Courtesy Forbes
The right wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which last week won a thumping
majority in the 543-seat Indian parliament to form the next government
under its Prime Minister -elect Narendra Modi, had campaigned on
promises of good governance–especially after a series of allegations of
graft under the previous Sonia Gandhi-led
UPA government that was routed in the recent elections. But clearly it
didn’t take a good look at its own candidates as more incoming
legislators than in the previous government are charged with a variety
of crimes including murder, attempt to murder, communal disharmony,
kidnapping, crimes against women, amongst others, according to a
democracy watchdog.
The Association for Democratic Reforms sourced the data from the
sworn affidavits that the candidates had filed with the Election
Commission of India. (You can see its full report here.)
In an analysis of the 541 lawmakers who won the elections (the
documents submitted by the two remaining candidates were poorly scanned
and hence illegible, ADR says), it found that 186 or 34% of the winners
have criminal cases pending against them, up from 30% in the last
government that was elected in 2009.
(According to ADR’s party-wise break up, 98 of BJP’s 281 winners have
a range of criminal cases against them pending, in comparison to 8 of
Congress’s 44 winners.)
Within those 186 winners, 112 (or 21%) lawmakers have cases related
to murder, attempt to murder, communal disharmony, kidnapping, crimes
against women pending against them. This is up from 77 winners or 15% in
the previous government
Of the nine winners who have cases relating to murder against them, four are from the BJP and one from the Congress.
Seventeen winners have cases related to attempt to murder outstanding. Of these, 10 winners are from the BJP.
Of the 16 winners with cases related to causing communal disharmony 12 are from the BJP.
Of the 10 winners with cases related to robbery and dacoity, seven are from the BJP.
Of the seven winners cases related to kidnapping, three are from the BJP.
ADR’s analysis also found that in India it pays to be a criminal.
Reason: candidates with criminal record had a 13% chance of winning,
almost three times higher than the 5% chance to win for candidates with
clean records.
And money also matters. Of the 541 winners analyzed , 442 (82%) are
millionaires (in Indian rupees), up from 300 in the 2009 elections.
Within this group, 237 were from BJP’s 281 winners and 35 from
Congress’s 44 winners.
Age and education of their lawmakers has mattered to an extent to the Indian electorate.
Of the winners, 202 (37%) lawmakers are between the ages of 25 and 50
while the majority 298 (55%) are between 51 and 70 years old, with a
tiny 41 (8%) winners are above the age of 71.
One winning lawmaker (from the regional Telugu Desam Party) is
illiterate while 23% or 125 winners are high school graduates, at most.
Another 405 winners (or 75%) have college degrees, at least.
On the gender front, despite women’s issues being one of the key
campaigning platforms in this election, of the 541 winners, a tiny 11%
or 62 women won. This was marginally higher than the 2009 elections
where 57 winners were women. According to this report,
this will make it the highest number of women lawmakers in Indian
history. (However, at the same time, the newly elected lower house of
Parliament will also have the least number of Muslim lawmakers in 50
years: only 22 Muslims have won, less than the 29 in the last election
in 2009.)
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