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| Malignancy of criminalization of Politics | | | Omkar Dattatray
Malignancy of
criminalization of politics is a subject of hot debate today. Criminalization of politics is a very serious problem afflicting the body politic or the political system of the country. The clean politics is the era of bygone days. Today's field of politics is murkier and there are very few politicians with clean image and background. Criminal political nexus has invaded body politic, parliament and the state legislatures as well and it seems that there is no Mr. clean in politics. Even the supreme court of India has described it as the malignancy and has asked the parliament to make a strong law to cure the august institutions of this malignancy and debar the persons of criminal background from contesting elections and entering into parliament. This will go a long a way towards cleansing politics from the dirt of criminalization. However, the Supreme Court has declined to debar the persons with criminal background and with criminal charges from contesting elections to man the parliament and legislatures. The apex court has held that to ban the politicians with criminal background from contesting elections is the domain of legislatures and parliament and not the jurisdiction of the highest court. Besides it has held that the politicians with criminal background and those who are even charge sheeted are not liable to be disqualified from contesting elections because accused is innocent before being convicted. In fact, the Supreme Court has left it to the parliament to enact a strong law to debar the criminal elements from entering the field of politics and becoming members of law making bodies. Some political analysts have opined that politicians with criminal background are good in the context of Supreme Court decision of not banning charge sheeted contestants to enter politics.
They have said it in a humor and lighter vein. Whatever it is the fact remains that criminalization of politics is a very disturbing development and it should be curbed and cured to save the democracy from this malignancy. It can be done only if a strong law is enacted by the parliament to curb the undesirable phenomenon of the criminalization of politics. The political criminal nexus is the bane of every political party as political parties of all hues and colors are invaded by the disease of criminalization of politics. As they say 'Is hamam mein sub nagay hai'. So the cancer of criminalization of politics is seen in all political parties and politicians barring a few exceptions here and there. The criminalization of politics is a hydra headed giant and it should be tackled with iron hand and this is possible only if a strong law is enacted by the parliament.
As it has been seen that people of criminal background entering the politics is not the phenomenon of any single party but almost all parties are under its grip and so there is every likelihood that parliamentarians will be reluctant and indifferent to enact a law to curb the entry of politicians with criminal records into politics and august houses. Thus parliamentarians will hesitate to make a law to debar elements with criminal background from contesting elections because a substantial percentage of parliament members are with criminal background and so they will hardly enact a law to debar the tainted members to enter the parliament. In the ultimate analysis, it is the people's court which can curb the entry of people with criminal background into politics and ban them from entering into august parliament and state legislatures. Therefore the ball is in the court of people in a democracy. The people should be educated about the working, attributes and characteristics of democratic functioning and they should be made to understand the disadvantages of their decision of electing tainted representatives to man the parliament. It will curb the entry of politicians with criminal antecedents to enter law making bodies. The criminalization of politics is universal in nature so far as different political parties are concerned. In the current Lok Sabha according to ADR survey every third MP is facing criminal charge.
In fact in the 16th Lok Sabha there are most number of MP's with criminal charges. The Hindu newspaper had reported that 18% of the cabinet ministers have serious criminal charges like crimes against women, murder, attempt to murder etc. In the 14th Lok Sabha 25% of the MP's were with criminal records. 136 MP's with criminal background were in 14th Lok Sabha. As already said the Supreme Court recently left the matter of disqualification of politicians carrying criminal charges against them to parliament saying that court cannot disqualify politicians with criminal records. It gave a sigh of relief to the parliamentarians having criminal charges against them. However, the court gave a slew of directions for curbing criminalization of politics including asking a contesting candidate to declare their criminal antecedents. The court has also asked the parliament to make a law to ensure that candidates with criminal records do not enter public life and take part in law making. The apex court also held that polluted stream of politics needs to be cleansed. It also said that the nation was "eagerly" waiting for such a legislation as the society has expectations to be governed by proper constitutional governance and the citizens in a democracy cannot be compelled to stand as silent, deaf and mute spectators to corruption by projecting themselves as helpless. Further court has made distinction between an accused and convict and there is a provision for disqualification in the Representation of People's Act upon conviction of law maker. It follows that the highest court has also taken a serious note of the problem and called it malignancy of criminalization of politics. However, it has left it to the parliament to enact a law to deal with this problem. Let the parliament take an earnest call and enact a strong law to curb the menace of criminalization of politics so that polluted political system is cleansed at the earliest. |
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