Curbing Criminalisation of Politics in India

Democracy as an essential feature of the Constitution is unassailable and free and fair elections lie at the core of the democratic polity. While a free election is where all citizens can vote for candidates of their own choice with a free mind and without any threat or pressure, a fair election is one in which all votes have equal power and are counted equally but in addition to the above, a fair election encapsulates much more other than recognizing the principle of one man, one vote, and one value. If you ask ten people as to what free and fair election is, there will be ten different responses but amongst all, people insist on ‘clean candidates’ for the elections to be effective. It is one of the most disturbing features of India’s electoral democracy that the candidates with a tainted and tarnished image are unscrupulously fielded by the political parties who indeed have no reservations but to directly or indirectly indulge in criminality to gain success at an election. Resultantly, we fail to have good leaders to keep the country abreast with the other progressing States. Today, India might vaingloriously claim to be the world’s largest serving democracy but it can sadly not hold up to claim to be the greatest democracy of ideal representatives.