Former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami today said there is a growing criminalisation of politics and favoured barring of persons with heinous criminal charges against them from contesting polls.
In an interaction with women journalists here, Gopalaswami, who demitted office yesterday, said he accepted the fact that politically motivated cases could be brought against any person contesting the polls and therefore any case registered six months prior to elections should not be considered.
"The law today says that anybody who is convicted cannot contest. There are apprehensions that false cases can be slapped and the government in power can target the opposition. I think a way has to be found to debar criminals," he said.
A proposal to this effect has been already made by the commission earlier and has been forwarded to the Parliamentary body concerned by the Law Ministry, he said.
The former CEC added that in the election laws of Municipalities and Panchayats of Rajasthan such a law barring politicians with charge sheets against them from contesting already exists. "If it can work there, we can also experiment with it here."
"But a person chargesheeted for heinous crime like murder, rape, dacoity (contesting)...How can you call yourself the largest democracy?" he asked.
Pointing out that the use of money power was another major problem facing the electoral process of the country, Gopalaswami said, "I am not saying that the rich should not contest...The amount of money that is now being spent is enormous." He, however, added, "Realistically, if you ask me, nothing is being done about it". "There is no need to do this. For parties who say that the sealing of Rs 25 lakh is too little an amount, I would say that there are parties which are managing with that amount. Then why can't others?" he added.
"And how can the Election Commission bar anybody till the law is amended?" he questioned. The former CEC also favoured creation of a single national identity card across the country.
