Professional Documents
Culture Documents
CONCLUSION
Free and fair elections are the main spring of a healthy democratic life
and a barometer of its strength and vitality. Electoral Administration must
therefore, be free from pressure and interference of the executive and
legislature. It should be able to secure fairness to all parties and candidates.
Successful electoral system (i) an awareness by the people of the significance
of their vote and the need for them exercise it responsibility, with in the
community, (ii) A spirit that looks towards the welfare of all rather than the
benefit of the individual and (iii) A sound electoral machinery may be
characterized as a bastion of democracy in India.1
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The inadequacy of existing law which failed to meet all the ingenuities
of candidates to circumvent the ceiling on expenditure is partly due to the
unrealistic low limits which have been prescribed by law.
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when the society raises its voice against criminals. Otherwise no electoral
reform however effective it may be can prevent the criminalization of politics.
Anyhow, political parties should evolve a code to reject funds from the illegal
sources and stop recruiting anti-social elements into the party.
The reforms have a major impact in curtailing money and muscle power,
but may not be sustainable for a long. At times they can be counter productive.
Society ought to raise its voice against electoral malpractices. Criminalization
of politics in India has attained a stage, where it needs serious attention from
the citizens, government and political parties as there was a steady decline in
values of all sections of our society. Criminalization of politics has led to
immense pressure on functioning of political institution. The worst part of
picture is that “criminal record” becomes an essential qualification for entry
into politics. In India Politics is not a social service anymore, instead it
emerged as a lucrative profession or business. Today it is used to believe that
crime is the shortest access to legislature and parliament of India. Further
success rate of criminals into electoral process is alluring the young blood of
country as a source of negative inspiration for them. It is now believed that the
safest haven for criminals is politics and political parties have gone overboard
in associating criminals with them more because of their muscle and money
power, which is supposed to ensure victory in polls. Criminalization of the
political system is threatening the very roots of democracy in India.
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Corruption in India is due to many factors, most important being the
activities of the politicians. It is not the consequence of the political system as
such. Constitution is what people make of it. There have been attempts to
frustrate the ideals of the Constitution, subvert the rule of law, find out flaws in
the system so as to exploit the loopholes, and use political power to keep the
executive in subordination so as to serve their ends.
The civil society has scored over many hurdles and valiantly contested
cases in various areas, especially pertaining to the rights of the dispossessed,
the forgotten the weaker sections of society, gender discrimination, and corrupt
practices. Some of them have approached the apex court for redress of injustice
and wrong practices. It has sought and succeeded in securing transparency in
the electoral process through the declaration of the background of candidates
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pertaining to education, criminal record, and financial assets and liabilities. It
has also been successful in getting a Supreme Court decision on denying the
immunity to members of the legislature for corrupt practice committed in
connection with voting in the House.
Media has played an important role in the recent times to reach out to a
large number of people across the country in spreading the message that no
political party should give tickets to people with criminal antecedents in the
elections. The media is active, relatively free and has exposed many a scandal.
Despite all these factors, the government in India could not make a dent
in checking or eliminating the menace of corruption from public life. The
study reveals that the various instruments used by the Government from time
to time since Independence, like the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947 (later
consolidated in 1988), Commissions of Inquiries under the Commission of
Inquiry Act 1952, Appointment of Santhanam Committee (1964) to
recommend measures for combating corruption, recommendations of the
Administrative Reform Commission, Shah Commission appointed by Janata
Government after Emergency (1977), establishment of the institution of Lok
Ayuktas in various states, investigations by the Central Bureau of Investigation
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(CBI) under the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act, 1946, the system of
Judicial Review of Political Corruption and the recent phenomenon of Public
Interest Litigation (PIL), The Anti- Defection Law, The Foreign Exchange
Management Act (FEMA), Election Expenditure Ceilings, etc., have all proved
inadequate.
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Election Commission of India has, conducted general elections for 15th
Lok Sabha in May 2009 at 543 constituencies all over India. Against the total
543, at least 28% of the MPs (150 MPs) are having criminal records.
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as a Minister of State for the Home Ministry (which oversees law and order) in
the H.D. Deve Gowda government. He is currently serving a life sentence for
kidnapping with intent to murder and as many as 34 cases of serious crime are
pending against him], Mukhtar Ansari [ He is commonly referred to as "the
Sahabuddin of UP." Mukhtar Ansari fought the U.P. State Elections, 2007,
while lodged initially at Ghazipur jail], Atiq Ahmad [In 2004-2009, he was a
member of the 14th Lok Sabha from the Phulpur (Lok Sabha Constituency) in
Uttar Pradesh. He is currently in prison facing trial in 35 criminal cases
including several cases of murder. In the Indian general elections, 2009, Atiq
Ahmad was allowed to run for election (since he is yet to be convicted in any
case)], Shibhu Soren [He was Chief Minister of Jharkhand state in India from
2008 to 2009. He previously represented the Dumka constituency of Jharkhand
in the 14th Lok Sabha and is the President of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha
(JMM) political party, a constituent of the UPA. He was member of Union
Cabinet since November 2006, till he resigned after conviction in a murder
case. There is no end of this list because it is expanding year after year.
During general elections for 15th Lok Sabha, Sanjay Dutt tried hard to
ensure his place in the list on ticket of SP. Fortunately judiciary did not allow
him to consent election. All these persons are involved in serious criminal
cases like murder, robbery, kidnapping and extortion and most of them in
several cases of such nature. Keeping aside the issue whether they should be
allowed to contest polls or not? Therefore, the moot question before all of us is
whether it is morally or ethically correct for persons who are alleged to have
been involved in criminal cases to contest polls and represent the people in the
house? What about the political parties of country which are providing ample
opportunities to criminals and harboring criminalization of politics by giving
maximum possible tickets to them?
The answer would be in the negative only if morals and ethics have no
place in politics. It would indeed be a sad day for politics in India, if it is
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accepted that moral and ethics have no place in politics in India. But fact
remains a fact.
We can consider this issue in the light that even a peon would not be
appointed to a government job in case he is alleged to be involved in a criminal
case. There is a clear bar on any person involved in criminal activities to be
appointed on a government job. As a matter of fact, every government servant
has to file an affidavit that he has never been involved in criminal activities and
he has no criminal case pending investigation or trial against him.
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FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 SUGGESTIONS:
1. Public Education:
In India the voter votes for a symbol and does not know for what the
symbol stands for. As such there is a need to educate the voters about the
importance of the vote, elections and the manifestos of the political parties.
This public education of the voters is bound to make the voters to exercise their
franchise in a rights way with one being influenced by irrelevant consideration.
Creation of awareness among voters for proper utilization of franchise should
be given much importance. It can be done with implementation of literacy
camps in right manner. A sense of security has to be developed to exercise the
right to vote.
2. Right to recall:
The elected candidates of the political parties reappear before the
electorate at the time of next general elections. There is public accountability
of the elected candidates to the voters. If the elected political party fails to
redeem the electoral promises and fulfill its election manifesto the voters
should have the right to recall the elected representatives.
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3. Need to have value based politics:
Political parties want to capture power through any means without
regard to minimal basic democratic moral and ethical values. The result is that
money and muscle power is playing a vital role in the elections. Political
parties have to follow strictly the code of conduct and give preference to value
based politics in preference to money and muscle based politics.
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6. Issue of identity cards:-
The proposal by the election commission to issue Identity Cards before
1996 general elections received public appreciation however, the union and the
state government expressed their inability to implement, the recommendation
of the Election Commission due to financial problem. The Election
Commission finally has succeeded in impressing upon the union state
governments. The need to issue Identity Cards is in order to curb
impersonation. The steps taken by the state governments to issue the photo
Identity Cards before 1996 parliament election received a set back, due to poor
planning. The result is that, the Election Commission is forced to conduct the
recent parliament elections without Identity Cards. The result is during the
recent election number of complaints were received by the Election
Commission from different political parties relating to impersonation. As
much there is a need to issue Identity Cards to the voters before the next
general elections to the state legislative Assemblies. A procedure should be
devised for keeping electoral rolls up to date, so that country wide or state –
wide elections might be held with in a short span of time after the dissolution
of parliament or the state legislature. This will also help in eliminating bogus
claims. The Election Commission also need to periodically monitor the
electorals whoever were issued voter ID’s whether they are available, alive and
eligible as per norms.
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generated a feeling of insecurity and frustration among the Indian voters.
There is a need to deploy additional security forces at identified sensitive
polling stations. The menace of rigging, booth capturing and intimidation of
voters can be tackled affectively if the Election Commission takes the extreme
decision of the countermanding of the election in a particular constituency and
ordering the repelling in the entire constituency. There is also a need to
prescribe stringent punishment for the offences of rigging, booth capturing and
disturbing the election process by violence.
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Election Commission. Important decisions are to be taken on the basis of
mutual understanding and through effective consultation. This is necessary to
dispel the impression among the public that the Election Commission has
became ineffective with mutual conflicting views and counter criticism.
Further more, it is of the view that in the recent past it was found that
there was a growing tendency on the political parties and individual aspirants to
make unauthorized and unscrupulous use of whatever advantage can be had at
given time which leads to corrupt practices. Therefore it is very important to
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have an effective model code of conduct besides suitable punishments for
corrupt practices misuse of Governmental machinery etc.
This study reveals that though there are detailed statutory provisions and
a plethora of case-law, the existing legal provisions are not adequate to prevent
corrupt practices. One of the reasons for this pathetic situation is the failure of
the judiciary to assimilate the true spirit of the provisions. It is true that in
regard to the determination of the dimensions and parameters of the statutory
provision the contribution of the judiciary is substantial. However, the
formulation of rules like that in the case of degree of proof had defeated the
very purpose of law. In the case of corrupt practices of bribery, undue
influence, religious and communal appeals, and promoting enmity and hatred,
the judicial approach is generally not in tune with the object of the provision.
Hence one expects a more realistic and purpose-oriented approach from the
judiciary. The approach of the legislature is also paradoxical. Though several
amendments were introduced to plug the loopholes in the statutory provisions,
there are instances where through the amendment the very provisions, there are
instances where through the amendment the very purpose of the statutory
provisions had been defeated. The amendment relating to procuring assistance
of government servants and the expenses incurred by political parties are some
of the instances in this regard. It appears that the enactment of more effective
legal provisions is necessary to eliminate corrupt practices from the election
arena.
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on the growing misuse of power. It is another matter that the checks do not
sometimes prove effective enough.
The various financial and political scams that have occurred in India
point out to the emerging sophisticated pattern of political corruption. Financial
bungling of such magnitude cannot take place and let off without any
repressive punitive action unless those are backed by powerful politicians.
Thus corruption cannot be tackled if there is no high degree of personal
integrity at the higher political levels. If the moral standards at the top are low,
social values are bound to degenerate and lead to moral chaos and anarchy.
Notwithstanding any institutional anticorruption strategies that may be devised
to combat the incidence of political corruption in any county − Election
Commissions, Commissions of Inquiry, Vigilance Commissions, Ombudsman
etc.,− a strong public opinion, an appropriate social climate which abhors the
corrupt and the corrupt practices and a free and vigilant press can perhaps
accomplish much more than any legal or institutional device in fighting the evil
of political corruption. Ultimately, it has to be a concerted attempt by the
government and the people together.
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As is evident from the above recommendations, the spectre of corruption
can better be exorcised by political framework, especially the legislature that
controls all strings of legislation, empowerment of various institutions,
financial allocations, determination of priorities. Since the executive and the
judiciary operate within the ambit of legislation, rules, and procedures framed
by the government, they have a secondary role in the process. If all the moves
of the executive and the judiciary are negated by the legislature as it is the
fountainhead of power, others being only implementers and interpreters, the
initiatives of the former are dampened. This is not to belittle the contributions
made by the judiciary and the importance of its role, but only to indicate the
parameters within which it works. However, there have been many significant
advances emanating from the decisions of the Supreme Court and the High
Courts that the politicians were unable to undo, especially in the short run.
‘India’s courts…comprise a functioning independent judiciary…The rule of
law, a legacy of the British rule, generally prevails’.
The dialectical moves between the civil society and politicians, through
the medium of the courts and other pressure tactics, will continue to take place
in India and may contain if not completely dominate the phenomena of
corruption from the society of corruption cannot be suppressed for long.
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SAY NO TO CRIMINALS IN POLITICS
Not only the government must tackle these issues on a priority basis and
include them in their agenda but it’s very important on people’s part to be
aware of not voting for the wrong person and be a part of ‘No to Criminals in
Politics’.
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However, it is to be noted that law is only one of the several means for
preventing corruption .There are several social, economic and political factors
which cause the emergence of corruption in to from the election science, the
eradication of the basic causes for the existence of corruption in society is
necessary. For that purpose the legal process plays a significant role along with
the political and social processes.
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CHAPTER - VI
FOOT NOTE