A country is in a sorry situation when its politicians do not just rely on criminals but are also charged with serious crimes themselves. The latest election data show that 43 per cent of legislators in Parliament have criminal charges against them, some of them as serious as murder, rape and kidnapping. Although this percentage is high, it does not mean that people charged with crimes have begun to win elections all of a sudden or that the criminalization of politics happened in a day. The percentage has kept growing, against which both the Election Commission and the Supreme Court have spoken out repeatedly, obviously to no avail. The percentage is rather shocking now, apart from the fact that criminality and lawlessness are flourishing in the country, where murderous mobs and killers, operating with the excuse of a certain religion or ideology, feel comfortable. The EC had applied to the Supreme Court that action be taken against candidates facing criminal charges and against political parties for fielding them. There was also a contempt petition filed on the basis of parties’ failure to list the criminal charges of candidates three times in public fora before elections as directed by the court in September 2018.

There is, however, a difference between charge and conviction. Politicians especially can be accused of various crimes by a rival or competing party. The EC’s wish to move against candidates with charges against them is an expression of its sense of urgency in the matter, but such action would pre-empt the process of justice. The Supreme Court has, therefore, rejected the EC’s suggestion, and has, instead, taken further the earlier direction of listing the criminal antecedents of candidates. Not only should these be published by the political party putting up such a candidate, the party would also have to explain why it is doing so, and establish that no candidate without criminal charges is available. In this explanation, winnability would not be a criterion. This, of course, shifts the responsibility of ‘cleansing’ politics on to the people. Not political parties, which are responsible for all criminal links. It would be unfortunate if the ruling, wrongly, encourages them. Is there a guarantee that they will do as directed this time? Will it shame them? If that were possible, there would not have been so many tainted politicians sitting in Parliament in the first place.