How the AAP is filling a transparent war chest for the Delhi polls

For a party whose genesis lies in an anti-corruption campaign, collecting funds for an election could be a challenging. The Aam Aadmi Party, however, has had no such trouble and has quickly filled up its war chest for the Delhi elections and its transparency has only helped win it more supporters. Faheem Khan, a 41-year-old businessman from Delhi, is one of the several donors who have made donations to AAP as it gears up for its first electoral battle. “It is a very unique concept, I am not sure if any party would make their donations public, I never saw a party of common people working for the common people… I wanted to be a part of this change, I contributed because I saw a ray of hope,” Khan said. There is constantly a new name being added to the long list of donors on the website of Aam Aadmi Party. A transaction id is generated for donations along with amount and details of the donor. At a glance it is clear that the donations are coming in from all across the country and abroad. [caption id=“attachment_1175759” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The AAP is receiving donations from across the globe. Image courtesy: AAP[/caption] NRIs across the globe have chipped in and have contributed about 30 percent of the total funds received so far. The party recently received a sum of Rs 51 lakh from Hong Kong after a campaign. They have received generous donations from Indians in other countries like Singapore, UK, US and Dubai as well. These donations are the backbone of the AAP’s electoral campaigns.  The party claims it is the ‘aam aadmi’ funding their endeavour and the donations range from Rs 50 to 50 lakh. In less than a year since they carved their identity as a political party, AAP has collected Rs 14 crore for its political battle. The party’s budget for the upcoming Delhi elections is Rs 20 crore. However, the coffers of the party continue to swell by the day. Most of the donations are received online. The party dissuades supporters from making cash donations and prefer cheques or card payments instead. “We get about Rs 8 lakh every day… We prefer not taking cash since AAP stands for clean money and clean elections,” Pankaj Gupta, National Secretary of AAP, said. The party claims transparency is critical to funding of its campaign. “Every single rupee donated to the party will be published on the website immediately along with the details of the donor. Every expense done by the party will also be published on the website immediately. AAP is here to create an example, we wish other parties would also follow suit and give details of their funding,” Gupta said. Voters have welcomed this change. Khan said while he always discussed the political scenario with family and friends , he detested political parties because there was lack of transparency. However, with AAP, the Delhi businessman feels he can see where his money goes. Khan has encouraged his friends to make donations, and said the certificate generated after a donation is made shows how serious the party is about the money of the common man. The concept of publishing details of financial books is one of its kind and novel to the Indian political system. AAP has shared its unaudited expenditure up to the month of July on their website . Party members feel it is their responsibility to tell the donor where has their money been spent. The income & expenditure statement shows the various heads under which money was spent including items press conferences, photocopying, Gandhi topis, rent and various miscellaneous expenses. But despite the party claiming to maintain the highest level of transparency over its funding, a PIL was filed last week in Delhi High court against party leaders, Arvind Kejriwal, Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan, claiming the party had violated the law that deals with receiving funds from abroad. The PIL has sought that the court order that a criminal case be registered against the party’s leaders for violations under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). The party has said that it hasn’t received a notice over the PIL, but it wasn’t overtly worried. “We have not received any notice on this issue and it not for us to worry since we have a policy of not hiding. We have published every bit of our donation on our website for public viewing,” a party spokesperson said