The late president, K. R. Narayanan, called for fighting against the criminalisation of politics in his address to the joint session of Parliament on August 15,1997 to commemorate the golden jubilee of Independence. He asked all parties to “undertake all such steps as will attain the objectives of ridding our polity of criminalisation or its influence...” A decade later, during the diamond jubilee celebrations of India’s independence, his words have lost meaning.

Sadly, a survey of 3,182 candidates cutting across party lines during 2004 Lok Sabha elections by the Association of Democratic Rights revealed that 518 (16.28 per cent) of them had criminal antecedents. A detailed and systematic study of the MPs of the 14th Lok Sabha revealed that over one-fourth of them had a criminal background and that half of them were from UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and MP. The majority belonged to regional parties. A study of legislative assemblies may reveal an even grimmer scenario.

Historically, the late sixties are generally perceived to be the point at which decline in political standards set in. Mahatma Gandhi had cautioned against corruption when elected governments were formed in the provinces in 1937. After independence, evidence of corruption in high places was discovered by 1950. The Gorwala Committee found “deviation from moral standards of ministers, legislators and administrators”, ranging from “corruption, patronage... and influence”. Various scandals — the jeep scandal involving V.K. Krishna Menon, the LIC-Mundhra deal, the H.G. Mudgal affair, and so on — pointed to the emergence of corruption at the highest level. The Santhanam Committee (1964) observed: “We wish we could confidently and without reservation assert that at the political level, Ministers, Legislators, party officials were free from this malady (corruption).” However, it was the case involving Punjab CM, Pratap Singh Kairon (1956-1964), that became the controversial benchmark. His assassination in February 1965, two months after he resigned following his indictment by the Das Commission, showed that politics and crime had become a reality.

... contd.