Baldev Singh Chib
The participation of criminals in the elections is criminalization of politics. It takes place either through their direct entry into political parties, state legislatures and parliament, or politicians seeking their assistance for financing them, providing muscle-power service, booth capturing, contract killings of rival candidates etc. It is an unholy nexus among the criminals, the politicians and the bureaucrats etc. Criminals stealthily enter the portals of politics or gatecrash into it for a variety of reasons, the main being for power, position, privileges, amassing wealth without moral scruples and protecting themselves from law. The menace of criminalization of politics has degraded the spirit of our Indian Democracy, caused erosion of values, violation of rules and regulations, lack of accountability, dominance of muscle power, black money, plunder of resources, rampant corruption, denial of justice and no rule of law. The constitution of India does not have any specific law barring candidates with criminal history to contest the elections. The Representation of People’s Act grants power to the Election Commission of India to direct and conduct free and fair elections but also cannot bar people with criminal background from contesting the elections in absence of specific law, and therefore it is not capable of curbing the criminalization of politics in India.
The criminalization of politics in India was unknown upto the mid 1960s. The politicians were adhering to values and principles. Generally, the politicians were honest, self-sacrificing, patriotic and had the zeal to work for the poor, the downtrodden, the exploited and the neglected. They did not allow any access to the criminals and never thought of taking any assistance from them. The criminals had absolutely no role to play in Indian politics till then and the system was faultless. It was only from the mid 1960s, the criminals started showing interest in politics but they were contended with their role of second fiddle. In the 1970s, political parties started taking assistance from criminals while contesting elections. On 12-13 August, 1971, 150 youths in West Bengal were slaughtered by the congress workers in connivance with the state administration. The 1972 West Bengal Assembly election was completely rigged through criminality and muscle power. Persons with criminal records were rewarded with high positions. Those who proved their loyalty were rewarded with plum political posts even if they were hijackers, heroine peddlers or hard core criminals. In December 1978, two young men hijacked an Indian Airline Plane on a domestic flight from Lucknow to Delhi in protest against Indira Gandhi’s harassment by the Janta Party Government. When Indira Gandhi returned to power, she withdrew the cases and one of the accused was elected to UP Vidhan Sabha in lieu of his loyalty to her. Thereafter, the people belonging to criminal background started taking over Indian politics. In the course of time, with the active support and blessings of politicians, gangsters like Haji Mastan, Karim Lala, Dawood Ibrahim, Yusuf Patel, Varadaragin Mudaliar, Alamzeb, Babu Resham, Arun Gawli, Shabir Ibrahim, Rama Nayak, Chhota Rajan, Chhota Shakeel, Sunil Rathi, Mukhtar Ansari, Santokben Jadeja, Tiger Memon, Ravi Pujari, Parkash Shukla, Abu Saleem and many more came into prominence. They resorted to looting of matka and liquor dens, stabbings, extortions and killings in the streets. The control of the streets went from the police to the gangsters of the under-world and they ruled the streets without any fear of law. Powerful gangs were getting the support from the politicians and the police by paying protection money.
The criminalization of politics has been steadily increasing election by election. In the Lok Sabha of 2004, the percentage of winning candidates facing criminal charges was 24, which further rose to 30 in 2009 and 34 percent in 2014. It further increased to 43% in Lok Sabha in 2019. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has 82 percent criminals among its MPs and MLAs and is highest among all the Indian states. 50% of the MLAs elected in 2022 Punjab Assembly Election have criminal cases including murder, attempt to murder, abduction, illegal confinement, gambling, forcible marriage with women, etc. AAP tops the list. Out of its 92 MLAs, 52 are facing these cases.
The above statistics is sufficient to substantiate that criminalization of politics is growing day by day in India. This growing menace has impacted our society so rapidly that the fundamental concepts of democracy like rule of law, fundamental rights, free and fair elections, accountability and credibility have turned into a dream. What is the point of a clean election process if the end result is to elect tainted men and women?
Present day politics is a game of numbers in which the majority party rules the country. Hands not the Heads are counted. The political parties prefer to give tickets to either criminals or to their family members as proxies because the chances of their winning the elections are more than those of the politicians of clean image. These candidates use muscle power to terrorize and spread fear among the common masses who constitute the bulk of voters. The majority of voters are those who do not know why they ought to vote. They are poor, timid and cowardly. It is easier to get their votes by creating fear. They bribe the people of slums and poor localities with money and alcoholic beverages. This enables the politicians to grab votes in large numbers. People living in slums are not literate enough to differentiate the right and the wrong and therefore they vote for those who bribe them. And, once in power, they generate more money by unlawful means than they have spent on elections.
In this way the law breakers become law-makers. They become MLAs, MPs, and Ministers. They sit in the parliament and make laws for the country. Political parties, voters and the legal system of the country are equally responsible for creating such a shameful situation. Those who break the law should not be allowed to make the law. If the law breakers get the responsibility of maintaining the law, then it would be impossible. They will indulge in corruption and various other crimes. The nation has witnessed the jailing of Lalu Parshad Yadav, former chief minister of Bihar and Rashid Masood, a former Minister and MP in fodder scam. Om Parkash Chautala, former C.M. of Haryana is in jail in Teachers’ recruitment scam. Farooq Abdullah, former Chief Minister of J&K is facing probe in Cricket scam besides figuring in land grabbers list. Our Former Finance Minister P.Chidambaram has remained under judicial custody in Tihar jail for months in a case related to money laundering and corruption. Anil Desmukh, former Home Minister of Maharashtra is still in jail in an extortion case. Nawab Malik, also a former Minister of Maharashtra is in jail because of his underworld links. A Delhi Minister is also in jail in a money laundering case. The latest is Partha Chatterjee, also a Minister of West Bengal in teachers recruitment scam. A former police commissioner of Mumbai was on the run for months to evade his arrest in extortion cases.. It is also worth mentioning the violence that followed the assembly election results of May 2, 2021 of West Bengal election. A 60 years old woman who did not support Mamta was raped by TMC men and her 5 year old grandson hid under a cot. One Joy Prakash Yadav, an opposition supporter, was killed by throwing a crude bomb on him while he was in his house. Houses of many were burnt. Can anything be more shameful and demoralizing to the entire Government and the politicians?
The way forward:
Political corruption and criminalization are eating the nerves of Indian democracy. For pure democracy, the political system should be pure. For a pure political system, the politicians must be of clean image and of noble motives Whatever be the ideology of a political party, the most important thing is that it must have noble motives and must have righteous means to fulfil its aim . The political parties should stop sponsoring such criminal candidates. New laws should be made to prevent the same. The Supreme Court has passed three judgements related to conduct of elections in a fair way. But India is a democratic country and is governed by elected representatives. The Supreme Court cannot make laws and this has to be done by the Parliament of India to cleanse the dross and dirt accumulated in its political system. Following measures are suggested:
Our criminal justice system works on the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”. This perception of innocence should not be applied here. The cases linger on for decades and the criminals continue to contest elections and become MPs/ MLAs and Ministers. New law should be enacted by the parliament to debar a candidate on registration of cases by the Investigation agency. His trial should be done in fast-track court so that the case is decided at the earliest to make it clear whether that person can contest elections or not.
Corrupt practices of the political parties have steadily increased. The financial audit of the political parties should be made mandatory, besides bringing them under the purview of Right to Information (RTI). Deeper reforms are required.
It is not only the state’s duty to effect reforms but also of citizens to do their bit, The Indian Election Commission and the Parliament have introduced NOTA (None of the above) which the citizens must opt for if the candidate is of criminal background. If the number of NOTA votes is sufficient, the election could be cancelled and the political parties themselves would understand the need for fielding candidates of clean image.
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