From bad to worse

If you thought news of corrupt, casteist and criminal elements standing for elections is as bad as it gets, think again…It could be worse…

Lets look at the “bad” part first.

Many of you must have read this news-item: NDTV exit poll: BJP emerges clear leader. Normally, I would have cheered about BJP getting a lead in polls; In this case though, there was little room for cheer.

I don’t know how many of you read this: Karnataka Elections 2008 – Phase 2 – Candidate Criminal and Financial Records

…In the 66 Assembly constituencies going to the polls on May16, 2008 in Phase 2, there are 49 candidates with a criminal record. A full list of the candidates is enclosed. Among the major parties, the BJP has 13 candidates having a criminal record, BSP has 7, the Congress 9, JDS 8, and other parties 12.”

Interestingly,

“The total assets declared by all the 372 candidates considered by KEW for phase 2 was an impressive Rs.902 crores, with average candidate assets of Rs.2.42 crores….the three major parties account for 88.5% of total candidate assets with average candidate assets of Rs.4.18 crores. Clearly, elections have become a rich man’s game…

And more:

As many as 74 candidates reported a very steep increase in total assets between the 2004 Assembly Elections and this election. The average increase in assets was a huge 465.6%….

Conclusion?

The overall quality of candidates leaves much to be desired. The criminal records in particular are a little alarming. Unless this trend is checked, elections, democracy and overall governance wil suffer….

As if all this was not bad enough, we had the incident involving Lok Paritran’s Karnataka state leadership and its national leaders.

Several of you have already commented on this episode (and also given the other side of the story)…

I find it terribly unfortunate and sad….Here is a group that I once thought had a chance to do something good…sadly, I see very little evidence of that today.

Like many of you I have been sorely disappointed by LP…There have been negative reports about them before but nothing like the incident that happened in Karnataka.

I hope this is not  the beginning of the end for them. I have only  once ever spoken to Tanmay (have not met him yet)…He is clearly passionate, possibly hot-headed and I suspect somewhat immature…Unfortunately politics is not all about passion…Noble causes require sound minds, careful judgement and a balanced temparament. Without that even the best and most sincere efforts can come to naught..

Not only did the incident do Lok Paritran a lot of damage (in terms of its image and future),  it has added to the common man’s cynicism towards any attempts at “reforming the system”… It will also cast a shadow over efforts by other nascent political parties like Loksatta who are/maybe planning to contest elections…

Many of you may not be aware but Loksatta has proposed 4 candidates to contest in the elections slated for later this month in Andhra Pradesh.

I believe they deserve our full support. I am not aware of any other parties planning to contest but if readers have come across news of any of the “young”/”new” parties contesting (or have information about their plans), I would be grateful if they could be shared here.

Until then, please have faith…and hope. Someday, things will change…they have to change.

Satyameva Jayate!

Related Posts:

BPD, BM, LP: Light at the end of the tunnel? 

Building a Freedom Team for India 

Politics & Corruption: Here’s how to “fix the system”