Criminal candidates

With criminals managing to corner their share of tickets from every major party contesting the Bihar Assembly polls, the people can have n...

With criminals managing to corner their share of tickets from every major party contesting the Bihar Assembly polls, the people can have no high expectations about the new government in the state. These are not criminals undetected as yet but people accused of murder and extortion 8212; some face multiple charges 8212; gangland bosses and jailbirds. More than one is contesting the poll from jail.

All the parties prove they have no qualms about making deals with criminals for political gain, in the hope of improving seat tallies or denying their opponents an advantage. Even the BJP which has been shouting from the rooftops about cleaning up the 8220;jungle raj8221; in Bihar is no exception. Things have come to a sorry pass when political parties cannot shake themselves free of persons with criminal records. It would seem that in the same way as they set aside a proportion of seats for various castes and communities, so they routinely reserve some for criminals. It is all part of the game and ethics be damned.

Whenone looks at some of the candidates with criminal records, it is not obvious that winnability8217; has been the only consideration in giving them tickets. No doubt in the underpoliced badlands of Bihar the criminal8217;s writ runs and he therefore exercises enormous political clout as well, making or breaking lesser mortals and building a network of patronage and obligation in the same way that ordinary politicians do.

The BJP8217;s Malkhan Singh, the Congress8217; Upendra Singh, the Janata Dal8217;s Suraj Bhan Singh probably fall in this category. Here winnability8217; may be a factor. But there are also many instances in which criminals get tickets not because of their constituency work8217; but because party bosses are beholden to them or because they command muscle. Why otherwise would Laloo Prasad Yadav give tickets to the former minister of relief and rehabilitation and the former minister of buildings who are on the run from the police? It is a sign of grassroots work being neglected when the Samata Party could not findanyone better to support from Lalgunj than Munna Shukla who is one of several accused in the murder of a former Bihar minister.

Since the Vohra report established the links between crime and politics, the relationship has grown deeper and more complex. The worse it gets the more noise political parties make. But there has been no action worth the name to end a menace which makes a mockery of democracy and corrupts all political parties. When political parties knowingly harbour and promote criminals what kind of guardians of law and order will they turn out to be in office? The increase in lawlessness testifies to the fact that criminals are getting entrenched in many parts of the country. Political parties do not have the strength of will to end their dependency on criminals. That much is obvious. But there is a relatively painless way for them to eliminate criminals from the poll process. They can pass amendments to election laws that would automatically outlaw persons facing major criminal charges likemurder, extortion, instigating riots from standing for elections and holding democratic office.