By Ranjit Devraj
NEW DELHI, Nov 6 2000 (IPS)

As Indian lawmakers continue to shirk from enacting a law that aims to break the growing links between criminals and politicians, the country’s judiciary is stepping in to clean up public life.

However, the Delhi High Court’s Nov. 2 order to the national poll watchdog to publish information about the criminal past of those running for national parliament and provincial legislatures, is expected to do little to break the crime-politics nexus.

Some even say that criminals are now seen as “achievers” who can do what politicians failed to do in the past five decades since independence from colonial British rule.

“The irony is that those who live by breaking the law are turning into law-makers and some of them have even found ministerial berths,” said judges Anil Dev Singh and M.K. Sharma of the Delhi High Court.

The judges ordered the Election Commission, a statutory body, to “secure to voters, information whether a candidate is accused of any offence punishable with imprisonment and, if so, the details thereof.”

The court also wanted voters to have ready access to information about the wealth of the candidates and their close relatives.

India’s top poll official M.S. Gill, who heads the election commission, has so far declined comment on the court direction, saying the panel will have to “read, digest and understand (its) implications.”

According to Kamini Jaiswal, counsel for the petitioner, the Association for Democratic Reforms, the election commission had sent a detailed report on the issue to the government three years ago, but no action was taken on it.

In its 1997 report, the poll watchdog pointed out that, at that time, at least 40 members of Parliament and 700 members of various state assemblies, had criminal backgrounds.

Referring to various reports by investigative agencies, the judges observed that criminal gangs, private armies, drug syndicates, and smuggling rings had developed links with India’s politicians and bureaucrats.

Before the March 1998 national election, a popular English language weekly magazine set up an independent panel of four eminent public figures to scrutinise the list of aspirants to parliament. The screening found that at least 72 contestants were facing serious criminal charges.

“There is no political will to curb the criminalisation of politics,” says Swami Agnivesh, a leading social activist who was a member of the magazine’s screening panel.

According to Agnivesh, furnishing the electorate with information about the background of candidates, could go a long way in helping voters decide who they want to vote for.

But not everyone is sure that publishing this information would deter criminals from entering public life.

“Elections in India are about patronage and caste loyalties rather than (about) issues of morality,” says C. P. Bhambri, former professor of politics at the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Bhambri thinks that in many parts of India, people with a criminal background are seen as “achievers” and capable of getting things done for their backers. “A criminal background can even be an asset in today’s politics,” he adds.

One of the best known examples is alleged criminal leader Mohammad Shahabuddin who has won successive elections to parliament from eastern Bihar state. Shahabuddin belongs to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) party of charismatic Bihar politician Laloo Prasad Yadav, who has held the levers of power in the state for nearly a decade.

Shahabuddin’s Siwan parliamentary constituency was the scene of the October killing of five members of a family over the control of a large estate in which Shahabuddin is said to have an interest.

Commented an editorial Monday in the leading national daily, ‘Indian Express’: “In the past, the voters have often cast their votes for corrupt or criminal candidates despite knowing that they are criminal and-or corrupt, because of the absence of a real alternative.”

The daily added that the court order to the election commission “only shifted the onus of halting criminalisation of politics on the voter.”

According to the newspaper, “vested interests across the political spectrum, which feed upon the criminal-politician nexus”, were responsible for stalling the electoral reforms law. The law was drafted by a former government some years ago, but has never been tabled in parliament.

It has faced resistance from politicians, cutting across party lines, who argue that it could be used to eliminate political rivals. Some see merit in the argument and say the fear is genuine because of the long delays in administering justice in this country.

It can take years for a criminal case to be settled by the country’s courts and even an implicated person is innocent in the eyes of the law, till proved guilty.

Indian President K R. Narayanan too has expressed concern over the growing criminal-politician nexus. “Indeed crime and violence and the links between criminals, politicians and important people in society has become almost an unholy alliance,” he told the nation in the annual Aug. 15 Independence Day address by the head of state to the people.

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