A fortnight ago, a Supreme Court bench gave expression to the anguish all thinking citizens share about the criminalisation of our politics. There is no doubt that crime and politics are coming together far too often in our public life. ADR, a civil society organisation which compiles the data from the Election Commission, reports that 46% of the members of the present Lok Sabha have criminal cases against them, and 31% of the members face grave charges like rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, etc.

On behalf of the Lok Satta Movement, I launched a campaign against the criminalisation of politics in 1999, when we revealed to the public, after thorough and independent scrutiny, that 42 candidates for major parties contesting Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh had a criminal record. Since then, despite a spate of Supreme Court decisions, public pressure and media scrutiny, criminalisation has continued unchecked.

Section 8 of the Representation Act, 1951, provides for disqualification of candidates who are convicted for specified offences or suffer a sentence of two years or more for any offence. But the weaknesses of our criminal justice system allow many criminals to escape conviction for years and decades. The efforts to speed up trials in cases involving elected politicians did not bear fruit either. Given this experience, we need to carefully examine how criminalisation can be curbed.

Disqualification of convicted........

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