Blog: the Rs 20,000 dinner date with Arvind Kejriwal

V Balakrishnan is the ex-board member of Infosys Limited who is also the Chairman of Exfinity Fund. He is the Aam Aadmi Party's candidate from the Bangalore Central constituency. Mr Balakrishnan is actively involved in the party's activities in Karnataka as well as drafting AAP's economic policy.

The emergence of AAP as a political force in the country has been dramatic. AAP captured the imagination of the country by focusing on clean governance, promising the devolution of power and an open and transparent system, removing crony capitalism and creating a level playing eco-system where honest businesses can flourish.

The root cause for corruption lies in the way the elections are funded today. According to the analysis done by Association for Democratic Reforms of income tax returns filed by major political parties between 2004 to 2012,  close to 75% of the income of political parties (around Rs. 3,674 crore) were received from unknown sources. These numbers are only getting bigger and bigger with each and every election.

When funding for political parties comes from unknown sources, there cannot be honest governance in the aftermath of the elections. Vested interests, which fund these political parties, will expect quid pro quo from elected politicians. That is the start of the practice of crony capitalism in this country. Today, the elections in this country are fought by money power, muscle power and caste equations. This needs to change.

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How do you change this? I think AAP has shown the way in Delhi. They requested and received donations for the elections in an open and transparent manner. The donors' list was published on the AAP website irrespective of the amount.

For the national election, AAP Karnataka is raising money from well- wishers including High Net-worth Individuals or HNIs and others from the corporate sector. Since Arvind Kejriwal is coming to Bangalore, we are trying to arrange a dinner with him where people can come, listen to Arvind and pledge at least Rs. 20,000/- each for the cause. We do expect around 200-300 people to attend the dinner and contribute to the cause. These are not traditional wine and dine dinners. Here, meeting Arvind is the primary purpose. This is in line with AAP's policy of raising money to fight elections in a more transparent way.

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The donations for AAP in Karnataka are raised in multiple ways. The whole idea is not only raising money but getting more and more people subscribed to this very idea of "clean politics". We do collect small donations of Rs. 10/- from each donor and present them with an Aam Aadmi cap. Those who donate Rs. 50 get a badge and a cap. We are also focusing on an innovative strategy to fund individual candidates. We are starting a scheme by which some 3,500 people in each constituency could donate Rs. 2,000/- each. This will help the candidate to run his/her campaign in an honest way within the limits set by the Election Commission.This will also create an  emotional connect between the donors and the candidates.

AAP is clearly showing the way that one can fight the elections honestly and I am sure people will overwhelmingly support that idea. If AAP as an idea fails, our future generations will not forgive us.

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