“RUPP Tera Mastana”: Shell Parties and Simulacra
“RUPP Tera Mastana”: Shell Parties and Simulacra Posted on 13th September, 2026 (GMT 19:02 hrs) The Political Party as a Fiscal Enterprise in Contemporary India — and the case for a moneyless, partyless commons ABSTRACT This article argues that a growing subclass of Indian parties is not janaseva (public service) but a fiscal enterprise—the party as limited company—whose tax and registration privileges are harvested whether or not it fights an election. The 2025 BBC News Hindi investigation of six Gujarat Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) is the entry: about ₹1,700 crore in FY 2023–24 donations against fifteen Lok Sabha candidates. From that mismatch it names the shell party, analogue of the shell company: a valid, vacant recipient whose use is fiscal (or, as with the NCPI merger of twenty TMC MPs, parliamentary). A four-provision interlock—RPA 1951 §29A; Income Tax Act §§13A, 80GGB, 80GGC; Companies Act §182—run in reverse, turns taxable income into a deduction p...