Pre-poll violence has started dead on schedule, showing that the Indian election process is still immune to the forces of order. Part of the problem is that the Election Commission's move late last year to decriminalise politics has fallen flat. A slew of criminal candidates are in the fray, creating a climate in which violence is a legitimate option. Candidates have been required to declare that they have never been convicted, but that is hardly a useful criterion. No self-respecting criminal standing for election would let the judiciary blot his copybook. But the only way to get results, by requiring them to declare that they are also free of taint, would be just as impractical thanks to the ease with which false cases can be filed in India. Obviously, a top-down remedy will not work. Neither is the opposite option working, for the parties have committed a criminal injustice on the electorate again by freely handing out tickets to the scum of the earth.An Indian election is believed to be thesecond-biggest administrative exercise in the world. Only the Indian census is bigger. But even this massive deployment of security and administrative muscle is bound to be fruitless so long as the parties themselves do not submit to the election process and play by its rules. This election could turn out to be one of the most violent ever. Margins are relatively narrow, party lines have converged to a significant degree, making it difficult for the voter to distinguish between them, and all parties have managed to tar themselves with the same brush. Without substantive issues to sell, without substantial leaders to project, the party worker may find violence to be his only useful political tool. It was nice of the EC to ask nine states to file a special report on law and order but it is unlikely to achieve much, beyond creating public awareness. Besides, it has only directed that known bad characters be controlled, their unlicenced arms seized and licenced arms voluntarily surrendered. These steps arerelatively pointless. Leading bad characters now hold election tickets and their arms are unlikely to be mopped up, because they will have already been deployed in the field.
In some states, this election is set to be as much a travesty of democracy as any preceding poll. In Nagaland, for instance, the electoral battle has been settled even before the polls by judicious use of the threat of violence. But hopefully, the situation will help the EC understand that electoral abuses that have been an accepted part of the Indian democratic system for two generations cannot be wiped out by a mere amendment to the election rules. Change will have to come from the ground up and parties will have to be forced to toe the line by the pressure of public opinion. The pressure applied will have to be substantial. The fact that the political class has had the gall to field criminals after a whole year of debate on the issue shows that it is going to be an uphill task. But the pressure has gathered head already; theElection Commission only has to potentiate the process. By the next election -- which may be nearer than we care to think -- the EC must effectively stigmatise the use of politics by other means.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
