The criminalization of politics in India is a very serious issue and is debated very often, but very little has been done in this direction. Candidates with serious criminal charges contest elections and win and become lawmakers. They become ministers and control administrators who are supposed to interrogate them, such is the irony. For some people, it might sound impossible scenario or something happening in some third-world undeveloped country with a volatile political environment. No. I am talking about the world's largest democracy, India. What? You don't believe me? Please check the published data yourself. Please check candidates with serious criminal charges contesting from major national parties. If anyone argues that sometimes numbers don't tell the real story, I totally agree with them. We should not just go only by numbers sometimes data can be deceptive, that's why we need to carefully analyze it, study it, and then come to a conclusion. Fortunately, the Election Commission (EC) of India comes to our rescue in this case. Most candidates need to submit an affidavit while filing their nomination which contains details about their financial assets and criminal cases. This is the data we need to carefully look into and decide who is facing what type of criminal charges. This is the real piece of document that can help voters decide whether criminal cases pending or filed against candidates contesting in their constituency are serious or not. I also agree that after being in Indian politics or in any agitation movement one can get slapped with some type of criminal case but the nature of a criminal case is what matters not just the case itself. As a voter, it is our duty to study the background of candidates, after all, they are applying for a job to represent us and we need to analyze their application carefully.
Most parties talk about decriminalization of politics, they all say that they are not the ones who started it. They all say that they are not the ones who are making the political environment dirty, it's always other parties who are doing the wrong stuff and because of others, they are forced to give tickets to such people as they also have to win the seats to get those numbers. I wonder who are these "others" who are doing these things and our poor national parties are forced to follow? They all shamelessly give tickets to tainted people and people with serious criminal charges are openly welcomed in these parties. By serious charges, I mean charges like rape, murder, corruption, forgery, kidnapping, etc. Some candidates have multiple charges of these crimes and their affidavit looks like the CV of some seasoned criminal. After giving tickets to such people these parties even try to justify their actions by using whatever excuse they can find. They offer some lame excuses like these are only allegations, nothing is yet proven, these people are not convicted by any court, they are out on bail so should not be considered guilty, lower court or some committee acquitted them, etc.
Why do these political parties do such things that too so openly and shamelessly? Why they are not scared that voters can punish them for such actions? If every party is interested in cleaning the system then why do these people with serious criminal backgrounds keep on getting tickets from these parties? There are many questions like these, mainly this is happening because people (voters) still vote for these candidates. Even after knowing the criminal history of these candidates people vote for them, they fall for the false propaganda of these parties. These parties make use of casteism, religion, money, muscle power, or whatever other way they can to win the voters. As long as people fall prey to these tricks, as long they keep on voting for such candidates these parties will keep on offering tickets to such objectionable candidates. They are not going to stop on their own.
As a voter, we need to educate ourselves about the candidate who is contesting from our constituency. We need to know their background, qualifications, and other related things. We need to ask them questions from whatever forum we get a chance to interact with them. We should treat them like we treat any candidate who is asking for a job in our company to work for us. Based on all this information we should take our decision. Democracy is not useful without the informed decisions of the people involved in it. We need to bring the culture of open debates and discussion into our election process. Information brings knowledge, and knowledge brings power, voters need to empower themselves using all the information that is available to them. Once voters become empowered and realize the value and importance of their vote I don't think they would like to waste their vote on some criminal or nonqualified person who is not going to do a good job. We all need to be concerned about the criminalization of politics, we cannot afford to ignore it. Based on data available around 1/3rd MPs in the current parliament have criminal records. If this is not alarming then I wonder what else is. These traditional political parties are not going to clean up the system on their own, we citizens of India have to do this. It is our responsibility to give our vote to the right candidate who respects and follows the law. I request all the voters use all the information available to make informed choices. If we don't act now then these political parties will continue with their current strategy. If we want to act we need to act now before it's too late. After all, the vote is ours and the choice is also ours.
Most parties talk about decriminalization of politics, they all say that they are not the ones who started it. They all say that they are not the ones who are making the political environment dirty, it's always other parties who are doing the wrong stuff and because of others, they are forced to give tickets to such people as they also have to win the seats to get those numbers. I wonder who are these "others" who are doing these things and our poor national parties are forced to follow? They all shamelessly give tickets to tainted people and people with serious criminal charges are openly welcomed in these parties. By serious charges, I mean charges like rape, murder, corruption, forgery, kidnapping, etc. Some candidates have multiple charges of these crimes and their affidavit looks like the CV of some seasoned criminal. After giving tickets to such people these parties even try to justify their actions by using whatever excuse they can find. They offer some lame excuses like these are only allegations, nothing is yet proven, these people are not convicted by any court, they are out on bail so should not be considered guilty, lower court or some committee acquitted them, etc.
Why do these political parties do such things that too so openly and shamelessly? Why they are not scared that voters can punish them for such actions? If every party is interested in cleaning the system then why do these people with serious criminal backgrounds keep on getting tickets from these parties? There are many questions like these, mainly this is happening because people (voters) still vote for these candidates. Even after knowing the criminal history of these candidates people vote for them, they fall for the false propaganda of these parties. These parties make use of casteism, religion, money, muscle power, or whatever other way they can to win the voters. As long as people fall prey to these tricks, as long they keep on voting for such candidates these parties will keep on offering tickets to such objectionable candidates. They are not going to stop on their own.
As a voter, we need to educate ourselves about the candidate who is contesting from our constituency. We need to know their background, qualifications, and other related things. We need to ask them questions from whatever forum we get a chance to interact with them. We should treat them like we treat any candidate who is asking for a job in our company to work for us. Based on all this information we should take our decision. Democracy is not useful without the informed decisions of the people involved in it. We need to bring the culture of open debates and discussion into our election process. Information brings knowledge, and knowledge brings power, voters need to empower themselves using all the information that is available to them. Once voters become empowered and realize the value and importance of their vote I don't think they would like to waste their vote on some criminal or nonqualified person who is not going to do a good job. We all need to be concerned about the criminalization of politics, we cannot afford to ignore it. Based on data available around 1/3rd MPs in the current parliament have criminal records. If this is not alarming then I wonder what else is. These traditional political parties are not going to clean up the system on their own, we citizens of India have to do this. It is our responsibility to give our vote to the right candidate who respects and follows the law. I request all the voters use all the information available to make informed choices. If we don't act now then these political parties will continue with their current strategy. If we want to act we need to act now before it's too late. After all, the vote is ours and the choice is also ours.
Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.
[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]
1. Candidates facing criminal cases in these elections
2. http://loksabha.adrindia.org/lok-sabha/reports
3. Lok Sabha 2014 Consolidated Analysis (Phase 1 to 5) of Criminal and Financial background details of contesting candidates
4. Nearly 1/3 Lok Sabha MPs from 2009 have criminal records
Unfortunately, we are living with it. We only look for our rights. We are unwilling to do our duties . We are the real culprits.
ReplyDeleteI agree...rights come with great responsibilities..there two things should always coexist, seperately they dont work properly...I hope that people understand this and act accordingly.
DeleteNicely put Vinay. This article should appeal to all the voters in India.
DeleteThanks for your kind words, I am glad that you found the post useful.
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