Just as I was beginning to feel hopeful…
…comes the news that almost half of the candidates* standing for the Assembly elections in Bihar * have pending criminal cases against them…
Worse, “Several of these criminal charges are serious charges, like Murder, Criminal Intimidation, assault, wrongful restraint, etc.”
Some of the more “note-worthy” candidates include Rajesh Kumar Raushan urf Babloo Deo (RJD) who has “7 charges related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307)” against him;Â Shankar Singh (LJP)Â with “17 charges related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) and 12 charges related to Murder (IPC Section-302) against him and Manoranjan Singh (JD(U) with 8 charges related to Murder (IPC Section-302) 4 charges related to Attempt to murder (IPC Section-307) against him…
Sadly, the “party with a difference” is not looking much different. Of the candidates it has fielded (with their affidavits available), 62% have pending criminal cases against them. Is Sh Gadkari listening?
The full 63-page pdf report is here (large download; 0.5 MB)
* whose affidavits are available
Related Posts: Of Criminals and Elections (recommended)
link for pdf is broken
Just checked Rohith…It seems to be working fine…(It is a large download, 0.5MB)
http://adrindia.org/images/second list analysis v2.pdf
Knowing parts of Bihar, this is not surprising. Thakurs and Singhs are not considered to be “Khatriya”s if there are not criminal cases pending against them. It is not the politics, it is the stagnant feudal society. Elder brother of a school friend, who is a prominent BJP leader in Bihar had few cases against him. He claimed that all this allegations are made by Lalu’s RJD to stop him from helping people. This particular argument is acceptable if you know how Indian judiciary works.
Just because urban intellectuals think that a democracy need clean representatives does not mean Thakurs, Singhs, Yadavs and other myriad sub-castes in central Bihar will agree to that. Who would solve this fundamental problem?
I think this has become so messy and complicated. There is a difference between getting an FIR and an actual ‘judgement’. I think the clever PR people of one interested party started asking their lawyers to start charges against an opponent in or prior to elections, to discredit the opponent. The opponent did not necessarily commit a crime, though in some cases he obviously did.The case takes for ever to resolve, in the not so efficient courts of India,( check the backlog of unresolved cases and the waiting time) and these charges ‘stick’.Indeed in many cases the judicial process itself is questionable, when there is eventually a resolution of a case.Hence it has become so difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.
So what to do?
Thanks for the comments…hope to respond by tonight…
In the meantime, read this excerpt from Sh Maloy Dhar’s Pilgrimage to Pataliputra:
The flare of the fire was as high as Ram expected. His Ghritahuti (fat offering) was more than adequate. Ramsahay sizzled up like a huge piece of kebab on live fire. Telling me stories Rambabu? Listen my side of the election Vedas. We have the master Control Room at the Great Leader’s home, managed by his computer wizard daughter Ekadashi. The Operations Control Room functions from my office. We have CRs in each district and police station level, managed by trusted teams. We have provided 10,000 cell phones with 20,000 SIM to the CR operators. We have hired 1000 Motorola handsets for our mobile teams. Our komunikyashion (communication) network is superior. Netaji can be reached in seconds.
We have hired 5000 Lathaits, 6000 wrestlers and imported 4000 weapons from Nepal. Have you heard the name of Ghazi Ibrahim? His people in Pakistan and Nepal are the weapons providers. They will supply 5 “hurricane†parties. Don’t know what is hurricane party? They are small bands of raiders imported from Nepal Terai. They are pressed into service to plunder voting machines, capture booths and kill certain targeted people. We also have the Brahmashra (ultimate weapon); the Naxals. We have paid three Yadu groups to remain ready for raiding affluent Kurmi, Koiri, Thakur Bhumihar and Brahmin villages. These are supporters of Mataji’s party or the party of the Kurmi leader. We are invincible Rambahadurji.
That is convincing, Ram commented in slow reaction, but I am impressed by the organizational network of your main opponent. Now that the Ayodhya verdict has gone in favour of the Hindus, the Muslims will be annoyed with you and your partner Congress.
Ramsahay blazed up like a bunch of faggot. You want to belittle us? We have divided each constituency into booth segments. Suppose Sitamarhi West has 500 booths, we have formed booth committee in each booth with about 12 members represented by all the important caste and religious communities. For the 500 booths we have appointed 5 supervisors; each one overseeing 100 booths. Each booth committee has a sanctioned budget of Rs. 10,000 per day for two months.
We have procured 1, 50,000 bottles of rum, whisky, tharra (country made liquor) from Bengal, UP, and Nepal. These will be distributed 3 days before the polls. Netaji has procured 50,000 saris, 50,000 dhotis, thousands of Bindis, churiyas, pan masala packets, hashish mixed bidis and cigarettes to be distributed amongst the Mukhias (village chiefs) and Rangdars (extortionists) as well as Mastans (hooligans). They are the people responsible for forcing the voters to cast vote in favour of our party.
***
As he says at the end: (This is not a parody. The narrations are true. I offer just a little glimpse of Election War Preparations in ageless Pataliputra. Readers curious to know more about the Great Election Farce of India may like to read my book WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA-STORY OF GANGLAND DEMOCRACY; both in English and Hindi).
The situation about pending criminal cases can only be improved by speeding up justice. It is not a very good idea to implicate people on the basis of ‘charges’. This may sound outrageous, but it is the only way forward for people who wish to follow the law. In those areas where the law cannot be applied, or has not been applied in full, only might will be right.
The choice, for many well-meaning and self-defending citizens in Bihar could well be to follow the law and get eliminated or to do whatever is needed at a given point in time, and try to improve the situation when there is opportunity.
It is not right for people sitting in cozy environments abroad to comment on the legal standing of people braving it out in law-lean lands.
Instead, the focus should be on the legal process, and getting it up to the mark.
Just to put my previous comment in prespective, please compare the situation in three different places – say UK or US, Bihar, and Congo (View the documentary on BBC iplayer on the following link).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v781z/Kids_with_Guns_Stacey_Dooley_Investigates/
Crime and criminals are not absolute tags. There is a great force – the environment – that converts people into non-humans (just in order to survive) in some places.
Have a look at that documentary and answer the following question. Are those kids criminals?
Sudha and Prakash: Both of you raise valid point(s) about the judicial process and the (significant) difference between being “charged” and being “convicted”.
The main point of the post though was the apparent paucity of “electable” candidates who have no criminal charges against them – which can either mean that the poltical parties are not looking hard enough OR that people without criminal charges are simply not interested (or too worried about their safety and reputation)…
Thought-provoking comment, nevertheless.
Who is looking for “electable candidates who have no criminal charges against them”? and why? Are they only the misguided white collar and nri supporters of BJP, or are they BJP leaders, or are they adverse media houses ably supported by a bunch of well meaning bloggers who have big moral goggles strapped around their eyes?
Here is a nice question I found while websurfing. See if it applies here.
If “those without sin cast the first stone”, does that mean Jesus was constantly throwing rocks at people?
@Prakash: Re. “Who is looking for “electable candidates who have no criminal charges against themâ€?, I am – and I believe many others are.
Call me (us) misguided if you will. But what is your fundamental objection to expecting people who represent us to *not* be criminals (and by extension, have criminal records)?
While I broadly take your point about accepting “reality”, I am not satisfied – or proud – about the way things are. Anyways, feels like we are veering off the main thrust of the post (pl see my comment at #8).
I do not have a background in law so I will be able to put this only approximately, but I will try my best.
As far as I understand Indian (constitution, criminal justice system etc ), ‘pending criminal charges’ and ‘convicted’ are two distinct attributes. A person is innocent until proven guilty. Any attempt to attach guilt to anyone outside the established justice system is at variance with the constitution and should be deprecated. Thus, if anyone wishes to discuss events or facts at a national level, he/she/it should avoid associating guilt with pending charges.
Any organisation/party/society can have its own rules about any selection and those outside that organisation would not have any locus standi to question such rules as long as they are not discriminatory. For example, one could have a 100 meter sprint with the condition that sweaty competitors would not be eligible for a medal. That would be fine if there are takers for that kind of a race. You cannot have that rule in commonwealth games or national competitions though. That would not wash.
My belief was that the primary reference of this blog is the country, not a party, or a family, or a religion. If it is not the country, my comments are out of place. If it is the country, your expectations might be at variance with the Indian constitution and I would urge you to re-examine them.