It is rare that public leaders with impeccable credentials address 'An open letter to our

leaders', pointing to the 'governance deficit' in the country owing to public institutions
impaired by the 'growing cancer of corruption in the body-politic'.

Alluding to a slew of corruption scandals that came into public view in the past one year,
Ashok Ganguly, the spokesman of the group of eminent persons, observed on January 17:
'We have felt that we should not be silent on the issue. A large section of the Indian
population is deeply perturbed by the series of events that unfolded in the recent past."
The sum and substance of this is that political parties must wake up to this reality or else
it will be too late to stem the rot in governance.

It is ironical that the warning has been issued by industry and business leaders because
the general perception is that it's the businessmen who corrupt politics. It's also amusing
to see political parties accusing each other of indulging in corruption in public life even
though it's common knowledge that none of them is clean.

Western democracies have well-laid laws for regulating political parties. India, too, has
established an autonomous Election Commission for the conduct and supervision of
elections and for enforcing the 'code of conduct' for parties during polls. India also has
the Representation of People Act, in which norms for the conduct of people's elected
'representatives' are laid down. It is legally binding on every party to hold regular
organisational elections for its office-bearers as laid down by the written constitution of
each party. It is mandatory for every contestant in state assembly or Lok Sabha elections
to submit a full statement of assets to the Election Commission. The Right to Information
Act 2005 has given freedom to every citizen to ask any elected representative to provide
facts about his 'real assets' to the public.

Of course, political parties in every competitive democracy require funds to contest polls
and to maintain their organisation. Hence, it is mandatory for every political party to
'maintain a record of the names and addresses of people who voluntarily make donations
exceeding 20,000' and the income tax (IT) department provides tax exemptions to parties
on the basis of their 'account books'. If developed democratic societies have been able to
regulate the conduct of political parties according to their laws, Indians should also have
succeeded in regulating parties on the basis of a comprehensive legal framework
regulating parties, their finances and conduct during the elections. Unfortunately, that is
not the case.