CRIME INFESTED | It’s not just about a few parties and states anymore. HNN finds that the rot of criminalisation in politics runs deep, with roots spread far & wide
You have probably heard before that of the 543 men and women elected to the Lok Sabha in May 2004, 125 had criminal charges against them. Many among us have consoled ourselves with the notion that only a few of these 125 would have been charged with serious offences. Further, the malaise was largely restricted to a couple of states and finally that only certain parties were guilty of encouraging such ‘tainted’ candidates.
The reality is that each of these assumptions is seriously wrong. A large chunk faced serious charges including murder, rape, dacoity, kidnapping and corruption. The 125 MPs were from 17 different states and two Union territories which between them account for 499 of the Lok Sabha’s 543 seats. Also, these MPs belonged to 17 different parties. Clearly, the rot is spread — both spatially and politically — much worse than we normally think it is.
Of the 125, there were at least 96 who faced charges with potential sentences of two years or more. Under the Representation of the People Act, a person sentenced for two years or more is disqualified from contesting elections. The number could be even larger than 96, since in several cases the affidavits filed by the candidates detailing charges against them were either vague or illegible.
In the five years since then, some of the 125 — like Navjyot Singh Sidhu — may have been acquitted, while others have died. But we believe it remains relevant to analyse the situation as it was in April-May 2004, since that was what was available to parties when they nominated these candidates and to the electorate when it voted for them.
We analysed the charges faced by candidates and broke them up into categories based on the maximum potential sentence for each charge. Sections of the IPC which attract a life sentence, death or 14 years we treated as one category and at least 27 of those elected in May 2004 faced such charges at the time.
Another 14 faced charges which had a maximum of 10-year sentences. Apart from these, those with maximum 7-year potential sentences if convicted numbered 16. In other words, at least 57 had really serious charges against them.
We looked at which parties accounted for how many of the 96 MPs whom we could categorise based on the maximum possible sentence. It turned out that the BJP headed the list with 23 followed by the Congress with 17. It is true that the RJD’s seven, the SP’s nine and the BSP’s five constitute a much larger proportion of those parties’ MPs, but what is clear is that these smaller parties have no monopoly on MPs with criminal charges pending against them. What should be more worrying is the fact that all the parties that fielded candidates with criminal charges against them won 494 of the 543 seats in the April-May 2004 elections.
An analysis of which states these MPs come from was also revealing. While UP and Bihar did top the charts, as most would expect, the only states which had none of their MPs figuring in the list were the eight north-eastern states and the three northern states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Barring Assam, which has 14 Lok Sabha seats, what is noticeable is that these are among the smallest states.
It is also worth pointing out that many of 125 winners who faced criminal charges were not becoming MPs for the first time. Several among them had already served more than one term in Parliament. More than a quarter of them had already done three or more terms.
All of the data, in other words, points to the same conclusion. Criminalisation of politics is no longer a matter for minor worry, if it ever was that. With virtually every party and every state embracing such candidates, the trend is getting more and more established.
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