Democracy a playground for Criminal Politicians?
In the summer of 2008 when the government of India was led by the Congress Party, they were faced with a vote of no confidence over the US-India civil nuclear deal. It was evident that the govt. would fail this vote and fresh elections would be called. Congress knew they were to lose that vote and in desperation to keep their power intact the then Manmohan Singh govt, just 24 hours before the vote was to take place temporarily released 6 members of parliament who were indicted or convicted of murder from jail to come to parliament, cast their vote, and go back to jail.
This incident did not make much news for obvious reasons and it made it clear that crime and politics in India were two sides to the same coin.
In 2003 the Supreme Court of India ruled that anybody who would contest elections would have to submit an official judicial affidavit stating their detailed criminal records and ongoing cases against them.
As of 2014 which was the last time India held its general elections 34% of MPs faced ongoing criminal cases. 21% face serious cases like murder, dacoity, banditry, corruption.
In the last 3 general elections, these proportions have gone up rather than down.
1 In 3 state legislator is also under scrutiny and this trend is observed in all 4 corners of the country.
But you may wonder how did criminals get into politics?
It all started when the INC started losing its foothold across the country as newer parties started contesting elections around the country.
Congress turned to criminals and henchmen to get crowds, funds, rallies, booths captured, etc in turn for protection. The criminals then thought that if politicians were this reliant on their powers then why could they themselves not contest elections?
Why do parties field such criminals?
- Fighting an election has become a muscle and money game. Criminal politicians have both and guarantee a victory from their seats with these two ingredients.
- They have local support and ground force which is committed to their campaigning.
Famous examples of Criminal Politicians.
1. Arun Gawli
Arun Gawli was born in Kopargaon, Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India. He married Asha Gawli, a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Maharashtra.
Gawli is an Indian politician, underworld don and former gangster. Gawli and his brother Kishor (Pappa) entered the Mumbai underworld in the 1970s when they joined the “Byculla Company”, a criminal gang led by Rama Naik and Babu Reshim, operating in the central Mumbai areas of Byculla, Parel and Saat Rasta.
2. Mukhtar Ansari
Mukhtar is a gangster turned politician from Uttar Pradesh. He has been elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Mau constituency a record five times. He has more than 40 criminal cases against him including those of murders and attempts to murder. He was the prime accused in the Krishnanand Rai murder case among other crimes and has been in jail since 2006. Ansari won his first Assembly election as a candidate of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and the next two as an independent,
3. Anant Singh
An MLA from the Mokama constituency of Bihar and a former member of the Janata Dal (United) party. He is facing several criminal charges.
He was born in a village Nadawan falling under Barh CD block, Bihar. He contested and won from the Mokama assembly seat in 2005 on a JDU ticket. He retained the seat in 2010, defeating Sonam Devi of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) by a large margin. He is married to Neelam Devi. He is fondly called Chote Sarkar. He has cases such as murders, extortion, corruptions, rapes, etc.
4. Raghuraj Pratap Singh (Raja Bhaiya)
Popularly known as Raja Bhaiya, is an independent M.L.A. hails from royal Bhadri (estate) of Oudh presently representing his sixth term as Member of Legislative Assembly from his native local assembly constituency Kunda, Uttar Pradesh. He was cabinet minister of Uttar Pradesh of Food and Civil Supplies Department in Akhilesh Yadav ministry.
On 15 March 2012, he was assigned the Ministry of Food and Civil Supplies as well as the Prison ministry in the newly elected Akhilesh Yadav government. On 4 March 2013, Raghuraj resigned as minister from Akhilesh’s cabinet when his name was surfaced in the conspiracy murder of Deputy Superintendent Officer Zia Ul Haq in Kunda.
On 16 November 2018, Singh announced he was forming his own party, the Jansatta Dal.
5.Mohammad Shahabuddin
A gangster turned politician who was elected four times as a Member of Parliament from Siwan, Bihar, with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party of Lalu Prasad Yadav, and 2-times as MLA, to the Bihar Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly). Being convicted in many criminal cases, he was debarred from contesting the 2009 general elections.
While India is set to elect it’s government, voters in many constituencies struggle to find a representative without a criminal record. Crimes against women are at an all-time high especially from MPs and MLAs themselves. Congress MP Azam Khan recently blurted out derogatory remarks against Jaya Prada on which no sufficient action was taken.
If representatives display such uncouth behavior will we as citizens be comfortable under their supervision and governance?
Politics and Crime have been running along for a long time. As India changes and moves towards a more developed and new India the trend of politician criminals will fade out as voters today make a more informed decision and are part of Gen X who prefer to make a choice which gives them a scope of a better more promising tomorrow along with national interests in mind.
