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Corruption and Criminalization are
two distinctive features of the Indian politics. The crusade
against corruption was loudly articulated by the social activist
Anna Hazare, however, there is little noise being made by the civil
society about the criminalization of Indian politics.
As a matter of fact, one out of four MPs in India faces criminal
charges. There are 162 MPs in the current Lok Sabha, the lower
house of the Parliament that has criminal records. Out of these,
there are 76 MPs having serious charges against them.
The total number of criminal cases against the MPs is 522 and out
of these 275 MPs face serious IPC sections charges against them.
The Bhartiya Janta Party has the highest number of criminal MPs
that is 43, out of which 19 have serious criminal cases against
them.
The Congress party comes next with 41 MPs having criminal cases,
out of which 12 MPs face serious charges against them.
As compared to 2004, the number of MPs with pending criminal cases
has gone up. There were 128 MPs with pending criminal cases
against them in 2004 Lok Sabha out of which 58 had serious pending
criminal cases. There is an increase of about 26% in MPs with
pending criminal cases and 31% increase in the number of MPs with
serious pending criminal cases.
Obviously, these are not the type of people that should represent
we the people of India, but some how these heavy weight crooks
have got themselves elected into the Parliament and have become
part of the governing apparatus of the country by default.
The comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG) have lambasted
the government on this declining trend. "Governance is at its
lowest ebb. The morale of civil servants is low. The situation is
too deleterious for the nation. There is too much at stake for too
many in such a situation," CAG reportedly has said.
There has been an erosion of people's faith in government. Their
confidence in public institutions has declined. National trust in
bureaucracy including the police force has collapsed. The
integrity and professionalism of civil servants is being
questioned," it adds.
"We have chief ministers who have had to vacate their positions
allegedly for graft, on whom courts and other judicial bodies have
made adverse pronouncements. We have Members of Parliament who are
being indicted by the judiciary for various acts including
accepting cash for exercising their vote in Parliament." CAG
concludes.
So in such a situation the principal issue is how to make it
harder for those with criminal cases to contest elections.
Obviously, there is an urgent need of electoral reforms in this
country that bars any convicted person from holding office till
they are finally acquitted by a court of law.
The current legal position relating to a person convicted of
criminal charges is that if the criminal charge, and not just the
sentence, is suspended on an appeal, he has the right to contest
elections.
One has to understand the nuance in the law and that depends on
what order the court gives. If the conviction is suspended, then
one can fight elections, if the sentence is suspended, which means
no jail, but conviction stands, until such time that the appeal is
heard, then one can not fight elections.
Union Law Minister Salman Khursheed has drafted a bill that plugs
the loopholes and it could make it impossible for any convicted
politician to run for office.
At the moment, those convicted of criminal charges have three
months to appeal but that will not be available if the structure
of amendments prepared by the Minister goes through the motion and
get passed. In such a case the convicted members will be
immediately excluded from Parliament.
According to the draft bill if one is convicted, then he can not
fight elections, irrespective of what the appeal order is, until
he is finally acquitted by the court of law.
Another amendment that is proposed in the draft bill is; crimes
committed under section 153 (A), which pertains to creating enmity
between communities to be put under the category of heinous
crimes, and if that happens, politicians convicted under this
clause will not have the right to contest elections.
All this is fine. The big question is will these proposals be
acceptable to all the political parties. In fact, there is already
a law in place to rein in the corrupt MPs, but many of them have
found loopholes into it and have got stay order on their
conviction to contest election.
Even the proposed amendment bill is being challenged by some
unscrupulous MPs. They have threatened to derail the new bill, if
and when, it comes for discussion at the all party meeting.
It’s an argument by those who have something to hide and they will
use all kinds of tactics to continue their domination in power.
What is needed is to build consensus around the proposed amended
in the electoral process initiated by the Union Law Minister. We
have seen with the Jan Lokpal movement that people power can force
the government to sit up and make changes.
We need to use the same strategy and generate massive public
opinion to clean up Indian politics of its criminal crooks.
Unlike the herculean task of weeding out corruption from the
Indian system, the task of getting rid of politician facing
criminal charges is much easy.
The redemption of Indian politics from all its banes is long haul
and cleaning Indian politics of criminal MPs could be a way
forward for good governance and betterment of the country.
We have to watch every move about this bill as it gets drafted,
placed before the all party meeting and discussed in the in the
Parliament.
Even all this happens we have to built a momentum on the lines of
Jan Lokpal movement and send a strong signal to the political
party bosses to have a consensus on the draft bill and pass it in
this winter session of the Parliament.
Syed Ali
Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at
syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com
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