Elcofix..

With the recently concluded elections, i have been moving my head around certain points which are majorly swaying the process.

What can do we do to ensure vitamin-M aint deciding the fate of the country? Is there a route? Can someone fix this at all? I believe its posisible. What i imagine/foresee to be an ideal scenario is below:

1. Active Database System-The Election Commission needs to have a dedicated cell to monitor the political parties and their constituents/members. What does that mean? The records need to be accurate and relevant. At any time the EC should be able to track the political parties and their aides. If they dont get registered under EC, they cant do any rallies/arrest them for their nuisance. Ensures no religion or any other indirect backing/funding unless they are part of the registered records.
2. New Bank and QR codes- RBI needs to float a new bank(Say ElBank). All political parties need to have their accounts opened with that bank. All politicians need to have their accounts with that bank. Now what about the cash in circulation at the moment? We want another De-Mon? Hmm, countrymen/women will beat us up. All i can think is to enable a new form of currency with a QR code. The QR code should be valid for lets say one year. What do i mean? Say i pay you Rs.10 lakhs in cash and you dont deposit it in bank. It doesnt enter the banking system if it keeps passing on this way. Now if the currency’s QR code is valid only for say 1 year, the last holder needs to get it changed to new currency. Now its not just conversion to new currency, it should be “deposit in your account and withdraw the new currency”. At the end of the day, its more like a deferred benifit/fix for RBI/Banking system. It may be spread across fiscal years but will for sure enter the banking books. The period of one year or so needs strong validation for complex country like ours. Leave it to RBI and the stalwarts to decide.
3. Declaration not defamation- Elbank should have a strong/tech team to monitor suspicious transactions from any of the accounts. A declaration needs to be obtained from every politcial party on how much they want to spend for the next election say,next 4 years and expected parties.(It is all so good to be true. Yeah i get it. If it happens nothing like that). The expected parties need to be set up as benificiaries in Elbank’ s escrow account covered below under “Spends”. If someone new comes up, update the records. COme on Man! Change is painful. Results will be fruitful!!
4. RBI’s own Crypto- Elco-Boom!! What are we gonna do? Declarations are just approximations? Nah!! Here is the catch!! The RBI/EC should ensure all this election spends happens only through the party’s bank accounts. If the party doesnt have sufficient funds, the declaration should be limited to the available funds in the party’s account; meaning no member expends or shows his prosperity here. RBI needs to approve a new crypto. I call it Elcoin. It should hire miners/employ them to crack the algo for unearthing the currency. (I dont want to go into the availability/limit of cryptos. For simplicity, i keep it at 1million) Now RBI will have a wallet for these political parties. When the declarations happen, the political parties need to lay down their spends and the parties they may be contracting with. No one can say i need to pay money for votes on paper!! Common main aint gonna have a crypto wallet!!
5. Spends EC gets the info on the declaration along with the nature of the expense. The amount the parties expect to spend need to be transferred to a escrow account in Elbank. The spend will be done on a equal basis say 25% each year for the next 4 years. The 25% will get released into Political parties wallet as Elcoins. The Elcoins can be used by Political parties for whatever purpose they lay down. The recepient needs to be part of the declaration and hence be approved by RBI to receive the crypto. Once the recipient recieves the crypto in his wallet, it needs to be transferred to RBI( Not Elbank) within 30 days and get rupees transferred. This will ensure there isnt too much demand for Elcoin. I leave the valuation muted at the moment. ie. RBI can either peg it at a given amount say 1Elcoin=Rs 50 or it can give a live ongoing rate for the Elcoin. If the Elcoins are short, RBI needs to create more algo’s and currency into the scheme of things. Volatility and complexity of pricing shouldnt ruin the purpose here.
6. Election Year- During the election year, RBI needs to bring a cap on the amount withdrawn by the members. Now you may ask me that they can withdraw and stagger that during the last 4 years itself. Thats where QR code comes into play. If they withdraw and hold it , QR code expires and its of no use. It has to come into the banking channel. Now this still has possibilities of cash being used to amass votes. But we are slowly closing down the magnitude.
7. What have we done here? Not taking away any of your concern on the practicality of this, i just want to evaluate the pros of this.

• We have ensured cash economy and their illegal means/use is minimised through QR codes.
• The Political parties spends are gonna be tracked and with crypto adding up there will be transparency. The recipients too need to be added to the network with RBI’s approval.Hence there cant be superficial spends. There can be limits set up on the quantum transacted with a single recipient which will keep in check the motive of the spend.
• Politicians accounts are under scrutiny. If evrything goes well as planned it could be a game changer.
• Elbank should have independent directors and be audited by Auditors elected by the President( Not PM). The audit reports should be made public with some allowance for secrecy in ELbank’ site.

Change wont be hassle free. But youth of India can make the country puzzle free. We are here to join the dots. The dots may go in the wrong direction. They will all fall in place very soon..

Disclaimer : A humble attempt in just putting across my personal views. May be grossly wrong as well. But keep the mind running. Cheers!! Till we meet with a new topic,stay safe!!