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Democracy 2.0: Ideas for a Better India Section 10

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Citizens should have the right to know who funds political parties, election campaigns, political movements, and large-scale political advertising. Democratic decision-making becomes less transparent when major financial influence operates in secrecy. Hidden political funding can create hidden obligations, hidden lobbying, and hidden influence over public policy, government contracts, regulations, and administrative decisions.

Democracy 2.0 should therefore require that all significant political donations be publicly disclosed in near real time through a transparent and searchable digital system. This disclosure should include the donor’s identity, beneficial ownership details, amount contributed, recipient organization, and any existing relationship with government contracts, licenses, or regulatory approvals. Political funding data should be available in machine-readable formats so that journalists, researchers, watchdog organizations, and ordinary citizens can independently analyze patterns of influence.

Transparency in political funding is essential because citizens cannot make fully informed democratic choices if they do not know which individuals, corporations, or interest groups are financially supporting political parties and leaders. Public trust weakens when financial influence remains hidden from voters. A modern democracy should therefore treat political funding transparency not as an optional reform, but as a basic requirement for accountability and fair governance.

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