The present Lok Sabha has
the highest number of MPs
with criminal cases against them.
One-third of the MPs face serious criminal charges. All the MPs of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD –
Bihar), 15 out of the 18 MPs of Shiv Sena (Maharashtra), and 4 out of the 5 MPs
of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP – Maharashtra) are people with criminal
records. More than one-third of the BJP’s
new MPs face criminal charges most of which are very serious. The Congress Party fares better with 7% of
its MPs facing serious charges while there are minor charges against 18%. Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have
contributed most of these criminals to the 16th Lok Sabha.
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| Courtesy: Here |
These MPs are very wealthy
too. 82% of all the present MPs had
assets worth over ₹1 crore each in 2014 (when they were elected). Wealth does play a significant role in making
politics criminal. Criminals enter politics
precisely because they bring wealth with them to the political parties. Parties sell ‘tickets’ to candidates who are
willing to pay the highest price. The wealthy
criminals have a lot of black money and hence they are ready to pay enormous
amounts to the political party provided they can win a seat in the Parliament
or the Legislative Assembly. The party
is happy to get the funds.
Political power is the best means for whitening black money as well as
erasing criminal records. Add religion to it, and the mix
is headier than what one can imagine.
While political power enables one to float above all legal structures in
the county, religion sanctifies one’s actions.
Mass murders, for example, become holy acts when they are given
religious colours. Forget minor crimes
such as mafia attacks.
Are Indians fools to elect such people to power? The question is raised by the latest edition of Indispire
(a forum of Indiblogger, a community of Indian bloggers). The answer is both yes and no. Yes, because the people can choose to say no
to these candidates if they want. No,
because the people have very little choice: most candidates are criminals
irrespective of the party – the range and degree of the crimes may vary, that’s
all.
Politics in India today is a criminal activity, in short. India stands terribly in need of a leader with
a vision who can clean up the entire system.
Unfortunately the country shows no sign of any such visionary leader. We are condemned to be ruled by criminals as
long as we don’t learn the other available alternative: question the leaders
when they fail to deliver. Our
television news channels are doing a great job at this. But the fate of NDTV shows that the channels
won’t be able to go very far. If a
leading national channel is unable to lead a fight against political crimes,
who can?
Two businesses will always remain profitable- religion and politics. And they will remain profitable till we remain blind to their deadly concoction with each other and also other elements.
ReplyDeleteThe common man's stupidity is what nurtures both religion and politics.
DeletePerhaps India is the only country where we could see a symbiosis between crime and politics.
ReplyDeleteOne of the many such countries, in fact. Politics and venality have always shared a symbiotic relationship. They were born for each other. They are the most enduring spouses. Religion is the Narada in it.
DeleteInformative post indeed, as it is believed by the educated people that the politicians should be chosen with exam(Like school and colleges) and with certain qualifications, any person with criminal background should be banned to join politics...but who will make this rule?
ReplyDeleteThe rules are made by these very same criminals. In spite of having an abundance of black money with them, they keep on revising their pay scales and other benefits very methodically and very religiously. The whole written history of mankind revolves around these bastards. Einsteins and Heisenbergs who make the real contributions remain in the background and any bastard who rules people for some period of time becomes a hero in history :)
Delete