CRIMINALISATION OF POLITICS AND INDIAN ADMINISTRATION

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1 Pinnacle Research Journals 34 CRIMINALISATION OF POLITICS AND INDIAN ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACT DR. MALLIKARJUN I MINCH* *Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, G P Porwal Arts, Com and V V Salimath Science College, Sindagi, Karnataka, India. After Independence criminalization of politics, people with criminal backgrounds becoming politicians and elected representatives and criminalization of administration or politicalization of administration, not rule of law but rule of dadas and thug seating into the vitals of the country have become chronic and administration was accused of inaction and collusion. Earlier politicians patronized criminals and provided them protection from the law-enforcement agencies in exchange for the use of their muscle power during elections. And now it is the opposite with the criminals themselves taking over the reigns of power and patronizing the politicians and their parties. The democracy of India are now in hands of the criminal who are supported by the administrators. KETWORDS: Political Criminilisation, Criminial Administration, Democracy, Corruption Administration, Policy making. INTRODUCTION Many years ago, Napoleon said that the great difficulty with politics is that there are no established principles. He noted that politics and principles have seldom gone together. If at all they did, it was generally in the nature of an exception, or that the principle itself was distorted to suit the political objective.. The growing criminalisation of politics and politicization of criminals have taken heavy toll on policing in the country. This phenomenon has further eroded the credibility, effectiveness, and impartiality of the police and resulted into lack of trust and confidence in police forces in large sections of the society.the administration and the police are the first causalities of criminalisation of the politics, resulting into a system of law that is neither fair nor impartial. The Government of India woke up belatedly to this alarming situation and convened a conference of Chief Ministers on the "Administration of Criminal Justice in India" in The conference took note of the lack of financial support to not only police but other two wings of criminal justice system, namely, the judiciary and the jails. In the resolution passed in the conference, it was mentioned that, "over the years, the expenditure on criminal justice administration on all the three areas of police, judiciary and jails has declined". They also expressed their grave concern at the increasing criminalization of politics and politicization of administration. The conference recommended formation of a committee under the Home Minister, Government of India for follow up action. Nothing however, happened. The

2 Pinnacle Research Journals 35 Government constituted a committee with Union Home Secretary N.N. Vohra as Chairman, and Secretary R&W, Director I.B., Director C.B.I. Special Secretary Home as members. The committee was asked to take stock of all available information about the activities of crime syndicates or Mafia organizations Thai had developed links with and were being protected by government functionaries and political personalities and make recommendations. The committee inter alia reported on 3rd October 1993 that a nexus between the criminal gangs, police, bureaucracy and politicians was common occurrence in various parts of the country. In states like Bihar, U.R and Haryana, the mafia gangs enjoyed the patronage old local politicians and the protection of government functionaries. The report further said that the mafia network was virtually running a parallel government, making the state apparatus virtually irrelevant. The syndicates had acquired substantial financial muscle power as well as respectability to wield enough influence to make the task of investigating and prosecuting agencies extremely difficult. Even members of judiciary had not escaped the influence of mafia and not infrequently officer's in-charge cases were transferred long before they could complete their task. POLITICAL PARTIES AND CRIMINILISATION Unfortunately, over the years the situation has been allowed to become worse. On 28th August 1997, the Election Commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurti startled the nation by revealing statistics, showing politicization of criminals. According to him, of 1,37,752 candidates who had contested the General Election to the Lok Sabha in 1996, nearly 1500 had criminal records of murder, dacoity, rape, theft or extortion. U.P. alone accounted for 520 such candidates and Bihar had the second largest number of 350. Mr. G.V.G. Krishnamurti further revealed that the eleventh Lok Sabha had reportedly 40 members, who had criminal background, Nearly 700 MLA's out of 4722 in the country then were involved in criminal cases and trials were pending against them in 25 states and two union territories. Not that the politicians and law makers are unaware of dangers that the situation poses for Indian democracy.in the special session of Lok Sabha, on the occasion of the golden jubilee year of Independence, the house passed a resolution of 31st August 1997 saying inter alia that, "more especially, all political parties shall undertake all such steps as will attain the objective of ridding of our polity of criminalization or its influence". But it remained a pious resolution.when it came to concrete reforms, barring few, political parties across the board stalled electoral reforms. In the year 2002, in the light of instruction of the Supreme Court, the Election Commission issued directive requiring the candidates seeking elections, to file affidavit indicating their criminal record or their assets etc.an all-party meeting rejected this proposal as well as a subsequent one to amend the Representation of People's Act to bar candidates from fighting elections who had two or more criminal cases of heinous nature pending against them under trial in Courts. The Supreme Court finally upheld the directive of Election Commission requiring candidates seeking elections to file affidavits along with nomination papers, indicating details regarding their criminal record, if any, and assets held by them.this was implemented during the Lok Sabha election held in April - May 2004, but oddly enough, it has not been possible to prevent persons with criminal records from entering Lok Sabha. Barring exceptions, all parties,

3 Pinnacle Research Journals 36 particularly from north have their skeletons in their cup-boards. According to statistics published recently, the NDA has 37 MPs with criminal records. Of 137 BJP MPs, the EC has listed 26 i.e. about 20%. Out of 145 Congress MPs, 15 have criminal records against them. The R.J.D. has reportedly 40% of their MPs and BSP over one-third "tainted" ones. Janata Dal (United) and Lok Jan Shakti have their own share. Time is running out and unless something is done to stem the rot, the entire system will collapse, the policing system, included. What is required today is to take a holistic view and carry out urgent reforms in police, judiciary and electoral laws simultaneously. Criminalisation of politics and corruption in public life has become the biggest threat to India, the world's largest democracy. The roots of corruption lie in the election expenses of the candidates. the expenses incurred by the candidates are much more. As the candidates generally don't have so much money to spend, the funds usually come from the business world or the underworld. Once the candidate becomes an MP, MLA or a minister, he has to reciprocate to his donors in a big way. This is the root cause of corruption. Corruption at higher levels of political leadership leads to corruption in the bureaucracy and other wings of the administration like the police or the Public Works Department. It spreads from top to bottom. It travels downwards into the entire bureaucratic apparatus and also amongst the civilians. Along with money power, muscle power has also polluted elections. Unfortunately, a large number of our MPs and legislators have criminal records against them. SUPREME COURT DIRECTIONS The Union Government, all political parties and several NGOs including our "Citizens for National Consensus" (CNC) have been advocating electoral reforms with a view to strengthening democracy at various levels, despite promises, political parties have not brought about the required changes in the Representation of Peoples' Act. On May 2, 2002, the Supreme Court gave a historic ruling following public interest litigation by an NGO. It ruled that every candidate, contesting an election to Parliament, State Legislatures or Municipal Corporation, has to declare the following along with the application for his/her candidature. A candidate's criminal records (convictions, acquittals and charges ) The candidate's financial records (assets & liabilities ) The candidate's educational qualifications If the candidate fails to file any of the above three declarations, the Returning Officer will have the right to reject his nomination papers. The Supreme Court has ruled that all the three declarations will have to be truthful. The Election Commission had sent a notification on June 28, 2002, to all State Election Officers with a view to enforcing it. The Supreme Court's thrust has been that the people and the voters have the right to know about the candidate's criminal record, assets and liabilities and educational qualifications. The Returning Officer has to publish these declarations for the voters' knowledge and, surely, the people will get an opportunity to know about their candidate's background. As regards the financial aspect, if a candidate stated that he has assets worth Rs 500 crore or Rs 500, the Returning Officer could not disqualify him

4 Pinnacle Research Journals 37 or her. If he furnished wrong details and were later detected by the Returning Officer, the latter could take a decision. If the opposing candidate brought out a convincing document to prove that the declaration of his opponent is false, then the Returning Officer was within his rights to reject the nomination. If a candidate is illiterate, it could not become a reason for rejection of his/her nomination papers. NATIONAL POLICE COMMISSION The National Police Commission constituted in 1977 pointed out, in one of its reports. In the existing set-up, the police function under the executive control of the state government. According to the Commission, the manner in which political control has been exercised over the police in this country has led to gross abuses, resulting in erosion of rule of law and loss of police credibility as a professional organization. The threat of transfer or suspension is the most potent weapon in the hands of the politician to bend the police down to his will The most important recommendations of the NPC centered on the problem of insulating the police from illegitimate political and bureaucratic interference. These recommendations perturbed the entrenched elite at the prospect of losing control over an organization that they had been misusing for so long. Many of the truthful observations of the National Police Commission (NPC) about the general behavior of the politicians then government, and many of its meaningful recommendations were ignored. But the history has proved the observations of the NPC. The electoral offences have multiplied in quantity and intensity; the involvement of the criminals in them with the support of political leaders is threatening to make the electoral process in India an exercise in futility. The nexus of politicians and criminals is becoming stronger with the participation of dishonest officials patronized by the political leaders. Such nexus of politicians, criminals and dishonest officials is spreading everywhere; and it is now very open. They have become very confident that nobody can do anything against them; if anybody becomes so much of a trouble, it is not a big thing to silence him or her. This evil of Criminalization of Politics calls for special attention of the people because the subject revolves around the vested interests of politicians of all hues; as such the people can never hope that the politicians would take any initiative to rectify this evil. The prevailing trend is spreading like cancer. It is nullifying all the constitutional safeguards of democracy; that is, it is spoiling bureaucracy by making it partial; it thwarts press; and even threatens judiciary; and thus is destroying the foundation of democracy. So the people should wake up at once and force the political parties to mend their ways. The number of political parties in India has been phenomenally increasing. The mushroom growth of political parties is not the result of improvement in political standard; nor is it because more qualified and service-minded persons are entering the field of politics, determined to serve the country and its people. On the contrary, it is a definite indication of political standards going down to abysmal levels. The field of politics nowadays does not attract selfless gentlemen, eager to use their expertise and time for nation-building; it attracts rowdies and criminals with proven record of hooliganism, who want to become rich quickly and dominate the officials and law-abiding citizens. Subject to rare exceptions, in short, the politics in India has become a profitable business.

5 Pinnacle Research Journals 38 CONCLUSION Criminalization of politics in India is an extremely serious problem, which has already reached dangerous levels. This evil of Criminalization of Politics calls for special attention of the people because the subject revolves around the vested interests of politicians of all hues as such the people can never hope that the politicians would take any initiative to rectify this evil. The prevailing trend is spreading like cancer. It is nullifying all the constitutional safeguards of democracy; that is, it is spoiling bureaucracy by making it partial; it thwarts press; and even threatens judiciary; and thus is destroying the foundation of democracy. So the people should wake up at once and force the political parties to mend their ways. The political parties do not pay attention to inculcate noble political values and principles of citizenship in the people. They do not promote patriotism and commitment to nation-building. They do not want to unite the people of nation by stressing the importance of harmonious living. On the contrary, they perpetuate the differences among the people and make full use of those differences for creating conflicts among them. The British followed the policy of divide and rule ; after India became independent, our politicians have become past masters of the art of creating groups and inciting them against one another. They want to fish in the troubled waters and when the water is placid, they trouble it to achieve their selfish ends. The corner-stone of democracy is objective discussion of the public issues by the people. The representatives of the people are expected to encourage such discussions, generate valuable ideas and take decisions in the larger interests of the people. But even the democratic forums like legislative assemblies and Parliament are not used for sincere discussions REFERENCES Duverger, Mauriac.(1954) political Parties Their Organization and Activity in the Modern State, Great Britain University Printing House, Cambridge. Manor, James.(2002) Parties and party system in Zoya Hassan (ed) Pities and party Politics in India, New, Oxford University press, New Delhi. Oldenburg, Philop.(1978) Big city Government in India, Councilor, administrator And Citizen in Delhi, Manohar, New Delhi. Posenthal, Donald B. Administrative politics in Two Indian Cities, Asian Survey, Vol 6. (1966) Shastri sandeep.(2003) Local Democracy and political parties in India,sage Publication Delhi. New Suri, K C.(2005) Parties under Pressure Political Parties in India since Independence, Lokniti Programme on Comparative Democracy, New Delhi. Sing, V B.(1994) Elections in India Volume II Data Hand Book on Lok Sabha Elections Sage Publication, New Delhi. Weiner, Myron. (1957) Party Politics in India The Development of a Multi- Party system, Low Price Publications, New Delhi.