Criminals can stay in politics as long as they are not convicted by court. That’s Mayawati’s take on criminals in politics as voiced by her at a meeting on electoral reforms also attended by chief election commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi and law minister Veerappa Moily in Lucknow on Sunday.
Of late, the UP chief minister has been reduced to an apologetic state due to a number of criminal cases, involving BSP MLAs and ministers. Opposition leaders have lost no opportunity in slamming the UP CM for patronising criminals for electoral benefits. The Dalit leader’s latest posturing on the issue of criminals participating in the electoral process is in direct contrast with that of the election commission.
While Quraishi asserted that candidates charge-sheeted in criminal cases, attracting a sentence of five years or more, should not be allowed to participate in the electoral process, Mayawati said there was ample scope for such a law to be misused.
“There should be a law to keep criminal elements away from elections. But, at the same time, there should also be adequate safeguards to ensure that genuine candidates are not kept out of the fray only because a criminal case is pending against them,” she said. “Debarring people from the electoral process only because they have been charge-sheeted may lead to large-scale misuse by political opponents,” she added. “Only candidates convicted by courts should be barred from contesting elections,” she said.
The CEC was in complete disagreement as he said, “Personally, I am in favour of disallowing anyone against whom charges have been framed by the prosecuting authority,” he added.
“No mechanism can prevent the entry of criminals in the electoral fray as effectively as the political parties themselves,” he said. “But it appears that there is a virtual competition among political parties to field criminals,” he said.
Quraishi also blamed the “sluggish” process of prosecution and conviction in the country which “allowed criminals a free hand in getting power and even become ministers with the result that they even get entitled to official security and misuse their position”.
Mayawati and Quraishi also differed on election funding. While the CM favoured state funding of elections, the CEC opposed it completely.
Perhaps the only thing the two agreed on was a ban on opinion and exits polls in the country.
