Criminalization in politics
Recently, the Supreme Court has imposed fine on eight political parties for committing contempt of court by flouting the directions in its February 2020 judgment for publication of the criminal antecedents of candidates.
Causes
- Preference given to criminal candidates due to popularity: The political parties owing to the sentiments of public in a democratic country have time and again chosen candidates who are popular regardless of the criminal antecedents.
- Unholy nexus between the politicians and bureaucracy: it is an undesirable and dangerous relationship between bureaucracy and political leaders which opened the doors of criminalization of politics.
- Social divisions: Caste and religion both are responsible for the criminalization of politics.
- In bureaucracy there are certain procedures and rules for the promotion but caste and religion both interfere in this process.
- Concept of Vote Bank: The political parties and individual have astronomical expenditure for vote buying and other illegitimate purposes through which these people's are so called goondas.
- A politician's link with then constituency provides the congenial climate to political crime.
- Corruption: It plays very important role in criminalization of politics because a corrupt political member can do anything with their powers.
- Lack of governance: In India the distinctive thing is left politics is deep chasm between saying and doing.
- There is no proper agenda and not following proper functions because of the lack of governance.
Consequences
- Against the principle of free and fair Election: Using money and muscle power in election, limits the choice of voters to elect a suitable candidates, and also it is against the ethics of free and fair election which is a bed rock of democracy.
- Affecting good governance: A major problem is that the law breakers become Law makers. This affects the efficiency of the democratic process in delivering good governance.
- These unhealthy tendencies in the democratic system reflect the power image of nature of India’s state, Institution and the quality of its elected representatives.
- Affecting integrity of public servants: It also leads to increased circulation of black money during and after election which in turn increase corruption in society and affect the working of public servants.
- Establishing social Dis – harmony: It introduces a culture of violence in society and set a bad precedent for the youth to follow and reduce people’s faith in democracy as a system of governance.
- Degradation of quality of political parties: The power becomes an end in itself for political parties and they use all the means at their disposal to obtain power.
- The rapidly increasing criminalization of politics and widespread use of social media to spread fake news have led to the growing deterioration of quality of election campaigns.
Judicial View
- Each contesting candidate shall fill up the form as provided by the Election Commission and the form must contain all the particulars as required therein.
- It shall state, in bold letters, with regard to the criminal cases pending against the candidate.
- If a candidate is contesting an election on the ticket of a particular party, he/she is required to inform the party about the criminal cases pending against him/her.
- The political party concerned shall be obligated to put up on its website the aforesaid information pertaining to candidates having criminal antecedents.
- The candidate as well as the political party concerned shall issue a declaration in the widely circulated newspapers in the locality about the antecedents of the candidate and also give wide publicity in the electronic media.
Addressing Criminalization of Politics in India
- Easy access to voters on information regarding candidates: The political parties are to publish information regarding criminal antecedents of candidates on the homepage of their websites, thus making it easier for the voter to get to the information that has to be supplied.
- The ECI is directed to create a dedicated mobile application containing information published by candidates regarding their criminal antecedents, so that at one stroke, each voter gets such information on his/her mobile phone.
- Extensive awareness campaign for voters: It is to be conducted by ECI to make every voter aware about his right to know and the availability of information regarding criminal antecedents of all contesting candidates.
- Establishment of separate cell to monitor candidates: The ECI should create a separate cell which will monitor the required compliances so that this Court can be apprised promptly of non-compliance by any political party of the directions contained in this Court’s Orders.
- Forensic Audit of Candidates: It should be done by an independent authority for a quick resolution for misuse of money power and defections and the audit should be made mandatory when MLAs defect to other parties.
- Increasing the role of voters: The voters can play an internal role by raising awareness campaigns regarding the power citizens hold in electing political parties to power.
Road ahead
- India is the world’s largest democratic country and the faith of the citizenry in its institutions should not be shaken due to the conduct of persons who have criminal antecedents.
- There is a pressing need for communicating the true facts concerning those who seek to represent the public along with the judicial and legislative sanctions against criminalization of politics.
- Candidates and political parties must give wide publicity to criminal cases pending against him or her, in the local media, both print and electronic, after he or she files nomination to contest elections.
- Until the citizen realize the people which bring them for votes cannot be trusted and it will be their ultimate disadvantage, the efforts to curb criminalization of politics will have limited impact.
- The voters also need to be vigilant about misuse of money, gifts and other inducements during the election.
- There is clear need of a strong legislation to regulate the functioning of political parties and an unbiased and independent authority to implement it.
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