Santosh Kumar Mohapatra
Recently, former Reserve Bank governor Raghuram Rajan made hilarious statement that his wife will desert him if he joins politics. But, indirectly he wants to give message that present politics has been so much contaminated and sullied that good and honest people will feel asphyxiated if they join. In other words, good people have no place in present politics. However, one should not draw conclusion that all politicians are bad or there is no good people in politics. There are many good and honest people in politics. But after joining, they lose their individuality, independence as they have to work and speak in line with party ideology. They have to chalk out plans and indulge such activities which will ensure the success in electoral battle. People’s welfare, nation’s interest is always relegated to secondary issue. What is reprehensible is that politics which is considered as important ingredient of democratic process and one of soberest activities of human being is no more avenues to serve the masses rather a profitable investment avenue to ride in to power, garner wealth, and enjoy privileges, prestige. Hence, for politicians, elections have to be won at all cost. As money, muscle power and publicity blitzkrieg are important components to win election, politics has become a haunting grounds for criminals and rich people while driving out good people from race. This is clearly manifested, corroborated from the fact that many legislators have either criminal back grounds or having huge assets. Criminal activities also help accumulating assets.
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Modi had promised to purify politics by preventing politicians with criminal background from participating in elections. But what is reprehensible is that twenty-four of the 78 Union ministers (or 31 per cent) of the Narendra Modi cabinet have criminal cases registered against them
The bad news is that a third (34 per cent) of 543 MPs who were elected in 2014 faced criminal charges, up from 30 per cent in 2009 and 24 per cent in 2004.An analysis by elections think-tank National Election Watch (NEW), and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), shows that at the end of the term of the current (16th) Lok Sabha, across parties, of the 521 Lok Sabha members of parliament (MPs), 106 (20 per cent) are charged with serious offences such as murder, inciting communal disharmony, kidnapping and crimes against women. The BJP continues to have the highest number of parliamentarians charged with criminal offences with 55 per cent of these are from the BJP. But no party is walking the talk yet.
Modi had promised to purify politics by preventing politicians with criminal background to participate in election. But what is reprehensible is that twenty-four of the 78 Union ministers (or 31 per cent) of the Narendra Modi cabinet have criminal cases registered against them .Further, 14 of these ministers, that are 18 per cent, have declared serious criminal cases related to murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping and crimes against women against them. Ministers with criminal cases are not limited to the Centre alone; even in state assemblies across the country, poll watchers found 201 of the 609 (out of the total 620) ministers with criminal cases. There are seven ministers from various state assemblies who have declared cases related to murder and six related to communal violence, the report says..
Almost all parties in India, led by the ruling BJP and the main opposition Congress, field tainted candidates. Around 17 per cent of the candidates various parties fielded in the current election (2019) had faced serious charges. As far as Odisha is concerned, criminals also dominate politics as seen in national level. An analysis of self-sworn affidavits of 1121 out of 1137 candidates who are contesting in the Odisha Assembly Election 2019 by the Odisha Election Watch and ADR reveals that 332 or 30 percent of candidates contesting election has have criminal cases pending against them. It means 30 percent candidates have criminal cases up from 23 percent in both 2009 and 2014. Further around 257 candidates or 23 percent Candidates have declared serious criminal cases including cases related to rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, crimes against women etc. In 2019 election, BJP has fielded highest percentage (59 percent) of candidates with criminal back ground followed by Congress (46 percent), BJD (40 percent), BSP (23 percent).Many independent candidates have also criminal background. If serious crime is considered BJP has highest percentage (46 percent) followed by Congress (35 percent), BJD (27 percent). Around 19 percent of independent candidates have also serious crime records.
Politics is not only criminal’s hunting ground, but rich man’s luxury, privilege, leisure and pleasure as they find it as an easy conduit for getting publicity ,power, and wealth. The grim fact is that that Rs 14.72 crore is the average wealth of an MP, who won 2014 elections. Based on data available, out of 521 MPs , 430 MPs (83 per cent ) in India are crorepatis,. Out of 430 crorepati MPs, 52 per cent or 227 MPs belong to BJP followed by Congress (37), AIADMK (29.) Almost 32 MPs have admitted that they have assets of more than Rs 50 crore each, whereas there are only two MPs who have declared assets less than Rs 5 lakh. The average wealth of sitting legislators increased 222 per cent during just one term in office. The officially declared average wealth of re-contesting candidates – including losers and winners – was $264,000 in 2004 and $618,000 in 2013, an increase of 134 per cent. Similarly, the average assets of 153 MPs who were re-elected in 2014 grew by 142 per cent till 2018, averaging Rs 13.32 crore per MP from Rs 5.50 crore. Similar situation is prevalent in Odisha . Out of the 1121 candidates across parties contesting 147 Assemblies’ seats in state, 295 have assets worth over Rs1 crore. Out of those 97 candidates of the BJD, 75 of the BJP, 73 of the Congress, five of the BSP, four of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and 41 Independent candidates have declared assets worth more than Rs 1 crore. The assets per candidate in fourth phase Assemblies’ poll (2019) are on average is Rs 1.69 crore .The average assets per candidates for 146 BJD candidates is Rs 4.59 crore, while average assets for 145 BJP candidates is Rs 2.78 crore and Rs3.85 crore for 139 Congress candidates. If actual data will be available the criminal records and assets of legislators will be much higher than what is declared in affidavits. All don’t give correct records rather provide records which they cannot hide.
Contesting elections is an expensive proposition in most parts of the world. Political scientist Milan Vaishnav has studied links between crime and democracy in India for many years now. There are three million political positions in India’s three-tier democracy; each election requires considerable resources. The rising cost of elections and a shadowy election financing system where parties and candidates under-report collections and expenses means that parties prefer “self-financing candidates who do not represent a drain on the finite party coffers but instead contribute ‘rents’ to the party”. Many of these candidates have criminal records.
Hence, political parties also nominate candidates with criminal backgrounds to stand for election because, simply put, they win. During his research, Dr Vaishnav studied all candidates who stood in the last three general elections. He separated them into candidates with clean records and candidates with criminal records, and found that the latter had an 18 per cent chance of winning as against 6 percent in case of latter. Clearly, crime, wealth and politics will remain inextricably intertwined as long as India doesn’t make its election financing system transparent, parties become more democratic and justice delivery system becomes faster efficient.
The writer is an Odisha-based columnist and economist. e-Mail:skmohapatra67@gmail.com.
