SC moving in to fast-track criminal cases against MPs and MLAs is a step in the right direction
The SC has asked the government to set-up fast-track courts to hear criminal cases against MPs, MLAs.
Once again, it's Supreme Court to the rescue. A bench of the apex court - comprising Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha - has asked the government to set up fast-track courts to hear criminal cases against MPs, MLAs - as per the 2014 figures, 1,581 in all - so as to weed corruption and criminality out of political spheres.
In addition, the SC has also asked the Centre to give it in detail the logistics - financial, bureaucratic, otherwise - of doing the rather mammoth exercise in its bid to clean Indian politics from the endemic muck of corruption and criminality.
This is coupled with a suggestion from the Election Commission to put a lifetime ban on contesting elections for convicted criminals within politics. Clearly, this is being hailed as a big step in curbing corruption that's more or less entrenched in the system, with the judicial backlog and endless delaying tactics helping politicians to override criminal records and charges and stay on in active politics.
The Centre will also have to prepare a report on how many of the 1,581 lawmakers facing charges in 2014 have been convicted or cleared. A note of how many new cases have been registered against the MPs and MLAs will also have to be made.
The fast-track court hearing the criminal cases would not only keep those with existing corruption cases away from active politics, it would also help those against whom false charges have been levelled, thereby benefitting everybody.
Recent high-profile convictions, such as that against VK Sasikala of the AIADMK, as well as the earlier conviction of Lalu Prasad Yadav of RJD in the fodder scam case, among others, have hogged headlines for months.
In other cases, such as DMK leaders A Raja and Kanimozhi in telecom scam, the CBI court has heard the prosecution and the defence, and a verdict is due soon. However, given that Raja was arrested in 2011 and given bail in 2012, it's been six years since the charges were filed. Speedy justice necessitates in such cases urgent redressal of the matter.
While the existing law disqualifies politicians sentenced to two or more years in prison from contesting elections for at least six years, a lifetime ban can eliminate chances of a re-entry or a second innings, as it were, of a convicted politician.
India among the most corrupt
Decriminalisation of politics is a much-debated issue as well as a thorny matter, given that India regularly features in various global lists of the "most corrupt". In March this year, Forbes published a report - findings of the globally acclaimed Transparency International - in which India topped in the survey of most corrupt countries in Asia.
Foreign publications too have focussed many a time on India's endemic corruption problem, particularly among its politicians. The Economist dedicated its February 2017 Asia edition to exploring the "dark side of Indian politics", saying a "penchant for criminality is an electoral asset in India".
It also said that graft in India is damaging the economy, and that the country needs to deal with it in a more concerted and organised manner. These allegations and observations are substantiated by facts and figures, which revealed that graft and bribery in public offices have risen by 95 per cent despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's anti-corruption plank.
In addition, since 2014 till June 30, 2017, about 1,629 cases of corruption were reported in India under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 - involving 3,896 public servants, according to an RTI reply obtained from Rajya Sabha on August 10, 2017. Of these, 41 are politicians.
Corruption in political funding
According to Jagdeep Chokhar, founder-trustee, Association for Democratic Reforms, corruption and India's electoral process have a deep connection. Chokhar says: "Our elections are fought with black money obtained through corrupt practices and political parties have huge sums of unaccounted money. The first step in to make all political parties accountable and transparent with their funding. When the basic electoral process itself is corrupt, then we cannot expect honesty within government offices."
This is precisely what is wrong with the electoral bonds system, newly inducted ostensibly to clean up political funding. As has been observed by several worried commentators, the anonymity accorded to donors - both domestic and foreign - via this method of political donations, and the lack of an upper limit on the donations, opens the floodgates of possible corruption and abuse of power, leaving the political coffers brimming with unaccounted wealth.
None other than the former chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi has expressed his reservations over the electoral bond system: "The recent amendments to Representation of the People Act (RP Act) have affected transparency (in political funding). Contribution reports of political parties need not mention names and addresses etc of those contributing by way of electoral bonds. We have written (to the government) that this way parties will never file contributions received through electoral bonds.. And if commission will never get to know of that contribution - and EC regularly displays such information on its website - the people will also not get to know."
Impunity despite charges
As evidenced in the number - 1,581 - of MPs, MLAs with criminal charges against them, no commensurate socio-political price is extracted from the politician in most cases. For example, against Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, there are a host of charges, including attempt to murder (IPC Section 307), criminal intimidation (IPC Section 506), rioting, armed with deadly weapon (IPC Section 148), promoting enmity, injuring place of worship, endangering life and personal safety of others, (IPC Section 336) etc.
This is only one among a host of other examples. 31 per cent, or 24 of the 78 Union ministers in the Narendra Modi government, have declared criminal cases against them, as per affidavits filed by them. At 51, BJP also has the highest number of MPs and MLAs with cases of crime against women, followed closely by Shiv Sena and TMC. The 16th Lok Sabha is also the richest and with most MPs with criminal charges, according to 2014 post-election assessment.
Why SC intervention matters
Though some may call it "judicial overreach", the court in India has become the last bastion of hope and succour for the citizens fed of an insensitive polity. The SC ordering the Centre to pull up its socks and ensure speedy trials is a step in the right direction, because, at least, it's a beginning of what's easily a long haul exercise to decriminalise Indian politics.