While referring to the politics of Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Bhimrao Ambedkar once said: “In establishing their supremacy they have taken the aid of big businesses and money magnates. For the first time in our country, money is taking the field as an organized player.” (Part III, p. 227) Ambedkar made this statement in 1943 and today it is truer than ever. The prevalence of corporate funding in India’s politics reveals the disproportionate influence that the corporate classes wield over the democratically elected government. In India, the involvement of corporate houses in financing political parties has been on the rise for the past two decades. A report by the Observer Research Foundation shows that in Fiscal Year (FY) 2004-05, corporate groups donated Rs. 621.4 million; in FY 2009-10 donations reached approximately Rs. 1.6 billion and then rose to Rs. 5.7 billion in FY 2014-15. Over a period of…

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