NEW DELHI, Aug 20: Have you ever been jailed? If yes, for what offence? How many criminal cases are pending against you? Have you ever been chargesheeted for any offence?These are the questions that prospective Members of Parliament and legislators will have to answer if the Election Commission succeeds in its renewed efforts to break the nexus between crime and politics.Buoyed by its success in conducting the recent ``whip-less'' Presidential poll, the Commission is now turning its attention to the long-overdue task of electoral reforms in a bid to stem, if not wipe out altogether, the criminalisation of politics and the increasing instances of political corruption.``No law-breaker should ever be a law maker'', is the renewed pledge of the Commission, even as the three-member Constitutional body finds that the proposed Electoral Reform Bill, which the Government is preparing, makes no mention of criminalisation of politics.``There is no reference in the bill to the issue,'' Election Commissioner G V G Krishnamurty said today, adding that the Commission had not been consulted on the matter.``Though most political parties have voiced support for electoral reforms to check criminalisation of politics for over two decades, there have been no serious reforms'', Krishnamurty said.If the backgrounds of the present Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly members are anything to go by, the Commission has its work cut out. Serious criminal charges are pending against at least 40 members of the Lok Sabha. And out of the country's 4,072 legislators, some 700 MLAs have been chargesheeted .Keeping in mind the findings of the N N Vohra committee report on the powerful nexus between criminals, politicians and industrialists in several states, the Commission wants all political parties to ponder over the gravity of the issue and enact a fitting legislation to ``clean up'' the political arena.The Vohra Committee had observed that in states like Bihar, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, crime syndicates enjoyed the protection of the government bureaucracy and the patronage of politicians - which lends urgency to the need for electoral reform.Among the proposals put forth the foremost is that anyone who is convicted of a non-cognisable offence and undergoes five years' rigorous imprisonment be debarred from contesting any election.The Commission has also suggested that nomination forms call for specific questions on the candidate's background whether the candidate was ever been jailed, if so, for what offence, as also the number of criminal cases pending against him.It also warns that if any false information is furnished, the election would be cancelled and the candidate punished with imprisonment of up to five years or a fine or both.
