BJP is fighting a tight political war at the Lok Sabha polls and is leaving no stone unturned. Money and muscle power is playing a huge role in this supreme race for power. The BJP has picked up Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the 2008 Malegaon blast case to cross swords in Bhopal against Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh. Moves like these can only embolden the crime-politics nexus which is dominated by sheer muscle power. And the purity of politics and parties will always remain muddied.
Keeping aside principles and morals, the BJP, by fielding Sadhvi has played a political masterstroke. Digvijaya, who stood a clear favourite now faces a tough match. The BJP has tactically fielded a hardline Hindutva candidate in Sadhvi to counter the attack of saffron terror by Digvijaya. And that could significantly change the math. While Digvijaya will bank on the Muslim votes in Bhopal, Sadhvi could cause a major spilt in Hindu votes and upset the Congress applecart.
But the question is: What kind of democracy are we promising our citizens with a steady increase of criminalisation creeping into polity? Parties are losing sight and trampling upon all ethics and morals in this mad rat race. How does Sadhvi become a candidate when still facing terrorism charges? When hard muscle politics bulldozes its way through the system, it only threatens to disrupt constitutional ethos. And the Modi government has brazenly overridden all parameters in this power play.
Sadhvi’s motorcycle was used in carrying out the tragic September 29, 2008 blasts in a town with a sizable Muslim population. Seven people were killed and over a hundred injured when an improvised explosive device strapped to a motorcycle went off at the Malegaon site. Sadhvi and seven other accused are still facing trial on stringent terrorism charges.
Terror came on a motorcycle in Malegaon, and the BJP has extended its hand to one of its prime accused, only to suit the saffron agenda. How does this stand up against the party promise of providing security to the people of India? Team Modi has shown signs of amour-propre over surgical strikes and its hardline tit-for-tat response on terror. But here it chose to apply a different yardstick on home-grown terror.
On the other hand, consider the case of academic and columnist Anand Teltumbde. The faculty member of Goa Institute of Management, known to be brutally downright and a fierce critic of the Narendra Modi government has been the target of law enforcement officials and accused of involvement in the Koregaon-Bhima violence on January 1, 2018. The government has not spared a moment arresting him in defiance of even Supreme Court orders. Strange are the ways the government sees terrorism and violence.
But what does the law say? In the absence of any conviction, candidates are at liberty to contest elections. As a corollary to this, the Supreme Court has indicated that politicians with criminal cases must be kept at bay and that such a trend is fatal to the democracy. The court in the past has observed that Parliament should frame a law that makes it obligatory for political parties to remove leaders charged with “heinous and grievous” crimes and refuse ticket to offenders in both parliamentary and Assembly polls.
Criminalisation of politics and corruption is a kind of terror that parties have been immune to.
