What does a comprehensive look at the background of all the 4,001 sitting Members of the Legislative Assemblies across India tell us about the state of Indian politics? Can India’s aspirations to be a globally respected economic and cultural power be fulfilled with the kind of politics it has?
All candidates now follow stipulations following a Supreme Court of India judgment, filing self-sworn affidavits which record the details of criminal cases they have, if any. Of the 4,001 sitting MLAs, 1,777 of them, or 44%, have a criminal case. The current Lok Sabha also has 43% Members of Parliament (MP) with criminal cases. In 2004, the percentage was around 22%, and has now doubled. Many people feel that the cases are either trivial ones or politically motivated. The point that these are not frivolous first information reports needs to be emphasised. These are cases registered after a due process of investigation, filing of charge sheets, a preliminary hearing of the case and being formally charged in a court of law. Even if we say that the cases are foisted by rival political parties, it shows that political parties are selectively using the law and the system needs to change. The law and order system was put in place by political parties and they need to change it. However, facts show that most cases were filed when the party to which the MLA or MPs belonged to was in power. So, the cases are not all politically motivated.
The data is an eye-opener
If we dig deeper and look at serious criminal cases — which on conviction would lead to a jail sentence of five years or more — there are 1,136 or 28% of such MLAs today. There are 47 MLAs with murder cases, 181 with attempt to murder cases, another 114 with cases related to crimes against women, and 14 with rape cases. States/Union Territories with the highest number of serious criminal cases are Delhi 53%, Bihar 59%, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Telangana 39% each, and Uttar Pradesh 38%.
No political party is free of this malaise. If one focuses only on those parties with at least 40 such MLAs, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leads with 479 MLAs with criminal cases, and 337 with serious criminal cases. The next largest party, the Indian National Congress (INC), has 334 MLAs with criminal cases, and 194 with serious criminal cases.
The other parties including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Trinamool Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, YSR Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (formerly the Telangana Rashtra Samithi), Rashtriya Janata Dal, Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Biju Janata Dal have a lower number of such MLAs but with a higher percentage of offences — between 42% to 76% for criminal cases, and 32% to 43% for serious criminal cases. The other parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena, Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam have far fewer seats, and so the number of their MLAs with criminal cases is also much lower.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha, the BJP had 116 MPs with a criminal record, the INC 29, DMK 10, Trinamool Congress 9, and JD(U) 13. When it came to serious criminal cases, the BJP has 87 MPs, INC 19, DMK 6, Trinamool Congress 4, and JD(U) 8. Even Union Ministers are tainted. In the case of their first swearing in during 2019, there were 22 Ministers out of 56 with criminal cases and a total of 61 cases against these 22 Ministers, all from the ruling party. The chances of those with a criminal record winning was over 15%. In comparison, it was 4.7% for those with a clean record. This shows that people with a criminal record are more likely to get elected. No other country has so many people with known criminal records in its Parliament or State Assemblies.
Net worth and election spend
Gender representation is low with only 9% of elected women MLAs. Most MLAs are college graduates or more (66%). The average assets of MLAs was ₹13.63 crore, and of those with a criminal case, at ₹16.36 crore. Winning depends on the wealth of a candidate, with 30% of those with assets of ₹5 crore or more being elected, while only 8% of those with assets of ₹2 crore or less were elected.
In contrast, 75% of Indian citizens reported wealth of ₹8 lakh or less, and a total of 98% reported wealth of ₹80 lakh or less.
The spend on elections now is at an all-time high. Clothes, mobiles, cooking equipment, liquor and cash are distributed to entice voters, thus violating the law. Estimates show that the expenditure in the Lok Sabha elections is more than that in the United States presidential elections. It is well known that candidates spend crores of rupees and violate the spending limit of ₹40 lakh for MLAs and ₹70 lakh for MPs (enhanced to ₹90 lakh in 2022), which is the limit the Election Commission of India (ECI) has set in consultation with political parties. Public money is spent to promise freebies such as free water, electricity, travel, and food to name a few.
The number of MLAs and MPs with criminal records has risen only because their party leaders continue to distribute more tickets to such candidates. In the so-called advanced countries, there is no such system of distributing tickets. Candidates are selected either by a first-round primary, as in the U.S., or by a more open and democratic process, as in many European countries.
In summary, India has a system where there are a very significant number of elected representatives with a serious criminal record. Such people are more likely to win than others. Electoral laws are flouted while spending money. So far, the ECI has taken very little action on this. Political leaders continue to distribute tickets to such people. Winning is the means by which to recover the money spent and accumulate it for the next election. Media management, especially through social media, passes off as good governance.
The catalyst
We will see more of this in the next Lok Sabha election in 2024. Every party fears that it will lose if it undertakes reforms. Media management can impact public perception for some time. Eventually, more and more Indians will get to know the truth. Perhaps that is the moment when change will happen. That is when the potential of the country will be realised. Citizen action can speed up this process.
Trilochan Sastry is Professor, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and Founder Chairman, Association for Democratic Reforms
