracy, poverty, etc. continue in India as is the case with most of the developing countries. Its electorate is not only vast but also quite diverse reflecting the plurality of caste, religion, region, language, etc. of its social mosaic.