If we don’t stop electing criminals as our netas, then we are just getting the Government we deserve
Recently, the BJP president, JP Nadda, while addressing a virtual rally observed, “Criminalisation of politics has scaled new heights. Now we all hear about cut money in Bengal. We need to cut to size these leaders who demand a cut. We need to restore Bengal’s glory and remove this Government lock, stock and barrel.” He was so right in his observations that what followed a week later confirmed the need for checking criminalisation of politics.
Last week’s encounter killing of Uttar Pradesh-based don Vikas Dubey by the State police brings into focus once again the nexus between politicians and criminals and has sparked off a wider debate. Dubey was shot dead on July 10 by the UP Police, who claimed that he was trying to flee after the vehicle carrying him from Ujjain skidded and toppled over. Prior to that, on July 3, Dubey and his henchmen had killed eight policemen in a shoot-out in Kanpur amid allegations that some politicians and police officers had been shielding him. Both, his arrest and the encounter, have raised several inconvenient questions. The Opposition parties in UP have accused the BJP-ruled Yogi Adityanath Government of shielding him, forgetting that many other parties which ruled UP over the years helped him to grow as a don. UP leaders, right from Mayawati, Akhilesh Yadav to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have demanded a probe, alleging that the gangster who was trying to join the BJP, was killed to protect leaders in the UP Government.
Former DGP and a distinguished ambassador Julio Ribeiro has put it succinctly in an opinion piece: “How did Vikas Dubey, a local hoodlum whose territory did not extend beyond a couple of districts in Uttar Pradesh, lose all respect for the police and authority of the State? The answer is not difficult to formulate. All the classical signs of decay of the judicial system, because of the politicisation of the institutions of governance, were long visible to even those outside this system.”
With a criminal career spanning over three decades, Dubey is a classic case of how a small-time goon grew to head a major criminal network with the help of the corrupt system. Dubey’s death marks the 118th encounter killing since March 2017, when Yogi Adityanath took over as the Chief Minister of UP. Unfortunately with the encounter death, the truth is now lost as the don was needed alive and not dead to know the names of his backers. Many say that the killing was outside the law and an encounter death is not real punishment as he needed to go through the judicial process. The judicial system was equally to blame as with about 60-odd criminal cases against him, Dubey had managed to remain outside prison, on bail.
The criminalisation of politics has often been debated in public fora. This nexus between the netas and criminals saw an upward trend from the 80s onwards. While the politicians used criminals earlier, the latter saw that they themselves could get into Parliament. The Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India (ECI) — the two constitutional bodies — have since undertaken some commendable steps to reform the electoral process. The February judgment of the apex court in this regard will have a far-reaching impact as the court has asked for “reasons for such selections, as also as to why other individuals without criminal antecedents could not be selected as candidates.” If implemented, for the first time the political leadership will be answerable for criminalisation of politics. In the last four elections, there has been an alarming trend of increased criminalisation of politics. Interestingly the judgment also noted that, “In 2004, 24 per cent of the Members of Parliament (MPs) had criminal cases pending against them. In 2009, that went up to 30 per cent; in 2014 to 34 per cent; and in 2019 as many as 43 per cent of MPs had criminal cases pending against them.” The first test of implementation of this judgment will be the Bihar elections, although successive judgments barring criminals have done little good. Under the current law, only people who have been convicted at least on two counts can be debarred from becoming candidates. What is needed are urgent judicial reforms, police reforms and electoral reforms, which are long overdue. For instance there have been a number reports on electoral reforms, including the Dinesh Goswami committee, that are lying unused. They need to be dusted out and their recommendations implemented. The Election Commission needs to be provided with more powers. The nexus between the criminals, police and politicians needs to be broken and checked.
Interestingly, many criminals have entered politics and become lawmakers. Nearly half of the newly-elected Lok Sabha members in 2019 have criminal charges against them, a 26 per cent increase as compared to 2014, according to the Association of Democratic Reforms. Many Governments have talked about these reforms but nothing concrete has been done. What is lacking is the political will and the support of all parties to bring legislations to address these issues. The public, too, should not elect criminals. If we don’t stop electing criminals then we are just getting the Government we deserve.
(The writer is a senior journalist)
