The donations to Congress and BJP, the ruling and main opposition parties, more than doubled in the five years between the two general elections in 2004 and 2009 as per information received through an RTI. The RTI information is based on the Income Tax paid by the parties.

The Congress Party’s income, as per income tax returns increased from Rs.222.07 crores in 2004-05 to Rs. 467.57 crore in 2009-10, a five-year period. During the same period, income of BJP increased from Rs. 104.12 crore to Rs. 258 crore.

Major portion of these are donations from the corporates and major trusts formed by the corporates.  They need not pay any tax for these donations from the trusts.

The amount shown by the political parties are only a small portion, since many donations are unaccounted and paid in cash. Further, donations for  less than Rs. 20,000 need not indicate the donors.

The political parties like Congress and BJP getting crores of rupees from the corporates and big business, naturally will make all efforts to safeguard the interests of the former and not the ordinary people. The big scams have already shown how the government favour the corporates.