Indian Union: 125 out of 538 deputies on trial
New Delhi (AsiaNews/Asahi) – 125 of the 538 Lower House lawmakers in India had been indicted and are on trial for serious crimes. 11 politicians on trial are charged with murder and 17 with attempted murder. Other crimes attributed to the politicians include kidnapping, mass riot and rape.
According to a survey of the Public Affairs Centre, a nongovernmental organization based in Bangalore in southern India, according to whom the phenomenon can be traced back to the defeat of the Indian National Congress Party in the late seventies, after it had dominated Indian politics since Independence. In fact after the collapse of the INC's 30-year rule, political parties intensified their competition to increase their power. Politicians began to use crime syndicates in their constituencies to coerce eligible voters to cast ballots for them.
An example of this is Mohammed Shahabuddin, a representative of the western state of Bihar, currently charged with 20 crimes. The man, who claims he always worked to guarantee peace in the territory, is charged with organising armed mobs that used violence to “convince” voters during elections.
So far however he has not been formally accused: the Centre maintains that this is because his party the RJD held power in Bihar until last year’s election defeat. Now, Shahabuddin's life as a politician is in danger, because Indian law states that those indicted for crimes with maximum prison sentences of five years or longer cannot run for elections until six years have passed since the completion of the sentence.
And yet moderates warn that this is not enough: there are too many criminals in congress who are under 50, and a ban of that kind does not prohibit them from being involved in politics. The solution put forward by NGO Social Watch proposes an all out ban on convicted criminals from ever returning to Indian political life.
.png)
