Saying that our political system is a mess - is a big under-statement.
There are 1000 parties in India listed under the election commission for elections this year -> see this . What a huge list of choices with only few worthwhile candidates?
Now one more startling fact is 120 MPs have criminal record in the current parliament -> See this one .
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says that good politicians do exist, provided people are aware and can take a good decision. I think it is an impractical solution, at least in 2009 - asking for majority voters to be aware and to choose right/wise-ly.
What I wonder is, why can't we pass a bill saying that nobody can contest for MP/MLA posts if they have a criminal record? As in,
- pending case where s/he is not cleared yet.
- if there are any proven criminal record in any lower level court even though applied/pending in a higher court.
Now now, if you think about it, it also seems impractical :) no political party will like to support such a bill in parliament (check out the list of political parties fielding candidates with criminal records to support what I am trying to say here).
But then, can the election commission bureaucrats make a rule like that?
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Cleansing the parliament/vidhansabhas in India
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3 comments:
- pending case where s/he is not cleared yet.
- if there are any proven criminal record in any lower level court even though applied/pending in a higher court.
The reason these cannot be implemented are twofold:
1. A case could be framed against an innocent citizen
2. The judicial system is not foolproof. There exists a possibility that the ruling of a lower court court is not correct.
These are some of the drawbacks, or loopholes if you will, that the corrupt politicians exploit. But, is there a possibility of framing rules that can stop incursions by the corrupt into the legislature, is a question worth pondering upon. Maybe, a system such as this involving humans cannot be made perfect. How can you say that a person whom people trusted and voted in will not turn his back upon the people and abuse his or her powers? Another perspective is that one may be able to find only a few trustworthy people who are willing to assume public office. So, how do you fill the rest of the positions -- by corrupt people! Like exercising the right to vote, this also needs an awareness program. Every community should shoulder the responsibility to choose the most eligible candidate and provide the necessary encouragement, support, and empowerment that will motivate the candidate to contest the polls. So, those are my two cents. We need to deep dive into this issue and try to fish out a solution.
See the underlying point there. If a lot of the political leaders have criminal cases pending against them, and they can't file nomination papers if they are not yet cleared - will not they focus all their energy in having the case reach its conclusion ?
1. That will speed up a lot of pending cases (high profile types) in the country.
2. Assuming that 90% of judges are honest (somewhere you have to trust), most of the cases will reach their right conclusion.
And if an innocent citizen is framed, won't he be cleared until the next election?
I would not want to believe that out of our 50 crores adults, we won't have much to file nominations who won't have criminal records against them.
When a rule is made, some people some where are going to misuse it. But if there are a layers of rules that filters the bad people from getting into power positions, won't we have less bad people with power ? I would like to believe mathematical probabilities there to have an YES for an answer.
Won't you?
In a tradeoff analysis kind of framework your argument makes sense. But you'll have to see this issue in the light of the (democratic) constitution. I'm not sure whether constitution and laws are different or one and the same. I guess the constitution has the rights for sure, they may be laws too. Anyway, the laws have to sit well with a democratic constitution. That is why I would guess that it'll be very difficult to pass such a law or make an appropriate amendment to the constitution to that effect. I'll have to say that I'm not very sure about it; only a seasoned person in the judiciary can give a concrete reason about its feasibility. Like you said the politicians will never come together to pass such a law; but it's still our guess. Whether the constitution will permit such a law is still a question I think.
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