Underlining the need to cleanse the political system of crime, the Supreme Court has asked Parliament to enact laws to ensure that people with criminal cases do not enter politics. Observing that politicians with criminal cases must be “kept at bay,” the apex court said: “Indian democracy has seen a steady increase in the level of criminalisation creeping into the Indian polity. This tends to disrupt constitutional ethos, strikes at the root of a democratic form of government and makes citizens suffer.” The court’s ruling puts the onus of battling the increasing criminalisation of politics on the political class.
The need to put an end to this malaise cannot be greater than it is today. Several studies, especially by groups such as National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, clearly show that more and more politicians with criminal cases are entering India’s legislatures. In 2009, 30 per cent of the Lok Sabha members faced criminal cases. This rose to 34 per cent in 2014 and according to an affidavit the Centre filed before the SC this year, it is 36 per cent now. What is worse is that, a candidate with criminal cases has better chances of winning an election than a ‘clean’ candidate. According to these studies, a ‘criminal-politician’ had a 13 per cent chance of winning in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections while it was 5 per cent for a candidate with a non-criminal background. No wonder, parties of all ideologies field candidates with criminal records.
Among the reasons for this are the rising costs of contesting polls and the increased number of parties in the fray. The number of political parties went up from 55 in the 1952 elections to 464 in the 2014 polls. The rising costs and more competition put a huge strain on the coffers of parties, which found it easier to field candidates who could fend for themselves. With the SC now asking the politicians to take corrective measures, the ball is in their court. The politicians owe it to the nation and its people to regulate themselves.