Criminalization in Politics

       Criminalization in Politics

Sixty four years after independence, India wants to be free again. As is the slogan adopted by Anna Hazare in today’s day as well. To be freed from criminals who have muscled their way into power.

Democracy implies rule of law and holding of free elections to ascertain the will of the people in lay man’s language,  but in quite recent time’s, this peaceful process of social change has been much vitiated. Violence, rigging etc. has become the order of the day. In the world’s largest democracy the cult of the gun prevails.

And what’s more surprising and rather shameful is that these people even after committing serious criminal offences make their way to the parliament and the assemblies, which as we all know is the highest governing body in the country. The most shocking fact in the political environment of business: criminalization in politics: people with criminal backgrounds becoming politicians. Around 20% of the members of the current Lok Sabha have criminal cases pending against them and the charges in most of these cases are of heinous crimes such as murder, robbery, kidnapping and not just violation of section 144.

Criminalization of politics has become an issue of grave concern among the Indian intelligentsia. The most important factor which determines the ticket distribution is the win ability of the candidate. So, therefore, more and more people with money and muscle power are getting tickets from the political parties.


One such example of Criminalization in Politics :

LALU PRASAD YADAV

Lalu Prasad Yadav is an Indian politician from Bihar: the state which in itself has its own history of corrupt and criminal politicians. Almost all political parties in Bihar have fielded candidates with criminal background in the ensuing Assembly elections with the ruling JD(U) and BJP topping the list. And as according to the Indian law, a politician can be elected even if there are criminal charges pending against him, he can be elected as long as he is not found guilty. So even if a politician sits in prison, in police custody while waiting for his trial or while his trial is going on, he or she can be elected. History can tell how many people, who had murdered, killed or robbed and who had spent years in prison became MP’s. Big mafia bosses presently in jail are already planning for the next election and asking parties for a ticket to be a candidate.

Lalu Prasad Yadav  was the Minister of Railways from 2004 to 2009 in the ruling UPA government and President of the Rashtriya Janta Dal party. He is also the member of parliament in the 15th Lok Sabha from the Bihar constituency. At the age of 29 he was one of its youngest members in parliament. He is famous for his mass appeal and has been criticized for caste based politics. He served as Chief  Minister of  Bihar from 1990 to 1997 because after that he had to resign escalating fodder charges against him in the Fodder scam.

POLITICAL CAREER

Lalu Prasad Yadav entered politics as General Secretary of the Patna University Students' Union. The former Chief Minister of Bihar and the then President of Bihar State Janata Party, Satyendra Narayan Sinha supported him as a candidate for the Lok Sabha and campaigned for him. He was elected as a member of the 9th Lok Sabha on a Janata Party ticket at the age 29, becoming one of the youngest members of the Indian Parliament at the time.
In a span of 10 years, he became a formidable force in Bihar State Politics. He successfully led the National Front coalition in Bihar. Therefore, it was no surprise that he was elected as the Chief Minister.

RASHTRIYA JANTA DAL

Yadav formed the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in 1997, after breaking away from the Janata Dal. According to Limca Book of Records, he is the longest serving president of an Indian Political Party. He remained in power in Bihar for more than one and a half decades.
His most notable achievement has been the financial turnaround of the Indian Railways.  Before Lalu took over the Indian Railways was in bankruptcy and experts had predicted that its losses would only mount in the coming years. But Lalu was successful in leading the Indian Railways from being mired in losses to posting a surplus of nearly Rs 20,000 crores.
He was also listed as one of India’s 50 most powerful people of 2009.

FODDER SCAM

The Fodder scam was a corruption scandal that involved embezzlement of 950 crore from the government treasury of the state of Bihar. It spanned many years and involved fabrication of vast stock of fictitious livestock for which fodder, medicines and animal husbandry was procured.
Laloo ordered the constitution of a committee to probe the irregularities. There was fear that the stat police would not investigate the case vigorously and demands were raised to transfer the case to the CBI.                                                                    An enquiry by the CBI began and as the investigation proceeded the CBI unearthed linkages to the serving chief minister of Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav and made a formal request to the federally appointed governor of Bihar to prosecute Laloo. The CBI also began preparing a charge sheet against Laloo to be filed in a special court and raids were conducted on Laloo’s residence.  His bail petition was also rejected by the same court and the Supreme Court as well. And finally he was arrested and jailed.

END OF LALOO’S TERM

Demand for him to be removed from the Chief – Ministership had gained momentum from both his own party and other parties as well, he finally parted ways with the Janta Dal and formed his own party, the Rashtriya Janta Dal, but the demands for his resignation continued so he finally had to resign from his position but he was able to install his wife Rabri Devi as the new Chief Minister on the same day. As CBI discovered further evidence, it filed additional cases on Yadav related to fraud and criminal conspiracy based on specific criminal acts of illegal withdrawals from the Bihar treasury.

Laloo’s initial charge sheet filed by the CBI was relating to fraudulent withdrawals of Rs. 37 crore from the Bihar government. Even after being jailed, he was kept in comfort at Bihar Military Police guest house from where he was released after 135 days in judicial custody and the very next year he was re-arrested on a different conspiracy case relating to the fodder scam. Then also, he was kept in the same guest house but was later moved to Patna’s  Beur jail after Supreme Court’s objection.

Later, his wife Rabri Devi was also asked to surrender but was immediately granted bail. This prison stint lasted 11 days for Laloo, followed by a one day imprisonment in another fodder scam.
Due to several multiplicity of cases, Yadav had been remanded several times. Since, it broke into public light, the fodder scam has been symbolic of bureaucratic corruption and the Criminalization of Politics in India and particularly in Bihar.

In the Indian parliament, it was cited as an important indicator of the deep roots made by mafia raj in the politics and economics of the country. Laloo Prasad Yadav is the only person on whom the Lok sabha debated for a complete session as the official agenda.