Sunday, March 29

Who are the democrats and secular lighthouses of freedom of expression and liberty?

The disease “Criminalisation” is all over ..its just not about few parties and states Criminalisation of politics in India has attained a stage, where it needs serious attention from the citizen, political parties as there was a steady decline in values of all sections of our society

It is the sensibilities and commonsense of the voter that can change this.we all know that we have to make choice between aThug and a thief in situations . This increasing Criminalisation of the political and social fabric is the main danger, not the mixing of religion with politics I feel.

It is astonishing that persons having criminal background and a number of cases registered against them have made easy access to politics and are occupying high position in the state administration upon getting elected by using muscle and money power

Friends you will be surprised to know that of the 543 men and women that were elected to the Lok Sabha in May 2004 125 had criminal charges against them. The 125 MPs were from 17 different states and two Union territories. A large chunk faced serious charges including murder, rape, dacoity, kidnapping and corruption.

There is a great tendency with the elected leaders at some point or the other to brush with the law .It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that corruption is the reason for the malice.

Of the 125.. 96 faced charges with potential sentences of two years or more. Under the Representation of the People Act, a person sentenced for two years or more is disqualified from contesting elections. We should not forget that the number have been large as were either vague or illegible.

27 of those elected in May 2004 faced charges under IPC for life sentence/imprisonment.

14 faced charges of 10-year sentences.

16 were with maximum 7-year.. Potential sentences if convicted.

In other words, at least 57 had really serious charges against them

Of the 96 BJP headed the list with 23 followed by the Congress with 17. It is true that the RJD’s 7, the SP’s 9 and the BSP’s 5 constitute a much larger proportion of those parties’ MPs

No proze for guessing that UP and Bihar toped the charts. The only states which had none of their MPs figuring in the list were the eight north-eastern states and the three northern states of Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal. Barring Assam, which has 14 Lok Sabha seats, what is noticeable is that these are among the smallest states.Out that many of 125 winners who faced criminal charges were not becoming MPs for the first time. Several among them had already served more than one term in Parliament.

I have mentioned these figures to clear the doubts and state that Criminalisation of politics is spread across the length and breadth of our country. The movement is getting more and more established.

Please do not forget in India, it is not politics which needs saving from religion but religion which needs to be protected from political hoodlums. Temples, gurudwaras and waqf boards provide criminals with vast amounts of economic resources and a ready made political base. They have converted these religious institutions into battlegrounds for gang warfare.

Even this politicisation of religion would be a relatively harmless affair, if the parties concerned vowed not to use criminal means to secure their political ends. If we read history we will realize that the foundation of Pakistan was laid through bloodshed and criminal acts of politicians rather than by religion dominating politics.

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