| In the process, she had to resign as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh because there was no way her party could let her continue in office after it had ensured that Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Shibu Soren had to resign. |
| The similarities between the two episodes bear repeating. Soren was charged with a crime that he allegedly committed nearly three decades ago. He allegedly led a group of tribals in an attack on a group of Muslims in 1975, in which ten people died. |
| It took years for the chargesheet to be filed and more years for the case to come up for hearing. Soren showed scant regard for the judicial process by repeatedly ignoring court summons issued over the years. Eventually the state government wanted to end the matter but despite this a lower court had issued a non-bailable warrant for his arrest. The BJP, by making him a target of their campaign against "tainted" ministers, has forced him to resign. His last-minute appeals to higher courts to have the arrest warrant withdrawn brought him no relief. |
| It is doubtful if Soren cares much for ministership and quite likely will again win elections handsomely and secure more ministerships. In fact, his popularity among his followers will rise as a result of this episode. |
| Uma Bharti has been charged with a crime that she allegedly committed over a decade ago. She allegedly led a group of supporters to raise the national flag on a plot of land with a history of communal dispute. |
| She thereby violated prohibitory orders, and raised the level of tension between communities. Subsequently, there was rioting and police firing, in which six people died. It took inordinately long for the charges to be framed and the court to take note of them. Thereafter, she repeatedly ignored court summons with impunity. |
| Eventually, the state government wanted to close the matter but the court thought otherwise. When it came to the crunch, Uma Bharti sought relief from a higher court, which declined to oblige. |
| It is doubtful if Uma Bharti cares much for the fruits of office and highly likely that her popularity among her supporters will increase as a result of her being forced to resign. |
| The cardinal point is that neither Shibu Soren nor Uma Bharti is a habitual criminal. They are both victims of their past and the present nature of politics. What finally weighed against both was their ignoring any number of court summons. |
| Had they appeared in court once and taken permission to be exempted from personal appearance, their personal political careers would have taken a different turn. |
| In the case of Uma Bharti in particular, there will be a degree of sympathy even among those who do not care for the BJP and its politics. She was seeking to do a few of the things that any earnest chief minister should do. |
| One of her last publicised acts as chief minister was to come to Bangalore and meet the chiefs of top IT companies to persuade them to set up shop in Madhya Pradesh. |
| This is constructive work, far removed from rabble rousing. The chances are that she will go back to street politics instead of being able to mature and learn how to run an administration. |
| On the other hand, there is as yet no sigh that the presence of criminals in Indian public life will diminish. Around a fifth of the members of the present Lok Sabha have had criminal charges levelled against them and a third accused of serious crimes. It is not just the "accused"; there are some in jail who belong to the august body. Mohammad Shahbuddin has won elections in 1996, 1998, 1999, and now 2004. Mohammad Taslimuddin, a minister at the Centre, has serious criminal charges pending against him. And of course there is the doyen of them all, Lalu Prasad, who happily operates as railway minister while still facing serious charges. |
| A key problem is that tainted politicians keep winning elections. This is both because of the manner in which elections are conducted and funded, and the highly ambiguous attitude of the electorate sometimes in choosing between principles and popular sons of the soil. |
| Sukh Ram from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh was caught red-handed with a hoard of cash in his home but has been well reinstated in politics, without losing an iota of popular support. |
| If the present Congress-led government fares poorly in the next elections because there are too many tainted politicians in it, then a blow will have been struck for cleaner public life. The fact is that the public sees little distinction between the Congress and the BJP in matters like corruption and living with criminals. |
| It is widely believed that Rajiv Gandhi lost power because of the Bofors payoff scandal. But the wheel seems to have turned full circle. The real tragedy of Indian politics is that the BJP has failed to emerge as the cleaner alternative. |
| It is not enough to say that only the Indian people can give themselves a cleaner public life. Citizens, NGOs, and several key institutions have a role to play. The need for candidates to declare their wealth and past record is a good beginning. |
| Some NGOs have started scrutinising these filings and educating the public. They have to do more in ferreting out untruths declared and bringing them to light. |
| The Election Commission has written to the Prime Minister, urging steps to ensure that those with serious charges framed against them more than six months before elections should not be allowed to contest. |
| The ball is clearly in the Prime Minister's court. There is enough sense in top BJP leaders for the Prime Minister to have a bipartisan consensus on this. If there is anything worse in public life than having to live with criminals, it is hanging the wrong people. |
| sub@business-standard.com |
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