A deceptive democracy -2 : Professor P Radhakrishnan

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Based on the asset comparison by the NEW released on May 02, 2009 for 229 re-contesting MPs, on May 4, The Economic Times published a report “298% rise in average income of sitting Lok Sabha MPs¶ Politics seem to have become a huge money making business, next to none and remains unaffected by recession of any kind. The average individual asset increase of sitting Lok Sabha MPs contesting the 2009 Lok Sabha is a whopping 298% or Rs 2.67 crore, according to an analysis of affidavits filed in 2004 and 2009 for 229 MPs from 24 states and UTs…. Mohd. Tahir of Bahujan Samajwadi Party [BSP] from Uttar Pradesh had reported Rs 116,697 as his total asset in his affidavit while contesting in 2004 Lok Sabha poll. In his affidavit filed with nomination papers he has shown his assets at Rs 10,779,346, a whopping increase of 9,137%. Similarly, the assets of CH Vijayashankar of Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] from Karnataka have shot up from Rs 263,999 to Rs 17,493,189, i.e., a staggering rise of 6,526%. Interestingly, even the CPI[M] MP Susmita Bauri seeking re-election to Lok Sabha from West Bengal is a close third in the list with assets increased from Rs 33,000 only in 2004 to Rs 1,073,000 in 2009 up by 3,15%. “With no barriers, and none answerable to, politics seems to be the only business not affected by recession of any kind,¶ Prof Trilochan Sastry, Dean of IIM Bangalore and founder Member ADR said. Corroborating Prof Sastry’s observation, former Director of IIM Ahmedabad and founder member of ADR Prof Jagdeep Chhokar, says, “Clearly, these politicians are not serving the common people but several of them are working only to improve their own economic status. There needs to be lot more transparency in where and how the assets of these elected representatives are going up¶

Like corruption and politics, criminality and politics are Siamese twins. Though much has been written about both, especially as part of the March 2002 Report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, constituted by the AB Vajpayee-led NDA government, the nexus between criminality and politics needs some mention here. Important among the findings of the NEW from 6735 affidavits in the first four phases of the general election 2009 include the following:
• 1042 candidates with criminal records constituting 15.47% of total candidates in the fray;
• fielding candidates with criminal records by major political parties, with Congress (108), BJP (106), BSP (100) and SP (47) as the top four;
• 1295 criminal charges of heinous nature including, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion, etc.;
• most states having candidates with criminal background with Jharkhand at the top with 51 or 29.82%, followed by Bihar with 177 or 27%;
• 175 Red Alert constituencies with three or more contesting candidates having  criminal background;
• Bihar having 33 such constituencies followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, each with 27 such constituencies.

No wonder, while one write-up on the web had its title “Criminals, ‘crorepatis’ to rule India¶, another had it as “Parliament is now a den of criminals¶. Will the UPA manage to expunge these and similar opprobriums from the minds of the public, in the same spirit of expunging portions from the    Lok Sabha   proceedings? Henceforth the measure of all measures of the UPA ministry will be not only its performance but also its ingenuity in introducing “clean politics¶ and “self-cleansing¶ mechanisms in Indian democracy. Will it measure up to the expectation? Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has already started dropping hints, as for instance, his mention that  “The growing use of money power in elections, muscle power, these are developments which need to be tackled if we have to maintain the health of our democratic polity,¶ in his speech  in the Lok Sabha on June 9, 2009, following a debate by members on President Pratibha Patil’s earlier address to members from both the houses; which he would not have probably mentioned during the election when both the Congress and its allies were in need of both money power and muscle power.
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