|
India’s
Politicians Forestall Poll Panel on Reforms
|
|
|
Police handcuffs often used to restrain
politicians. |
By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, July 9 (IslamOnline) - An all-party meeting Monday, July 8,
rejected an Election Commission (EC) proposal to amend statutory rules
and the format of electoral nomination papers making it mandatory for
individuals running for Parliament or state legislatures to disclose
their criminal records (if any), and their financial and educational
background.
The
Election Commission had sought to implement a Supreme Court ruling of
May 2, which said that such measures were necessary for probity in
public life. Such measures would be welcome because of a growing
public perception that there is too much corruption and crime in
public life in India.
It
is not unusual for individuals to grow incredibly rich within only a
few years of entering public life. Only last week a Delhi court
sentenced a former central minister with three years in prison and a
fine of Rs 200,000. A high government official too was similarly fined
in the same case of defrauding the public exchequer of hundreds of
millions of rupees.
The
aforesaid minister’s case is only among dozens of such cases coming
to public notice every year. Another trend in India is the growing
number of people with records of serious criminal offences like murder
and robbery winning parliamentary and state legislature seats and
making it to the highest positions as ministers. According to an
estimate about a third of the elected representatives in the Indian
Parliament and state legislatures have criminal records.
The
Election Commission has announced that poll returning officers would
have the right to reject electoral nominations if candidates failed to
furnish complete details about their financial, educational and
criminal (if any) background.
Politicians
across the ideological spectrum rejected the EC proposal as
"cumbersome and impractical". However, they said the winning
candidate would disclose his or her financial assets to the presiding
officer of the House to which he or she is elected. They did not agree
to the proposal that their dependents too should disclose their
assets. (It is common for corrupt public officials to amass wealth in
the names of their wives, dependents and relatives and even in the
name of their servants).
|
|
|
Hindu fanatics attack Orissa state legislature. |
Ironically,
the same Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which had
earlier rejected fears of misuse of the draconian Prevention of
Terrorism Act (POTA) against minorities, pleaded on Monday that the EC
proposals could be misused for political ends.
Political
parties were unanimous in their view that returning officers should
not be given the powers to disqualify candidates on the grounds of
records of corruption, and other crimes, and lack of education.
The
new law minister Jana Krishnamurthy gave the implausible argument that
there was no need for the required disclosures as “in any case the
people come to know about such things from the media.”
Former
law minister Arun Jaitley said that the proposal about knowing a
candidate’s educational background was irrelevant because the
educational records of members of Parliament had consistently been
improving over the decades.
The
all-party meet decided to enact a piece of legislation in the monsoon
session to curb the returning officers’ powers and to forestall the
EC move for probity in public life.
|
