Delhi Elections 2015 : Time to Shun Tainted Politicians

By Deepak Parvatiyar

January 2, 2015

Tainted politicians seem to have become a necessary evil in Indian politics. A study by Association of the Democratic Reforms (ADR), a voluntary organisation working on issues of electoral reform, shows that the rise in the graph of politicians with criminal background remains unchecked. While in 2009, the Lok Sabha had 30 per cent members facing criminal charges, the number went up by four per cent in 2014. In the present Lok Sabha, 186 members face criminal cases against them and 98 of these MPs belong to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) !

Delhi: Crorepati, Tainted MLAs on the Rise

Before the 2013 state Assembly elections, Delhi had an incredible 43 per cent MLAs who faced criminal charges against them. It is significant that 10 of Delhi’s tainted MLAs got re-elected in 2013. This is quite a sizeable number considering that only 22 of the sitting 70 MLAs could win again in 2013 elections!

What makes it even more interesting was the remarkable 338 per cent growth in the declared assets of all these 22 winning candidates as their fortunes grew from an average Rs 3.24 crore in 2008 to a phenomenal Rs 10.97 crore in 2013, when they were legislators.

Yet among these legislators, the BJP MLA from Bijwasan in South-West Delhi Sat Prakash Rana’s assets grew by an incredible 1652 per cent – from Rs.6.38 crore in 2008 to Rs 105.51 crore in 2013. Rana faces two FIRs under Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act 2007, filed against him respectively on 4th October 2013 and 26th October 2013.

In the last Delhi assembly 17 BJP MLAs, three Aam Aadmi Party MLAs, two Congress MLAs, besides the one each of the Shiromani Akali Dal and Janata Dal (United) MLAs had criminal cases pending against them. The only Independent MLA too had criminal charges against him that put the figures of the total number of tainted MLAs in the 70 member Delhi House at 25. That meant 36 per cent of the total MLAs faced criminal charges).

Tainted Politicians have made their way to all Political Parties

What makes the matter grim is that 20 of the Delhi MLAs faced serious criminal cases that included attempt to murder, dacoity and assault against women.

While the Congress’s Asif Mohammad Khan, who won from Okhla in South Delhi faced attempt to murder charges against him, his fellow Congress MLA from Sultanpur Majra, Jai Kishan, as well as the BJP MLA Mohan Singh Bisht (Karawal Nagar in North-East Delhi), faced charges under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code, of assault on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty. Even the then Chief Ministerial candidate of the BJP (now a Union Minister), Dr Harsh Vardhan, who won from Krishna Nagar Constituency in East Delhi, faced charges of “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman” under IPC Section-509.

Shoaib Iqbal, the JD (U) MLA from Matia Mahal even faced charges related to robbery, or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt (IPC Section-397), while the SAD MLA from Rajouri Garden, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, faced separate charges of forgery, cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property under various sections of the IPC; and the BJP’s Naresh Gaur, who had won from Babarpur in North-East Delhi, faced charge related to theft!

Asif Mohammad Khan had not even filed an income tax return despite declaring before the Election Commission that he was worth over Rs 13 crore. Similarly, the Independent MLA, Rambir Shokeen (from Mundka constituency) too had not filed his ITR though declaring assets worth over Rs one crore.

Voters Rejected 74 of the 94 tainted candidates in the 2013 Delhi Assembly elections.

The 2013 Delhi Assembly election was considered a turning point in view of the high decibel campaign against corruption and criminalisation of politics by the newly formed AAP as well as the BJP. Yet there were 94 candidates with serious criminal charges were fielded by the political parties. However, a silver lining was that the voters rejected 74 of these tainted candidates and this could be attributed to sustained campaign and voters’ awareness programmes by the Election Commission.

Will the Ensuing Delhi Elections See Parties not fielding Tainted Politicians ?

This time, the AAP has claimed that if anybody provides proof of corruption or lack of character or a chargesheet of serious crime against any of its candidates, it will “cancel the candidacy of that person… (and) not send a wrong person to Vidhan Sabha”. But will other parties too come up with similar claims?

It may be recalled that in January 2013, the Justice JS Verma Committee that deliberated on reforms to deal with criminalisation of politics, had suggested that “in the event cognisance has been taken by a magistrate of an offence…the candidate ought to be disqualified from participating in the electoral process”.

Is it too much for the asking? The AAP’s move seems to be in the right direction. So, can the ensuingDelhi elections set the ball rolling? It is the political parties’ call, after all!