Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 8, 2002
The Union Home Minister, Mr LK Advani,
hit the nail right on the head when he said on Wednesday that the major
issue in the forthcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh was decriminalisation
of politics. This is because the opposite of it, criminalisation of politics,
has reached an alarming and unprecedented dimension in the state where
as many as 169 sitting legislators, including ministers, have criminal
records.
That the number of such persons
in the state assembly is likely to increase further is indicated by the
fact that as many as 910 candidates in the fray have criminal cases pending
against them. According to some officials, there has been, compared to
the last time, a 20 per cent increase in the number of such candidates
contesting the elections. Some have as many as 27 cases listed against
them. While almost all parties have fielded such candidates, the Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) has put up the largest number. The Bharatiya Janata Party's
(BJP's) efforts to keep criminals out of its list of candidates stands
out in sharp contrast and has clearly followed Mr Advani's message to this
effect to Chief Minister Rajnath Singh and state party President Kalraj
Mishra.
It is not difficult to see why political
parties put up criminals as candidates. Given a situation in which the
sanctity of elections is increasingly undermined by evils of rigging and
booth capturing, a criminal with muscle power has greater chances of winning
than a clean and decent person without such a dubious asset. And most often
criminals do win, which is why they are increasingly present in the country's
representative institutions. In fact, while Uttar Pradesh and Bihar offer
the worst examples of criminals making it to politics and legislatures,
other states are by no means strangers to the phenomenon. Even Parliament
has members with criminal cases pending against them. The consequences
of the trend, if allowed to continue unchecked, hardly requires elaboration
and is seen in the increasing criminalisation of the process of governance
with ministers, legislators, bureaucrats and unscrupulous businessmen combining
to plunder public funds and prey on the public. It is hardly surprising
that bribery and corruption, both white collar crimes, are rampant and
the incidence of crimes like murder, robbery and abduction for ransom,
is rising steeply in many states with criminals operating with impunity
under the protection of not only politicians but officials and policemen.
In fact, a new dimension has been
added to the process by the criminalisation of the bureaucracy and the
police. What makes the situation particularly dangerous is that a criminalised
administration poses a serious threat to the country's security when Pakistan-sponsored
cross-border terrorism continues unabated. This is clearly reflected in
the fact that agents of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) have no difficulty
in getting passports and driving licenses and carrying out their deadly
assignments in India. Decriminalisation of politics should be the main
issue not only in the current polls in Uttar Pradesh but 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 one of
defeating them.
