Donations

Prafulla Kumar Mohanty

When the Puja-Ganesh, Durga and Saraswati puja, Dola and Holi festivals etc come close, closer come groups of young  enthusiasts for donation. This English word has found meaning in almost all local languages of India by overuse. Perhaps the local word chanda is somewhat bashfully demeaning the status of the enthusiasts who move from door to door, at times from shop to shop with receipt book in hand, asking for help. The word donation gives the ‘asking for help’ group who organize street or area puja pandals some respectability. Puja donation in offices and certain organisations is compulsory and therefore is bereft of feelings. In the schools too it is almost mandatory for the god and goddesses of learning festivals. But when groups of young persons come calling in early evenings and demand an amount fixed by them for houses, the word donation loses its civilised meaning. If a householder politely expresses its inability to donate the youth brigade raises their voice and pitch. If the refusal is stubborn the group hurls expletives and at the dead of night a few stones as loud reminders. In erstwhile Calcutta refusal to donate often invited crude hand grenades before the regime change. But today violence and intimidation are perhaps few and far between. People voluntarily donate if not out of fear at least to get rid of these donation seekers. People these days are comparatively well off and a small post- demonetization five hundred rupee note is normally given as donation. Those who can afford donate in thousands if not in lakhs. In certain cities the rich and the powerful spend lakhs to celebrate pujas in an enviable scale. In such celebrations volunteers don’t move from door to door; the money comes plentifully to the group leaders who go to town with the free flow for a few days.

But such things are quite natural.  In a society where income inequality is alarmingly glaring at us, a few rupees for youthful pilferage is winkable. Only when extortionist behaviour harasses people questions may be raised against collecting donations for common social festivals. If it is a Puja or a collective function where society participates, people must form a committee of responsible persons to collect donations and manage such functions. The committee should be made accountable to the people.

But when political parties collect donations from the public questions crop up because there is no transparency of accountability. When Arvind Kejariwal formed the Aam Admi Parrty on principled politics, corruption free and committed to the people donations from India and abroad poured in. But it shocked people when the AAP website did not reflect certain transactions and people started raising fingers at the AAP leaders. Political parties cannot run without public donations. The public too should not mind giving donations to political parties as these parties serve the people. If transparency is demanded of them the political parties should receive all donations in shape of cheques. But the small contributors are not supposed to write cheques. Whatever rules are framed parties will find ways and means of jumping them. Similar is the case with temple donations.

Devotees put money in the boxes kept in the temples for donations. In the Tirupati and Shiridi temples and also at Lalbag and Siddhi Vinayak administrators and organisers try to maintain an acceptable system of transparency. Even with strict vigil, at times, human weakness surface. For such things the legal system happens to be the last resort. In politics the donations are of high volume and naturally pilferages are large. The law must take care of political donations.

Donations are a social tax. It is often self –imposed and voluntary. But if force is used to collect donations for social celebrations where people gather to participate, it is unacceptable. If it is a tax of love let people pay voluntarily to make the celebrations lovable and enjoyable. Those who collect such tax of love should also be loveable and polite. They are not the Enforcement Squads of the Tax department. They are people inviting participation of others appealing to their sense of charity. Donation should be a token of joy not a scornful ’good riddance’ fee