Political parties shouldn’t field candidates with criminal antecedents. Successive judgments to bar criminal candidates from contesting have done little. Researchers have found that such candidates with serious records seem to do well despite their public image, largely due to their ability to finance their own elections and bring substantive resources to their respective parties. Some voters tend to view such candidates through a narrow prism of being able to represent their interests by hook or by crook. These unhealthy tendencies in the democratic system reflect a poor image of the nature of India’s state institutions and the quality of its elected representatives. Crime and politics should never mix. Citizens need to be more aware and reject these politicians with dubious credentials. Majority of our voters fall for vain, unrealistic and never--to-be-fulfilled promises the politicians eloquently propagate from decorated pulpits. This has become the bane of Indian democracy. Dr Rajendra Prasad, India’s first President, had lamented: “The paradox of India is that the Law of the land is made by highly uneducated representatives of the people in Parliament, and the said Law has to be interpreted by the most learned Judges.”
