Beholden

There is an on and off debate in the UK about how parties should be funded. Should they receive state aid, corporate backing or donations from individuals and what should be the limits? Similar problems, but only more serious, prevail back in Mirpur – except that there is no debate about these matters. No one bothers to ask whether democracy is not rendered pointless if individuals can spend many lakhs of rupees on their favourite candidate.

Let me spell out the issue. At election times in Azad Kashmir, hundreds of individuals go from the UK to back their candidate. Some spend many lakhs of rupees on their man – the cost of running public events, food, transport, and even for outright bribery of village elders who control significant vote banks. Successful candidates are bound to feel obligated to reward their backers. With corporate backing, at least the relationship is a touch impersonal. When a selection of well off individuals are your main backers, the relationship is very personal and it is well nigh impossible for the politician not to feel beholden to such people.

Even if a politician is whiter than white, and this is a ridiculous concession for a to-the-core-corrupt system that is AJK, it would still be impossible not to feel at least a tinge of obligation. In the real world of AJK politics, where there is only variation in the degree of turpitude, it is in fact more than a tinge of obligation. Backers are given free rein to enrich themselves. This includes control of local funds and acquiring land that belongs to others.