Criminals And Politics : Made For Each Other?

CRIMINALS AND POLITICS : MADE FOR EACH OTHER? 30 Dec 2008, 0321 hrs IST, Ashish Tripathi, TNN LUCKNOW: It sounds like a sweet melody. Politicians saying no to criminals. Promises to keep criminals at bay are in vogue again in the wake of brutal murder of PWD engineer in Auraiya by a BSP MLA. But are politicians really serious or making people a fool again by their hard talk on criminalisation of politics? The latter seems to be true, if one considers their past record. As usual, all the parties have condemned the ghastly act and are ready with plans to expose `criminals' on the other side but are mum about the rouge gallery in their folds. Like Mayawati, for all of them, legislators with criminal records in their respective party have either `undergone a change of heart' or `are innocent till not proven guilty'. But none are ready to throw the criminals out. Interestingly, SP has announced mahasangram against BSP's misrule and would observe the chief minister, Mayawati's birthday on January 15 as dhikkar diwas for asking her legislators to `extort' money from people in the name of donation for party fund. BJP has decided to jail bharo from January 1 to expose Mayawati's criminal raj and Congress describes the horrendous incident as a fallout of chande ka dhandha. Though 63 BSP MLAs have a criminal record, Maya has distanced herself from the accused MLA, Shekhar Tiwari and has blamed opposition parties for criminalisation of politics. She has asked partymen to expose opposition's misdeeds by holding rallies on her birthday. She has announced to cancel Lok Sabha tickets of those indulging in unlawful activities but has restricted herself from shunting criminals out. For BJP there is a difference between having `criminal mentality' and `crime record'. "A person can be falsely implicated in cases as Mayawati has done with our workers but one having a criminal mentality like Shekhar Tiwari has no place in our party. We will try not to give tickets to criminal elements but in case there are some, they will have to obey party culture,'' said Kalraj Mishra, in charge BJP UP. Digvijay Singh, in charge UP Congress, said "Congress has never done any such thing and would never do so in future.'' But sir often `winnability' criterion takes over `credibility' chipped in this journo. "I said congress has never...,'' he repeated the one liner, ignoring the fact that nine candidates in 2002 Lok Sabha elections and around 25% candidates in 2007 assembly elections fielded by Congress had criminal records. Ashok Bajpai, SP national general secretary, said "I would be happy if PWD murder case becomes a turning point in politics with all political parties deciding to throw out candidates wielding money and muscle power. SP will not field any such candidate.'' The fact, however, is 35.01% SP candidates in 2007 assembly elections had criminal cases and of total candidates fielded by BJP, 100 had criminal past. But there is a ray of hope as well. Number of MLAs with criminal records in UP have come down to 160 in 2007 in comparison to 206 in 2002. This happened following sustained awareness campaign by non-government organisations like election watch and strictness by Election Commission during polls. "But still there is a long way to go and only people can bring change by voting right persons to power,'' said IC Dwivedi, former DGP of UP, now in charge UP election watch. * The Representation of People Act, 1951: Anyone sentenced to two years or more in jail is disqualified from contesting elections but this does not apply to sitting MPs and MLAs. The Act is silent about those undergoing trial. * People with a minor criminal charge cannot be appointed as employees in the government but over 120 MPs in the Lok Sabha have criminal charges against them, which makes it nearly 20 per cent of the 543 MPs. * Of these 120 MPs, the BJP has 29, Congress 24, SP 11 and BSP 7. If number of cases against all the MPs of a part is taken as a a criterion, the SP MPs lead with 80 cases, BSP 43 cases, BJP 17, congress 16. * From UP, major political parties fielded around 71 candidates with criminal record, including mafia don like Brij Bhushan Saran Singh, Atiq Ahmad and Afzal Ansari, with BJP putting up 13, BSP 22, Congress 9 and SP 19. * The cases include corruption, cheating, fraud, forgery, giving false oaths to public officials, murder, robbery, dacoity, kidnapping, theft and extortion, rape, rioting, preventing public servant from doing duty etc.

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