Hyderabadi biryani now costs a bomb

Usage of Internet and SMS-based advertising by political parties and non-government organisations (NGOs) seems to be passe. They are now turning to more western practices for raising funds —evening parties.
For contesting elections or running an NGO, the most crucial factor in any country is collecting funds. In India, fund collection is more direct.
The people or leaders incharge of the outfits approach their supporters for money.On many occasions the election funds are also collected forcibly from big industrialists and businessmen.
Though ‘force’ is still the main way of garnering funds by the politicians, media managers of several parties are devising innovative methods or even borrowing ideas from the West.
Recently, Rural Development Foundation, an NGO, held a fund-raising dinner in which several industrialists sat around the table. Another well known NGO, Lok Satta, fighting for democratic reforms also held a fund-raising dinner.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) too hosted a dinner `Dine with the president’ some months ago.However, most mainline parties do not agree that dinners mobilise funds, at least on the record. But insiders say that high networth individuals are often invited to a prominent leader’s place for dinner so that a request for money can be made between courses.
“There are other ways of getting that rupee out of somebody else’s pocket.Apress owner is asked to print posters or other campaign material free of cost. This is as good as contributing money,� a source said.
“Here, it is only a forcible invitation and the only difference is that the fund giver will get to keep a dinner coupon which may cost him some Rs 50,000 or more. It is the same trick, but with a Western veneer,� A Raghu Kumar of Punjagutta said.
In the United States more than 70 per cent of the funds collected for fighting elections are spent on television advertisements. The next highest expenditure is on surveys to find the mood of the voters, Lok Satta national campaign coordinator Dr Jayaprakash Narayan said.
He, however, said the spending pattern of funds thus collected in India is the other way round. “The political parties spend 70 per cent of the funds collected by them for buying the votes.�
Narayan said every dollar collected in the US is accounted for whether it is through fund-raising dinners or other methods. There is also a ceiling on the amount of funds any individual can contribute to political parties in the US.