State Elections 2011 & Corruption
The highlights on the criminal and financial background of MLAs in the newly elected May 2011 assemblies of four states - Assam, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry:
First, it is known that in politics, people resort to the ugliest of tactics to defame and disrepute people of other political parties in a bid to ensure that they don't have competition. This includes filing of false cases, FIRs etc. So just by knowing that the candidate has some criminal proceedings against them does not guarantee that the candidate is corrupt. Likewise, just because the candidate does not have any legal case pending against him does not guarantee that he is clean..! He might be well shielded.
Second, being crorepati is not sufficient to conclude that a person definitely has ill gotten wealth. Lets us consider this plausible example. A middle class couple who earn by honest means (i.e. not corrupt) may even be in a government job (!) can manage to invest all their life savings to buy a plot of land. And further if they build (maybe with added help of a home loan) build a decent home in a good residential area in the late 1990s (i.e. before 2001) in a metro city would be crorepatis today, given the real estate boom that is prevalent. And in some cases if the investment is made right factoring in growth in the commercial angle in the locality one can be worth more than a couple of crores. But this might not apply to all cities where we are yet to witness the boom. So again we see that given that information about financial state and immovable assets by themselves are not self sufficient to confirm the honesty of the candidate.
Given this predicament, I ask what information do we need to confirm the genuine nature of the candidate? There are no easy answers to this question! Such is the problem we are facing that electoral reforms should be the topmost priority of this young democracy if it has to sustain the economic momentum that it has generated. Or else all this can easily be undone with a totally corrupt political party in power worsened by a lack of strong leadership.
- 35% of MLAs of West Bengal, 29% of Tamil Nadu, 10% of Assam and 30% of MLAs from Puducherry have criminal cases pending against them.
- 75 MLAs of West Bengal, 36 MLAs of Tamil Nadu, 8 of Assam and 2 of Puducherry have declared serious criminal cases pending against them including charges of murder, kidnapping extortion etc.
- 37% of MLAs of Assam, 52% of Tamil Nadu, 16% of West Bengal and 63% of MLAs from Puducherry are crorepatis.
For the complete analysis on this across all five states where elections were held please read this report (pdf) prepared by Association of Democratic Reforms. For individual state wise analysis please visit this page. All this information is prepared by collating all the information submitted by the candidates themselves and nothing more or nothing less.
The current situation is aptly summarized by this banner that was displayed during Dandi March II.
Here are my thoughts on this issue. I wish to start this debate in the only hope that a fruitful discussion might yield a comprehensive strategy to restrain criminals and corrupt individuals from entering politics.
Second, being crorepati is not sufficient to conclude that a person definitely has ill gotten wealth. Lets us consider this plausible example. A middle class couple who earn by honest means (i.e. not corrupt) may even be in a government job (!) can manage to invest all their life savings to buy a plot of land. And further if they build (maybe with added help of a home loan) build a decent home in a good residential area in the late 1990s (i.e. before 2001) in a metro city would be crorepatis today, given the real estate boom that is prevalent. And in some cases if the investment is made right factoring in growth in the commercial angle in the locality one can be worth more than a couple of crores. But this might not apply to all cities where we are yet to witness the boom. So again we see that given that information about financial state and immovable assets by themselves are not self sufficient to confirm the honesty of the candidate.
Given this predicament, I ask what information do we need to confirm the genuine nature of the candidate? There are no easy answers to this question! Such is the problem we are facing that electoral reforms should be the topmost priority of this young democracy if it has to sustain the economic momentum that it has generated. Or else all this can easily be undone with a totally corrupt political party in power worsened by a lack of strong leadership.
I have one suggestion in this regard that might dissuade criminals/corrupt people from entering politics for the sole purpose of minting money and wielding power. Here it is.
Given that the politicians are entering politics to serve the people. Why not make it mandatory to have a certain significant stint in social service, working at grassroots in any NGO a necessary prerequisite to contest election? Say a minimum of 10 years for contesting for MP, 5 years for MLA and 2 years for MLC in the very ward/city that the candidate wishes to contest. One might say that in a democracy anyone should be allowed to contest for elections. But I feel it is this very requirement that has desecrated politics and responsible for the current state of affairs in our country. So I feel some sacrifice is necessary to be done to ensure that democracy is not misused.
Given that the politicians are entering politics to serve the people. Why not make it mandatory to have a certain significant stint in social service, working at grassroots in any NGO a necessary prerequisite to contest election? Say a minimum of 10 years for contesting for MP, 5 years for MLA and 2 years for MLC in the very ward/city that the candidate wishes to contest. One might say that in a democracy anyone should be allowed to contest for elections. But I feel it is this very requirement that has desecrated politics and responsible for the current state of affairs in our country. So I feel some sacrifice is necessary to be done to ensure that democracy is not misused.
An argument might be that this law is not fool proof, assuming that NGOs could be created overnight (since govt. authorizes it, which is under politicians again!) for the sole purpose of bypassing this law and records manipulated to show that someone worked. What if we further strengthen(?) it by saying that the NGO must be nationally recognized and their work and the results should be well known to the public. How will we quantify it.. maybe media coverage, results on the field. etc..
I know it is still not refined enough. I would need your help to refine it further. But isn't it a decent start?
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