Criminalization in Indian Politics , 16 - 30 , 2013 NOV, JUST IN PRINT

India, the largest democratic country and also home to the fair and regular elections.

Elections aim at providing the power to select the one by whom we want to be governed. Looking the present statistics, are we really choosing the adroit body to govern us or the candidates are besmirch to the constitution, the elections, and the Indian freedom struggle?

The country is struggling hard to make its mark as the emerging leader in terms of economy and development but the blemish to its own image is the gigantic number of abet and aberrant leaders having the heinous charges of rape, theft, dacoity, murder, extortion etc.

On 28th August 1997, the Election Commissioner Krishnamurthy made a startling annunciation. According to him, of 1, 37,752 candidates who had contested the General Election to the Lok Sabha in 1996, nearly 1500 had criminal records.

Moreover, the number of candidates with criminal records among our ‘elected representatives’ is steadily increasing. In 2004 Lok Sabha, there were 128 MPs with criminal background; and in 2009 the number rose to 150.

UP hits the list with 520 such candidates, succeeded by Bihar with the count of 350. The eleventh Lok Sabha reportedly had 40 members, who had criminal background, 700 MLA's out of 4722 in the country then were involved in crimi¬nal cases and trials were pending against them in 25 states and 2 union territories.

In the special session of Lok Sabha, on the auspicious occasion of completion of 50 years of Independence, the house passed a resolution on 31st August 1997 saying that, "more especially, all political parties shall undertake all such steps that will attain the objective of ridding of our polity of criminalization or its influence". But it just remained a resolution without implication

If we quote some notorious leaders, the picture will decipher a colorfully tainted image of not just one party but several parties -

Mohammad Sahabuddin was elected to four successive terms in the Indian Parliament from 1996-2008 from Siwan constituency Bihar on RJD ticket. In 1996, Sahabuddin was named as a Minister of State for the Home Ministry in the H.D. Deve Gowda government. He is currently serving a life sentence for kidnapping with intent to murder and as many as 34 cases of serious crime are pending against him.

Mukhtar Ansari won the Mau seat in the Uttar Pradesh Elections, 2007 as an Independent while lodged initially at Ghazipur jail.

Arun Gawli is one of the most notorious criminal turned politicians who is based in Mumbai. With his operations center at Dagdi Chawl in Bayculla he now enjoys the position of MLA. However, he has not been convicted of any crimes but has spent almost ten years in prison.

Shibu Soren is another politician who was the chief minister of Jharkhand and was found guilty of murder of his secretary.

Raja Bhaiya is a SP leader who has royal ancestry; however he is a criminal and has spent considerable amount of time in Jail under the POTA (Prevention of Terrorist Activities) Act.

Atiq Ahmad was a member of Lok Sabha from the Phulpur Lok Sabha Constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He is currently in prison facing trial in 35 criminal cases including several cases of murder. In the Indian general elections, 2009, he was allowed to contest in election since he is yet to be convicted in any case.

Now, Lalu Prasad Yadav who  was accused and charged in Fodder scam was sent to jail and had to resign his CM"s seat which was given to wife Rabri Devi. But Congress led UPA made him Railway Minister. So a criminal remained India's minister. This shows there are flaws in our laws and our corrupt leaders misuse and abuse the process of law to help their allies in politics. There is utter and urgent need to amend the defective constitution such that only honest are allowed to rule.

A case started in 1996 and sentence to be yet delivered on 3 Oct but the Court has finally declared these accused as convicts in this case What away these people have developed the systems to delay the results to such an extent so that the people involved as well the victims are tired out of these long drawn cases 17 years and would have yet been running had it been not struck down by the SC .The maximum sentence for each convicts and their assets confiscated sooner and made to honour all the guilt done on the Society.

The radical cause of increasing criminalization of politics is nexus of muscle power, money power and politics. Criminalization of politics is actually a mysterious enigma.

The statutory limit is- Rs 15 lakhs for a Lok Sabha seat (depending on the constituency and the number of voters), Rs 3 to 6 lakhs for state legislatures (depending on the area), and Rs 75,000 for municipal corporations.

The political parties and the candidates appraise and spend a huge amount compared to the meagre limits. They incur the capital through funds and donations. The questions pings, who furnishes such funds and donations? These funds generally come from underworld or the business bizarre. After becoming the MP or MLA they become altruist and venerate to the supporting factors before the elections and victory.

The criminals and mafia thus dwell and flourish under the aegis of these MPs and MLAs. This nexus is the real shoot in arm to the criminalization of politics or in other words ‘Bemired politics’. Indian politics is not a philanthropic activity instead it has become a means to accrue power by the avid and abhorrent leaders.

On May 2, 2002, the Supreme Court gave a historic ruling following public interest litigation by an NGO.

It ruled that every candidate, contesting an election to Parliament, State Legislatures or Municipal Corporation, has to declare the following along with the application for his/her candidature: 1) A Candidate’s criminal charges , 2) The Candidate’s financial records, 3) The candidate’s educational qualifications.

If the candidate fails to file any of the above three declarations, the Returning Officer will have the right to reject his nomination papers. The Supreme Court has ruled that all the three declarations will have to be true.

The Election Commission had sent a notification on June 28, 2002, to all State Election Officers with a view to enforcing it. The Supreme Court's thrust has been that the people and the voters have the right to know about the candidate's criminal record, assets and liabilities and educational qualifications. The Returning Of¬ficer has to publish these declarations for the voters' knowledge.

The Election Commission under T S Krishnamurthy proposed in its 2004 report that Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 should be amended to disqualify candidates accused of an offence punishable by imprisonment of 5 years or more even when trial is pending, given that the Court has framed charges against the person. In the report the Commission addresses the possibility that such a provision could be misused in the form of motivated cases by the ruling party.

To prevent such misuse, the Commission suggested a compromise whereas only cases filed prior to six months before an election would lead to disqualification of a candidate. In addition, the Commission proposed that Candidates found guilty by a Commission of Enquiry should stand disqualified.

The above stated reformative measures are just a drop in bucket. A complete renaissance is needed to clean the politics, the gravity of matter can be deciphered with the fact that almost all political parties are up a blind allay to win elections.

In a TV show an affluent politician had said “people say that politics is not a good career option for amenable youngsters. If good, flawless, educated youngsters would not come to politics then be ready to be ruled by the aberrant leaders.”

Silence signifies our acquiesce.

Many commission and committees have been framed for amelioration of politics. But this is just a political gimmick. We are the choosers then why not to come in the forefront and vote against the candidates possessing the criminal allegations. Why are we waiting for a reformer, an august to help us get rid of this circumstance?

The number of political parties in India has been phenomenally increasing. The mushroom growth of political parties is not the result of improvement in political standard; nor is it because more qualified and service-minded persons are entering the field of politics, determined to serve the country and its people. On the contrary, it is a definite indication of political standards going down to abysmal levels. The field of politics nowadays does not attract selfless gentlemen, eager to use their expertise and time for nation-building; it attracts rowdies and criminals with proven record of hooliganism, who want to become rich quickly and dominate the officials and law-abiding citizens. Subject to rare exceptions, in short, the politics in India has become a profitable business for rowdies.

The political parties do not pay attention to inculcate noble political values and principles of citizenship in the people. They do not promote patriotism and commitment to nation-building. They do not want to unite the people of nation by stressing the importance of harmonious living. On the contrary, they perpetuate the differences among the people and make full use of those differences for creating conflicts among them.

The decency ,decorum and sobriety once considered inseparable from the public offices are thrown to the wind; these elected representatives would stoop down to any level, for achieving their personal political aims or the interests of their parties. From village panchayat meetings to Parliament, the common behavior includes selfish quarrel, cheap arguments, disrespect to authorities, violation of healthy conventions, and waste of time.

The main reason for such downslide in political standard is the absence of reasonable restrictions to formation of political parties and admission of members to the political parties. For example, in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, 369 parties contested. And, totally 8070 candidates represented these parties. Out of 369 parties, 333 parties did not win even in a single constituency. Even among the remaining 36 parties, 19 parties won only in three or less number of seats! Why should there be such a large number of non-serious political parties and candidates, making a mockery of the election process?

In all political parties, these criminals are given red-carpeted welcome; because their ‘services’ are needed to these parties frequently for carrying on unlawful activities during the bandhs, strikes, rallies etc., organized by them. When such criminals become political leaders, they seek to achieve whatever they want without caring for rules and regulations; they would not hesitate to adopt criminal methods for attaining their goals; whether it is winning an election or elimination of rivals. For these hard core criminals, the offences like threatening officials, kidnapping and even murder do not appear bad.

The British followed the policy of ‘divide and rule’; after India became independent, our politicians have become past masters of the art of creating groups and inciting them against one another. They want to fish in the troubled waters and when the water is placid, they trouble it to achieve their selfish ends.

The corner-stone of democracy is objective discussion of the public issues by the people. The representatives of the people are expected to encourage such discussions, generate valuable ideas and take decisions in the larger interests of the people. But even the democratic forums like legislative assemblies and Parliament are not used for sincere discussions.

Political leaders can never be serious about change in the election system because in its present form it is tailor-stitched to suit the wrong persons reaching the legislature. Effective poll-reforms and strict rules for those in legislature are rather of prime importance than the much-talked about Lokpal.

If these are not affected to prevent wrong elements entering legislature to misuse the system, then institution of Lokpal may collapse under excessive complaints. Lokpal is just a curative medicine for acute disease of corruption while poll reforms and stricter rules are preventive medicines for the chronic disease of corruption in the nation's politics.

In an event that could bring a landmark change in Indian politics and governance, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to respond to a proposition that the law allowing Members of Parliament (MP) and Members of Legislative Assemblies (MLA) to continue despite being sentenced to more than two years' jail term upon conviction in a criminal case was discriminatory and encouraged criminalization of politics.

The PIL which was filed by an advocate Lily Thomas contended that an anomalous situation existed under the Representation of People Act, where one provision debarred a person from contesting election for six years on conviction in a criminal case with two years imprisonment while the other allowed MPs and MLAs to continue if they filed an appeal within three months of the judgment of conviction.

Senior Advocate Fali S Nairman, who appeared as amicus cure in the PIL cited several judgments of the apex court on this point and said that in one case, it had held that the presumption of innocence of a person ended after a trial court convicted him of an offence.

The Election Commission is powerless in preventing criminals from contesting elections. The Representation of People Act allows it to debar candidates convicted of certain crimes, but cannot prevent those under trial or whose appeals from their earlier convictions are pending for disposal before the higher court for multiple murders or rape or corruption or theft from the public exchequer from representing the people in the country’s highest legislative forums. There have been a number of cases where persons under trial have contested elections, while in jail and won. Unfortunately, no political party has taken any concrete step to curb this malpractice.


It is not difficult to see why political parties put up criminals as candidates. Given a situation in which the sanctity of elections is being increasingly undermined by rigging and booth-capturing, a criminal with muscle power has greater chances of winning than a clean and decent individual without such ‘capabilities’. And most often criminals do win, which is why they are increasingly present in the country’s representative institutions. The consequences of the trend, if allowed to continue unchecked, hardly deserve an elaboration and are seen in the increasing criminalization of the process of governance with ministers, legislators, bureaucrats and unscrupulous businessmen combining to plunder public funds and prey on the public.

In fact a new dimension has been added to the process by the criminalization of bureaucracy and the police. What makes the situation particularly dangerous is that a criminalized administration poses a serious threat to the country’s security even as Pakistan-sponsored cross-border terrorism continues unabated. This is clearly reflected in the fact that agents of the Inter Service Intelligence [ISI] have no difficulty in getting passports and driving licenses and carrying out their deadly assignments in India. De-criminalization of politics should be the main issue in all elections in the country. While political parties have a serious responsibility not to put up criminals as candidates, voters have an equally strong responsibility of defeating candidates with a criminal record. 

Lastly, the Election Commission has taken noticeable measures to check criminalization of politics. It has already banned convicted people from contesting elections to the state legislature or parliament, at the same time; it has asked all criminally-charged persons to disclose all the charges they face, in the nomination paper. This information will be easily made available to the public. Cases pending against politicians should be settled as quickly as possible. It is found that cases against them remain pending for long and they keep winning elections while the cases remain pending. Later, with their ministerial power, they manipulate the cases in their favour. Withdrawal of criminal charges against some tainted ministers of the present government is a case in point.

This evil of Criminalization of Politics calls for special attention of the people because the subject revolves around the vested interests of politicians of all hues; as such the people can never hope that the politicians would take any initiative to rectify this evil. The prevailing trend is spreading like cancer. It is nullifying all the constitutional safeguards of democracy; that is, it is spoiling bureaucracy by making it partial; it thwarts press; and even threatens judiciary; and thus is destroying the foundation of democracy. So the people should wake up at once and force the political parties to mend their ways.

Let’s pledge to vote, vote against the criminal bugs who have percolated in the roots of politics of the country which has an aureate history of freedom struggle through ahimsa. Let’s fight another freedom struggle.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,

SAMBALPUR, ODISHA