On the celebration of the diamond jubilee of the Election Commission, the nation saw a rare convergence among political parties over checking criminalisation of politics with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi calling for a consensus on barring candidates with criminal backgrounds.
If this were to go through this would definitely be one of the greatest achievements for India. I'm sure if this happens as is endorsed by all political parties we would get rid of all our criminals, goons and thugs who masquerade as our politicians, netas and MLAS. The good news is that the different political parties were on the same wave length at this meet - now of course comes the million dollar question - good intentions are one thing how about putting this in practice? Will the political parties be willing to bite the bullet and walk the talk? In Goa we've seen our politicans and MLAS breaking all the laws and criminals being able to operate in broad daylight with neither fear of God nor man nor the Law! We have people whose right place is in jail and not masquerading as our MLAs and ministers! If the different political parties rise up to this challenge and sincerely go about implementing it we will be seeing a lot of these criminals paying for their crimes and they would be behind bars. A look at the vast fortunes that our Goan MLAS have amassed would itself be a clear give-away and we the Goan people would like to ask them to give us some explanations as to how they've acquired their ill-gotten wealth? I'm sure they'll have no anwers to that. As the Vice-President pointed out - Unaccounted election expenses constitute the major expenditure of political parties and candidates. "These relate to distribution of freebies, liquor and cash during elections, the phenomenon of surrogate advertisements and the extensive media related malpractice of `paid news' and `coverage packages'. In Goa it's not just during elections but all through the year - be it their birthdays, wedding anniversaries or mundan ceremonies of our beloved MLAs and politicians, inaugrations of Tintos, Bridges or bus-stops, zatras or festivals - you name it we know whose money is being wasted. Then of course they are busy destroying our Environment, selling our Goan Land and resources to the Hoteliers, Builders, Casino owners, mining magnates, proposing SEZ Projects and what have you, granting illegal permissions in pushing their projects through with the sole motive of embezzling the tax payer's money or getting kick backs. Now the question is are the political parties ready to pick up the gauntlet? Well that's a total different kettle of fish altogether. Only time will tell. The following news items is from The Times of India Jan 26th: ********************************************* Sonia seeks more efforts to de-criminalize elections NEW DELHI: The Election Commission's diamond jubilee celebrations saw a rare convergence among political parties over checking criminalisation of politics with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi calling for a consensus on barring candidates with criminal backgrounds. On a day which saw BJP's Sushma Swaraj also on the same page, Sonia said, "We need to do more in contending with the influence of money and muscle power...We also need to build a consensus on how to prevent individuals with a criminal record from contesting elections." The remarks, part of a prepared speech rather than a response to questions, are significant and the Congress chief can be held to her words in case there is lack of progress on cleaning up politics where as of now a candidate convicted in a case that carries a sentence up to two years can contest polls pending appeal. On his part, law minister Veerappa Moily assured EC that the government will look into all demands for reform and a national consultation will start from June this year. It needs to be pointed out that all his predecessors gave similar assurances without any result but a prod in the right direction from party president Sonia Gandhi may help. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regretted that the best minds are not getting attracted to politics and referred to the lack of unanimity on how to clean the system so that people without means can contest elections too. Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj said 60 is the age for introspection. Lauding EC for its achievements and its contribution in making India a robust democracy, Gandhi referred to the Women's Reservation Bill and regretted the lack of consensus on giving 33% reservation to women in Lok Sabha and the assemblies. Swaraj said it is only due to EC that there has been change of power in India with ballots and not bullets. Swaraj also said the fact that even powerful politicians are scared of EC is a testimony to its credibility and fairness. The speeches by leaders on Monday were measured and less rhetorical than usual. Uniformly praising the work of EC and calling it one of the pillars of Indian democracy, everyone from President Pratibha Patil, PM Manmohan Singh, vice-president Hamid Ansari, Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj advised EC to take stronger corrective measures to improve quality of the polity. The inaugural function that saw political adversaries sharing the same space -- Mamata Banerjee and Prakash Karat, Jayalalithaa listening to DMK's A Raja and Sushma Swaraj on the same dais as Sonia Gandhi -- was inaugurated by the President. The President said impediments, lacunae and malpractices in elections would have to be removed to make Indian democracy cleaner, healthier and stronger. The vice-president was most forthcoming, emphasising three big challenges for Indian democracy. "Six decades on, a fair verdict would be that the glass is neither empty nor full but well above the half way mark," he said. While the country has traversed a long distance in providing a constitutional basis for local government, real empowerment and participatory governance at the third tier is still "work in progress". Then, despite efforts, unaccounted election expenses constitute the major expenditure of political parties and candidates. "These relate to distribution of freebies, liquor and cash during elections, the phenomenon of surrogate advertisements and the extensive media related malpractice of `paid news' and `coverage packages'," he said. Lastly he said, "The challenge for the political parties now is to bring about substantive organisational democracy." "Each of these is a blot on the democratic process and on the objective of free and fair elections. Corrective action by the EC and our political parties is imperative," Ansari said.
