Owning up to criminalisation in politics
Context:
- Bihar election would first time witness the implementation of Supreme Court verdict on criminalisation of politics.
Definition:
- Criminalisation of politics is the increase in the power of criminal in affecting the election process and winning as candidate in the elections.
- This power is seen in three components:
- Money Power: Criminals provide huge amount of black money to political parties to contest the election.
- Muscle Power: Criminals provide Gundas to affect the gullible voters to vote for their party.
- Authoritative control: These criminals have authoritative control over the politics and administration of local area and can completely change the outcome.
Court Verdict:
The Court also issued the following directions while exercising its constitutional powers under Articles 129 and 142 of the Constitution of India.
- It shall be mandatory for political parties [at the Central and State election level] to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases (including the nature of the offences, and relevant particulars such as whether charges have been framed, the concerned Court, the case number etc.) who have been selected as candidates, along with the reasons for such selection, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates.
- The reasons as to selection shall be with reference to the qualifications, achievements and merit of the candidate concerned, and not mere "winnability" at the polls.
- This information shall also be published in:
(a)One local vernacular newspaper and one national newspaper;
(b)On the official social media platforms of the political party, including Face book & Twitter.
- These details shall be published within 48 hours of the selection of the candidate or not less than two weeks before the first date for filing of nominations, whichever is earlier.
- The political party concerned shall then submit a report of compliance with these directions with the Election Commission within 72 hours of the selection of the said candidate.
- If a political party fails to submit such compliance report with the Election Commission, the Election Commission shall bring such non-compliance by the political party concerned to the notice of the Supreme Court as being in contempt of this Court's orders/directions.
Data:
Court observed that In 2004, 24% of the Members of Parliament had criminal cases pending against them; in 2009, that went up to 30%; in 2014 to 34%; and in 2019 as many as 43% of MPs had criminal cases pending against them.
Why Criminalisation of Politics is prevailing:
- Lack of Political will to prevent the control of criminals.
- Lack of administrative capability has ensured that criminals are trusted more by the public to provide delivery of services.
- Since, it has invaded all the parties, voters are left with no option.
- Politics of caste and religion has made people to overlook the larger interest of society.
- Decline of societal ethics: violence, crimes are being considered normal by the people. It is even considered imperative to make one’s political career.
- Increasing money and muscle power due to election becoming highly competitive and expensive in nature.
- Nexus between the administration and politics has also brought criminals into the picture.
Consequences of criminalisation of Politics:
- Lawbreakers are becoming the lawmakers thus affecting the overall polity of the country.
- Increase in circulation of black money.
- Setting a bad example for youth to follow.
- Introduced a culture of violence in society
- Reflect poor image of the state’s institutions
Legal Provisions:
- Currently, under the Representation of Peoples (RP) Act, lawmakers cannot contest elections only after their conviction in a criminal case.
- Under Section 8 of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, a person convicted with a sentence of two years or more years is disqualified from contesting elections.
Role of Voter w.r.t Bihar elections:
- Monitoring the affidavits of candidates,
- Working with the Election Commission to ensure that information is promptly available on their websites,
- Widely circulating this information to voters using all the social media tools available.
- Monitoring compliance with the Supreme Court judgment to see if details of tainted candidates are promptly put up on their websites, and on their social media handles, along with proper reasons for giving them tickets.
- Being vigilant about the misuse of money, gifts and other inducements during elections.
Way Forward:
- Bringing state funding of the elections.
- Providing power to the election commission to undertake audit of the funds of political parties
- Bringing political parties under the ambit of Right to Information act.
- Focus on good governance to create choices for the voters.
- Needs to bring judicial reforms in order to fast track the court cases of criminals.
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