Ghazanfar Abbas | Caravan Daily
NEW DELHI — Fielding Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, who is the prime accused in Malegaon blast case and out on bail on health grounds, for Lok Sabha election from Bhopal by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has sparked controversy. This step of the saffron party also contravenes the party’s own commitment “to eliminate criminals from electoral politics” as promised during the 2014 general election.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the then Gujarat Chief Minister during 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, had promised that if BJP forms government at the centre, it would set up a fast-track court to deal the criminal cases against the legislators and the entire procedure would be completed within a year.
The BJP in its 2019 manifesto — “Sankalp Patra” launched before the commencement of Lok Sabha election, mentioned electoral reforms but interestingly not talked about “elimination of criminals from electoral politics” as promised in party’s 2014 manifesto under the “Good Governance” section. Interestingly, none of the BJP leaders, right from PM Modi himself to party president Amit Shah to any other senior party leader, is seeking votes for “crime free politics”.
Despite BJP came in power with a clear majority of its own in 2014, the criminal cases against the sitting MPs in both houses of the Parliament and MLAs in various state assemblies remained unresolved despite regular directions from the Supreme Court. As the five years’ tenure of the government ended, shockingly maximum MPs/MLAs having a criminal background across the country are from none other than the BJP.
Several analytical reports by Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), an advocacy group and National Election Watch (NEW), a nationwide campaign comprising of more than 1200 civil groups working together on electoral reforms in India, reveal a dissatisfactory and disappointing picture.
In July 2018, ADR and NEW had published its analysis of the affidavits of 4856 sitting MPs/MLAs, including 770 MPs and 4086 MLAs in various state assemblies. Out of these 4856 MPs/MLAs, 1024 (21%) have serious criminal cases pending against them in various courts.
Lok Sabha Members with Criminal Background
ADR’s report based on the affidavits submitted by the elected candidates to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, revealed that every third MP had a criminal case against him/her. Out of the 541 members analysed, 185 (34%) were facing criminal cases. While the percentage of MPs with criminal background in 2009 and 2004 stood at 30 % and 24% respectively.
Shockingly, among all MPs in Lok Sabha with a criminal background, the ruling BJP has highest as many as 98 (35 %) out of total 282. Followed by BJP, 8 (18%) out of 44 MPs from Congress, 6 (16%) out of 37 MPs from AIADMK, 15 (83%) out of 18 MPs from Shiv Sena and 7 (21%) out of 34 MPs are from Trinamool Congress (TMC) who had declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Data further showed that the ruling BJP had also the maximum number of Lok Sabha MPs with serious criminal cases such as murder; attempt to murder, Kidnapping, a crime against women riots and harming communal harmony etc.
There were total 61 (22%) elected MPs out of 282 from BJP, 3 (7%) out of 44 from Congress, 3 (8%) out of 37 from AIADMK, 8 (44%) out of 18 from Shiv Sena and 4 (12%) out of 34 from TMC who are from serious criminal background.
Count of MPs with Criminal Background in LS and RS
Rajya Sabha Members with Criminal Background
In 2014, ADR jointly with NEW had analysed the criminal records of 58 out of 59 candidates who had contested for Rajya Sabha elections from across 16 states. Among them, 14 candidates (24%) had criminal cases pending against them with serious crimes against two. Party-wise Congress had fielded 3 while BJP had 4 such candidates. Besides, two were from AIADMK and one-one candidate each from JD(U), CPM, BJD, RPI(A) and Shiv Sena had a criminal background.
In 2016, NEW and ADR report on all 57 newly elected MPs of Rajya Sabha, revealed that among them 13 (23%) MPs had criminal cases pending against them. Out of them,7 (12%) had been facing serious criminal charges. Here party-wise data shows that 3 (18%) out of 17 MPs from BJP, 2 (29%) out of 7 MPs from SP, and 1 MP each from Congress (11%), BJD (33%), BSP (50%), RJD (50%), DMK (50%), SHS (100%), YSRCP (100%) had declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
However in 2017 RS polls, according to NEW and ADR joint report, among the 11 new candidates, only one candidate from TMC had declared serious criminal cases.
In 2018 as per ADR, out of the 229 Rajya Sabha MPs analysed, 51 (22%) had criminal cases pending against them. Among them, 20 (9%) had declared serious criminal cases. Party-wise figures show the ruling BJP is at the top for having most of Rajya Sabha MPs with a criminal background. 14 (22%) out of 64 MPs from BJP, 8 (16%) out of 50 MPs from Congress, 3 (21%) out of 14 from Samajwadi Party, 4 (31%) out of 13 from AIADMK and 1 (8%) out of 13 from TMC have declared criminal cases against themselves in their affidavits.
Party-wise data of 2018 analysis about serious criminal cases revealed that 5 (10%) out of 50 Rajya Sabha MPs are from Congress, 4 (6%) out of 64 from BJP followed by 2 (40%) out of 5 from RJD have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
The latest report (September 2018) by ADR on Rajya Sabha MPs shows that 22% of MPs of the upper house are named in criminal cases.
Scene in State Assemblies
The picture in the various state assemblies is not better when it comes to MLAs named in criminal cases. Of the 4086 sitting MLAs scattered across the country, 1,355 (nearly a third) have criminal cases pending against them, according to ADR report published in November 2018.
On the party front, out of 1,451 incumbent MLAs of BJP around 291 (20%) have serious criminal records compared to Congress’ 131 (17%) among 773 MLAs. 75 % of the Shiv Sena’s MLAs have criminal records. Here too, BJP has the largest number of MLAs with a criminal background.
State-wise, Jharkhand tops the list with 63% of the state’s MLAs embroiled in criminal cases. Kerala is next with 62 % of its state assembly made of MLAs with criminal cases followed by Bihar with 58%.
MPs/MLAs Charged With Crime Against Women
As per the latest report by ADR and NEW released on International Women’s’ Day (March 8, 2019) hundreds of men who declared cases of crimes against women against them in their affidavits were given tickets by key political parties.
Among them, BJP gave tickets to a maximum of 54 candidates. The second highest number of candidates, i.e. 37 accused in crimes against women were given tickets by BSP, followed by 30 candidates from Congress, had contested for Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and State Assemblies.
Supreme Court on Electoral Reform and Special Courts
In 2011, an NGO – Public Interest Foundation (PIF) had filed a PIL, seeking disqualification of candidates in the electoral fray who have criminal cases pending against them in courts to curb “criminalisation of politics” in the country.
EC informed the apex court that endorsing the suggestion made in the PIL; it sent a proposal on similar lines to the Ministry of Law & Justice.
Supreme Court directed the Law Commission of India to make its suggestions on two specific issues, viz., (i) ‘curbing criminalization of politics and needed law reforms’; and (ii) ‘impact and consequences of candidates filing false affidavits and needed law reforms to check such practice.
Over this in January 2013, the Ministry of Law & Justice requested to the Twentieth Law Commission of India chaired by Justice A. P. Shah to consider the issue of “Electoral Reforms” suggesting comprehensive measures for changes in the law.
The Commission submitted its 201-page report titled—‘Electoral Disqualification’, focused on 15 points in February 2014 to the Central government.
SC Asked to Enact Law by Parliament, But No Law Passed
In the continuation of the hearing of that PIL in September 2018, the Supreme Court asked the government that Parliament should enact the law to disqualify the lawmakers facing criminal charges from contesting elections. But the central government didn’t come up with any Bill aimed to restrict such candidates into politics.
Expressing its “high concern” over the need of “legislation to curb criminalization in the politics, the Bench comprised of former Chief Justice Misra along with Justices A.M. Khanwilkar, Rohinton Nariman, D.Y. Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, had declined center’s appeal as institutionalized fast-track courts were no longer in place within the existing system.
Supreme Court also noted with anguish that the Election Commission was helplessly watching as the criminalisation of politics at the entry level was on the rise.
Under the existing law, politicians are banned from contesting elections for six years only if they are convicted for the crime.
Trials in Special Courts
In 2014 only, SC had also asked the Centre to constitute special courts to exclusively deal with cases against the lawmakers. SC granted the Centre two months time to compile the data on lawmakers with a criminal background so to decide the number of special courts required to be set up to hear such cases within a year.
As per ADR, there were 1581 cases were pending in the courts in 2014, but now the total number of cases stands double at 3045.
In December 2017, SC asked the government to set up 12 special courts across 11 states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal and Delhi to deal with such criminal cases, asking the courts to start working from March 1, 2018.
The Centre sanctioned Rs 7.80 crore to the states in which the 12 fast-track courts were to set up.
Cases Pending against MPs/MLAs in Special Courts:
Till August 2018, 1233 (40%) of the cases were transferred to these special courts. Out of which judgments were pronounced in 136 (11%) and 1097 (89%) cases are still pending.
Among all 11 states, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh started functioning in August 2018 to which 402 and 565 cases were transferred. The data about pending and disposal cases are not available for these two states.