Almost fifth of candidates in Indian election face criminal charges

Almost a fifth of candidates in India’s forthcoming elections are facing criminal charges including rape, murder and extortion, according to research published yesterday.

The analysis of the records of 1,492 candidates contesting more than 120 seats in the country’s 545-seat lower house will provoke further concern about the “criminalisation” of politics in the world’s biggest democracy.

The first of 815 million eligible voters will go to the polls on Monday. The election – phased over six weeks to allow successive redeployment of security personnel – has been described by analysts as the most important for decades.

It pits the Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), against Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old scion of the country's most famous political dynasty and the face of the Congress party, which is seeking a third term in power. A series of polls have put Modi and the BJP ahead.

The study was released by the think tank the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), and was based on electoral declarations filed by the candidates.

'Hard facts'
"You can't have lawbreakers making laws. Earlier we only had anecdotal evidence. Now we have hard facts," said Prof Jagdeep Chhokar of the ADR.

Some charges may be unfounded, as judicial process is often used to smear political opponents, and police in many states are highly corrupt.

“Heinous crimes are one thing, but a lot of the other charges are made just to defame someone. There should at least be a conviction in a higher court before ending someone’s career,” said one government minister last night.

But Chhokar said he expected the proportion of candidates facing charges to rise as the declarations of thousands more were examined.

“We expect between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of candidates to have charges against them. I hope it isn’t so high, but realistically it probably will be,” he said.

Of the candidates analysed so far, 269 (18 per cent) have declared criminal cases against them.

The highest proportion came from the BJP, the study found, but 17 per cent were from the newly formed Aam Admi party, which is campaigning on an anti-corruption and transparency platform.

The study covered about half of India's 35 states and union territories – in Delhi 23 candidates face charges.
– ( Guardian service)