CRIMINALS IN POLITICS-- KICK THEM OUT
Crime and money make a heady cocktail in Parliament today. MP'S wave wads of currency notes on television for bribes they receive, and others are flown in from various jails to vote on the trust motion. There are over 120 MP'S in the Lok Sabha with criminal charges against them, which makes it nearly 20% of the 543 MP's. Few are convicted, and cases drag on for years and decades. The Representation Of People's Act, 1951, says that anyone sentenced to 2 years or more in jail is disqualified from contesting elections but this does not apply to sitting MP's and MLA's and even the act is silent about those undergoing trial. Fortunately, there lies a simple way out.
People with minor criminal charges can't be appointed even as class 4 employees in the govt.----even if they are not convicted as yet. However one can become a Chief Minister, cabinet minister or even a Prime Minister while facing serious charges. If MP's are public servants, then they too should be debarred.
One of the root causes of corruption in our society, is the huge spending on elections. Money, liquor, clothes, tv sets and all sorts of other goods are distributed to voters, in blatant violation of the law. The chief election commissioner recently wrote " if a candidate is willing to spend 10 times more than the prescribed ceiling, it is not out of philanthropy, but in the secure knowledge that he can earn 10 times what he spends, once he gets to the seat of power ". A superficial analysis says that the voters are getting smart---they take these freebies and vote for the candidate, they like. However, the winning candidate's focus is on recovering his investments and returning favours to those who provided funding.
As in the USA, all candidates must declare the approximate amounts of funds they plan to spend on the elections well in advance, along with the source of these funds. Also there must be a penalty for those who do not declare the source of such funds and for those donors too, who give black money.
How bad is the situation today ? According to the data based on the candidate information during the 2004 elections of Lok Sabha, of the 120 elected MP's with criminal records, the BJP has 29, Congress 24, Samajwadi Party of Mulayam singh Yadav 11, Lalu's Party RJD 8, CPI 2. There are 333 serious cases against MP's with several having muliple cases. Mulayam Singh's party, SP, leads the pack with 80 cases of violent crimes like murder, attempt to murder, robbery, dacoity, kidnapping, theft and extortion, rape and others like assault using dangerous weapons or causing grevious hurt. It is followed by Mayawati's party BSP with 43 cases, BJP has 17, , Congress 16, Lalu's party 9, CPI( M) 5, CPI 1 And Sharad Pawar's party 2. For other crimes like cheating, fraud, forgery, giving false oaths to public officials, Mayawati's party has 23 cases, Lalu's party 22, Congress 21, BJP 11,, Mulayam Singh's party 11 and CPI 6.
In its may. 2002, and march 13, 2003, judgements, the Supreme Court in response to Public Interest Litigation had said that all candidates must declare their financial and criminal records, if any, and their educational qualifications in a sworn affidavit to the returning officer.
However,if we debar people with criminal records from contesting and ensure that sources of funding for elections, with penalties for non-disclosure on both the donor and the receiver, we can take a decisive step forward.
" Generals " ( term which i wrote on 29th sept. ), Did we ask this kind of polity ? Are we not equally responsible to put these kind of MP's in our Parliament ? Please do something. KUCCH KARO...
People with minor criminal charges can't be appointed even as class 4 employees in the govt.----even if they are not convicted as yet. However one can become a Chief Minister, cabinet minister or even a Prime Minister while facing serious charges. If MP's are public servants, then they too should be debarred.
One of the root causes of corruption in our society, is the huge spending on elections. Money, liquor, clothes, tv sets and all sorts of other goods are distributed to voters, in blatant violation of the law. The chief election commissioner recently wrote " if a candidate is willing to spend 10 times more than the prescribed ceiling, it is not out of philanthropy, but in the secure knowledge that he can earn 10 times what he spends, once he gets to the seat of power ". A superficial analysis says that the voters are getting smart---they take these freebies and vote for the candidate, they like. However, the winning candidate's focus is on recovering his investments and returning favours to those who provided funding.
As in the USA, all candidates must declare the approximate amounts of funds they plan to spend on the elections well in advance, along with the source of these funds. Also there must be a penalty for those who do not declare the source of such funds and for those donors too, who give black money.
How bad is the situation today ? According to the data based on the candidate information during the 2004 elections of Lok Sabha, of the 120 elected MP's with criminal records, the BJP has 29, Congress 24, Samajwadi Party of Mulayam singh Yadav 11, Lalu's Party RJD 8, CPI 2. There are 333 serious cases against MP's with several having muliple cases. Mulayam Singh's party, SP, leads the pack with 80 cases of violent crimes like murder, attempt to murder, robbery, dacoity, kidnapping, theft and extortion, rape and others like assault using dangerous weapons or causing grevious hurt. It is followed by Mayawati's party BSP with 43 cases, BJP has 17, , Congress 16, Lalu's party 9, CPI( M) 5, CPI 1 And Sharad Pawar's party 2. For other crimes like cheating, fraud, forgery, giving false oaths to public officials, Mayawati's party has 23 cases, Lalu's party 22, Congress 21, BJP 11,, Mulayam Singh's party 11 and CPI 6.
In its may. 2002, and march 13, 2003, judgements, the Supreme Court in response to Public Interest Litigation had said that all candidates must declare their financial and criminal records, if any, and their educational qualifications in a sworn affidavit to the returning officer.
However,if we debar people with criminal records from contesting and ensure that sources of funding for elections, with penalties for non-disclosure on both the donor and the receiver, we can take a decisive step forward.
" Generals " ( term which i wrote on 29th sept. ), Did we ask this kind of polity ? Are we not equally responsible to put these kind of MP's in our Parliament ? Please do something. KUCCH KARO...
posted by vaneet kundra at
Sunday, October 05, 2008
3 Comments:
yes, criminals in politics, should be hanged.
Both -criminals become politicians or politicians start committing crime are interrelated. Both go hand in hand. Even if the politician is of good standing he has to bow infront of the criminals---who control the vote banks.Criminals also have the money power and the ability to terrorise the AMM Janta to get their votes.The only thing is to bar all politicians with even a stightest criminal record to contest elections.Election commissioner should screen the candidates contesting the elections.Kick the criminals in politics----BUT CAN WE DO IT?????????????
Dear Dr Manchanda,
Thanks for your comments. You choose your words very aptly. Change is a natural process. Nothing remains static. Aam Admi now knows the valus of his vote. Judicial activism is also on the roll. I see very positive trends coming in the near future. If illetrate farmers in Singur can throw away a big house like Tatas, then educated people, can do & act in a much better way. Time is the only factor, which nobody knows.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home