The founding fathers of our Constitution perhaps could never have anticipated or foreseen that a time might come after three or four decades, when dacoit kings and queens, scamsters, gangsters and underworld dons in our country – the law breakers – would one day become our law makers; or that the dynamics of our democracy would make the law redundant; or that our politicians might follow the letter of our Constitution, while violating the spirit of the law; or that our democracy would ignore questions about constitutional ambiguity and moral legitimacy because of the ‘authority’ of popular mandate; or that a person convicted by law, but ‘acquitted’ by the “People’s Court” (voters) would become a Chief Minister; or that a convict with a massive popular mandate might legitimize his or her criminal activities and adorn our parliament or legislative assemblies and even come to power; or that a convict unfit to fight elections, having been disqualified by the Election Commission, could become a chief minister; or that political power would make a mockery of official prosecution.
The late Shri H. V. Kamath and the late Shri Mahavir Tyagi (contemptuously dubbed by our late Prime Minister, Pandit Nehru, as the two clowns of our parliament) did foresee such a possibility while participating in one of the debates in the Constituent Assembly. Their idea or plea was dismissed with contempt. Now, these two ‘clowns’ have been proved right!
Democracy means mobo-cracy, when there is no harmony between the spirit and the letter of our Constitution or the rule of law. Morality and Truth are now disposable items for our political class in general.
The 21st century heralds a new age in our criminalised politics. It is needless to mention the names of our guilty politicians, as they are well known.
Our political convicts have nothing to lose, but everything to gain, including the chief minister-ship of a State and even the prime ministership of India!
If the ‘Court of the People’ is superior to our Supreme Court or High Courts or any Court, why have these courts and the rule of law at all?
The Madras High Court suspended Jayalalitha’s sentence, but not her conviction. Since Jaya-lalitha had filed her nomination papers from four constituencies, all her nomination papers were rightly rejected. Yet, the AIADMK MLAs unanimously elected her as their leader!
“There is the people’s verdict and there is the rule of law. The first cannot override the second,” said Shri G.V.G. Krishnamurthy, our former Election Commissioner and rightly so. He added, “The swearing in of Jayalalitha as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is a slap on the face of all our courts. A thief is sent to jail, but a convicted political criminal becomes the Chief Minister! Why have the Prevention of Corruption Act at all? Is it meant only for our bureaucrats and ordinary citizens, while politicians can get away with it?” he rightly asked.
Our politicians have taken undue advantage of the glaring lacuna in our system, where the RPA and EC guidelines prevent a convict from contesting an election, but our Constitution permits the Governor to appoint him or her as Chief Minister for six months.
Can Veerappan, Chota Sha-keel or even Dawood Ibrahim become Chief Ministers or the Prime Minister lawfully, because of a ‘mandate’ from voters in the constituencies contested by them with their money and muscle power, or without even any man-date, for five years, with a one day break before the end of every six months?”
What is called for is an amendment to our Constitution, taking care of its departures from the RPA provisions and injecting objective criteria for the Governor to adhere to. The Constitutional Review Committee should attend to the following issues immediately:
1. Whether law breakers should be allowed to become law makers’
2. Minimum qualifications for voters and contesting candi-dates (at least primary edu-cation, say the 4th standard), should be mandatory.
In the history of the world, no person without even primary education has emerged as a political genius, the only exceptions are, perhaps, in the fields of arts, music and sports.
Mr. S. S. Bankeshwar is a freelance writer and a member of the Advisory Board of Freedom First.