For the first time in the upcoming Bihar election political parties would be required to publish the entire criminal history of their candidates for elections along with the reasons to field such suspected criminals, as per the Supreme Court’s decision given in February 2020.

This judgement requires such information to be published in a local and national newspaper as well as the parties’ social media handles. This is one step to make the election process cleaner than before and a lot still needs to be done.

Why did the court pass the order?

The Court states “In 2004, 24% of the Members of Parliament had criminal cases pending against them; in 2009, that went up to 30%; in 2014 to 34%; and in 2019 as many as 43% of MPs had criminal cases pending against them.”

The gradual deterioration of politics due to such elements in the politics adds to the worsening situation of the country’s politics. The government has obvious dominance over bureaucracy, civil society, and the media and thus it must the free of any kind of criminal involvement.

It becomes crucial to be vigilant now more than ever. Monitoring the affidavits. Working with the election commission to see that all information is properly regulated and available on all their websites, also circulating the information on all social media sites. Voters must also be vigilant about misuse of money, gifts like liquor during the elections.

The apex court still can’t ban politicians with serious criminal charges to contest for elections due to legal and technical constraints.

Effects

Criminalization in politics has had adverse effects in the conduct of free and fair elections in the democracy. Using money and muscle power has hampered electing the deserving candidates.

It has also effected good governance as law-breakers become the law-makers. Increased black money in the economy increases corruption in society and thus affects the public servants and the society in whole.

Criminalization in politics causes social disharmony by introducing violence in society and erodes people’s faith in democracy.

what next?

Considering this the first step in making the election process ‘cleaner’, we surely expect the apex court to take further steps in completely banning politicians with serious criminal charges. In order to strengthen the election commission it must also be given the right to deregister a political party too. The voters also need to be more vigilant. And steps must be taken to impart political information amongst them to ensure a behavioural change in the public. Ultimately, the power is in the hands of the electorate which is highly manipulated and misinformed. Seeing a behavioral change amongst voters, political parties will be forced to field candidates with a clean background.