The all-party ‘consensus’ on criminalisation on politics

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: Call it cynicism if you like, but it is quite unlikely that many were shocked when former Union minister in the NDA government, Ravi Shankar Prasad, was shot at while addressing an election rally at Sasaram earlier this month.

He was, after all, campaigning in the badlands of Bihar, where there is not even a semblance of a divide between criminalisation and politics. Rather than being an exception, it is the norm now to give tickets to history sheeters, known in local parlance as bahubalis.

But while efforts to put morality and ethics above politics have taken a backseat, all political parties, ironically, have the single refrain —to rid Bihar of crime. Paradoxical as it may seem, the nexus between politics and crime is there to stay in Lalooland. What can be more telling than the fact that Pappu Yadav won the Madhepura elections earlier this year by two lakh votes, even though he contested from jail?

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), which has tabulated patterns relating to criminalisation of politics in Bihar, based on the affidavits which the candidates have filed, says that the LJP has fielded the largest number of bahubalis (19), followed closely by the RJD (18) in the ongoing elections. The JD (U) is not far behind with 11 candidates in the fray. Of course, parties like the BJP and Congress, too, have their share of history-sheeters, although the latter has generally opted to give tickets to the kin of these worthies.

Interestingly, the BJP is ahead of all others in percentage terms (44%), while fielding persons with shady backgrounds. This, even as the NDA’s election theme is based on ending Laloo’s jungle raj. For the average citizen, having a PAN number is supposed to be necessary. However, 345 candidates who are in the fray do not have a PAN number at all.

So what prompts all the key players in Bihar to pay lip service to combatting criminalisation—even as they hunt with the hounds. Winnability is the key element, concede political observers, pointing out that the compartmentalisation of caste politics has forced political parties to look for other ways to supplement their votebase. Many feel that chances of increasing their tally gets better with the support and backing of such elements.