An independent study shows an alarming trend of politicians who are facing criminal charges having assumed control of critical functions involved in law and order maintenance.
The youngest ever Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has been under tremendous pressure for inducting Raja Bhaiya as his minister for jails. He can however take solace in the fact that several other chief ministers in the recent past, have handed over the reins of the sensitive law and order enforcement apparatus to politicians facing criminal charges.
An independent study by Zee Research Group (ZRG) shows an alarming trend of politicians who are facing criminal charges having assumed control of critical but varied functions involved in the law and order maintenance across India.
The study reveals that five out of seven states that witnessed the formation of a new government in the last one year have ministers with criminal charges pending against them manning the law and order situation in their respective states. These states are UP, Tamil Nadu (TN), West Bengal (WB), Jharkhand and Kerala; the exception being Punjab and Puducherry.
While Bhaiya, in-charge of the prisons ministry in UP, boasts of 19 criminal cases against him, Moloy Ghatak, Law and judicial minister of WB follows closely with 14 criminal charges. Further, an affidavit filed before the Election Commission (ECI) reveals that Minister of Law, Courts and Prison for Tamil Nadu, Thiro CV Shanmugam is facing criminal charges in ten cases. Kerala’s chief minister Oommen Chandy who also heads the Department of Criminal Justice and Vigilance is facing criminal charges in five cases. Then there is Arjun Munda, the chief minister of Jharkhand who has six criminal charges against him and who handles the state’s Vigilance, Law and Justice Department.
While none of them are yet to be convicted (the line of defence propagated by Mulayam and his son), this trend has re-ignited the debate over the admissibility of people with alleged doubtful credentials into the government administration. In response to the question on whether or not their induction impacts governance on a day-to-day basis, Prakash Singh, former director general of police says, “The net result is that the police department functioning gets adversely affected with such people in powerful positions.”
A visibly sad Singh’s key lament is that “There is a definite visible trend that most of the ministers selected for handling law and order are not only from criminal background but are also illiterate.” Aggrieved with the trend, former Lok Sabha Speaker and veteran Parliamentarian, Somnath Chatterjee blames citizens and politicians equally for selecting “history-sheeters”. He attributes the growth of such politicians in India to “lack of conviction, overreaching power of individual politicians as also at times due to majority mandate for a single party”. His pitch: “A mandatory enforcement of clean ministers in every Cabinet.”
National Convenor of Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), Anil Bairwal says the way out is to ensure ticket distributions is more transparent and democratic. ADR has been at the forefront of highlighting the antecedents of candidates in the poll fray.
(With Inputs from Rashi Aditi Ghosh)
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