How is Politics and Crime related?

Criminals in politics means the work of governing the country is in the hands of criminals. Criminalisation of politics refers to participation of criminals in politics.  It means allowing criminals to contest elections and become the MP or MLA. It has resulted in increasing corruption in politics, which directly affects the growth of the county. Corruption is the biggest enemy of a country.

Criminalisation of politics is possible due to connect between politicians and criminals. Recently the criminalisation of politics has been increased which is a problem which should be addressed. The survey of National Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reform stated that at least 1,157 out of 6,318 candidates have criminal cases against them in the assembly election of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. NEW established in 2002 which works for electoral reforms in the country.

Law:

1. The Constitution of India does not specify disqualified on the ground of being criminal. It only talks about disqualification under schedule 10
2. Representation of Peoples Act 1951 specifies the conditions for disqualifying a candidate from contesting legislature elections which are:

1. Section 8 talks about the disqualification on the ground that if a person was punished with an imprisonment of more than 2 years, then he cannot contest election up to 6 years after the imprisonment has ended.

2. If the criminal case is pending against an individual, then he will not be barred from contesting election. There must be a conviction.

Hence, there is no codified law, yet which barred a person from contesting election if the criminal case has been started against him. The reason behind no such law is that a person should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Only the charges have been framed but still not proved beyond reasonable ground so the criminal is presumed innocent. If he is presumed innocent, then he can contest the election.

Supreme Court Analysis:

a. Supreme Court in 2020 that for Lok Sabha and state assembly elections, political parties have to publish the entire criminal history of their candidates along with the reasons that forced them to field suspected criminals.

b. Supreme Court in Public Interest Foundation v. Union of India, 2018 ordered political parties to publish online criminal records of their candidates.

c. Allahabad High Court also stated that an alarming number of criminals had reached the parliament and state assemblies, parliament and the election commission of India must take effective steps to stop these criminals from entering politics. It held that connection between criminals, politicians and bureaucrats should be reduced.

d. Supreme Court in Atul Kumar Singh alias Atul Rai s/o Shri Bharat Singh v State of U.P. Thru. Prin. Secy. Home (2022)  held that It is the duty of Parliament to restrain criminals from entering politics. It will prevent criminals from affecting the legislature so as to save the democracy of the country. The court also observed that it is very saddening for the world’s largest democracy that a total of 43% of all the members of Lok Sabha elected in the year 2019 were having pending criminal cases of heinous offences against them. There are many cases in which a person charged with heinous offences like murder, rape got a ticket to contest election. It is saddening that law breakers become the lawmakers

e. The Supreme Court has also stated that the Election Commission of India can take steps to stop the criminalisation of politics.

Reasons:

There can be many reasons for the criminalization of politics. These are:

1. There is a lack of political will which deter the parliament from making any such law. Moreover, the connection between political parties and criminals is also very strong.
2. There is a lack of codified law on this and the laws which are available are not properly enforced.
3. Voters vote on the basis of caste or religion. This is a narrow approach. Even if the criminal history is published, most people will not be aware of this.
4. Despite having a criminal record, the candidates with financial power finance their own elections.

Criminals in politics and corruption are the major hindrance in the development of any country. Candidates with criminal charges corrupt the democratic. It shows that law is not that much more efficient to make these criminals out of politics. There should be publicity of criminal records of candidates before contesting election. It will make people aware about whom they are voting for. The publication should be easily accessible. It can be published in magazines and newspapers so everyone can know about this. With the following proper rules and regulation, we can make politics free from criminalization.