The chicanery in Maharashtra should now have even the gullible disbelieving leaders promising to root out political corruption. Unless, obviously, they propose to introduce State funding of political parties, evolve a mechanism to establish the genuineness of their membership contributions, and ban corporate financing. The Bharatiya Janata Party, for sure, can only offer rhetoric and motivated raids on rival parties to the nation.

Jayaprakash Narayan, in Towards Free and Fair Elections, a pamphlet published before the Emergency, cautioned the nation against political financing warping democracy. He said funds were collected “mainly for Parliamentary and state elections,” but also for “managing party members” and toppling Opposition governments. JP, as Narayan was popularly called, added, “The way these funds are collected carries the corruption virus from the political into several other fields.”