By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
Patna: Politicization of crime or criminals is a pan-India phenomenon now. With each election, number of criminals becoming legislators is increasing – Bihar has lion’s share. It makes even serious crimes less heinous – a grave threat to the society. It’s time to reject candidates – irrespective of their caste, class or creed – if they have pending criminal cases against them.
As many as 117 current MLAs (i.e. 50%) in Bihar had pending criminal cases when they contested Assembly elections in 2005. That year, 358 candidates (39% of total 919 candidates) with pending criminal cases contested elections from major parties including LJP, RJD, JD(U), BJP, BSP, INC, CPI(M)(L)(L) and CPI. Of 358 candidates, 213 had serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion etc. pending against them.
[Photo: Outlookindia.com]
Religion, it seems, hardly makes a difference at this count.
Of 234-member Bihar state Assembly there are only 15 Muslim MLAs today. But about 50% of them had pending criminal cases against them during the 2005 elections, some of them very serious IPC counts including murder.
Four of the 7 Muslim MLAs with pending criminal cases against them, had serious IPC counts.
|
Assembly seat |
Name |
Party |
Cases |
Serious IPC counts |
|
Sikta |
Khurshed @ Firoz Alam |
INC |
5 |
4 |
|
Pupri |
Shahid Ali Khan |
JD(U) |
|
|
|
Bahera |
Abdul Bari Siddiqui |
RJD |
|
|
|
Ghanshyampur |
Izhar Ahmad |
LJP |
2 |
3 |
|
Jokihat |
Manzar Alam |
JD(U) |
1 |
0 |
|
Bahadurganj |
Md. Tousif Alam |
INC |
2 |
3 |
|
Kishanganj |
Akhatarul Iman |
RJD |
|
|
|
Amour |
Abdul Jalil Mastan |
INC |
|
|
|
Baisi |
Syed Ruknudin |
IND |
|
|
|
Kadwa |
Abdul Jalil |
NCP |
3 |
0 |
|
Barsoi |
Munnaf Alam |
CPI(ML) |
2 |
7 |
|
Manihari |
Mubarak Hussain |
INC |
2 |
0 |
|
Rafiganj |
Md. Nehaluddin |
RJD |
|
|
|
Gurua |
Shakeel Ahmad Khan |
RJD |
|
|
|
Simri–Bakhtiarpur |
Ch.Mehboob Ali Kaiser |
INC |
|
|
Congress MLA Firoz Alam had highest 5 pending criminal cases according to his own declarations in the 2005 elections. In total he carried 4 serious IPC counts involving IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 364 (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 379 (theft).
CPI(ML) MLA Munnaf Alam from Barsoi had 7 serious IPC counts in 2 criminal cases pending against him. They included IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), and 324-326 (voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons).
Muslims hardly take into account caste factor when they vote. They are more concerned about new government in every election, and thus chose to vote in favor of a so-called secular party candidate, putting their bid to form a secular government. But will they dump even Muslim and secular candidates with criminal cases pending against him? It is to be seen.
Meanwhile, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) have jointly appealed to political parties and voters to keep this Bihar assembly election free of candidates having criminal backgrounds. Candidates with pending criminal cases against them should not be given tickets by political parties.
“An attempt must be made to change the trend which existed in the Bihar assembly election 2005. Parties before releasing their list of candidates for the elections should make sure that they do not field any candidates with criminal backgrounds. They should be able to find clean candidates to represent their parties and hence give the voters a choice to choose non tainted candidates,” the groups said in an appeal on September 25.