The Law Vs The Legislator

Poornima Joshi, Rajesh Sinha, Bhavdeep Kang June 21, 2004 00:00 IST The Law Vs The Legislator -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

The BJP’s relentless campaign against the "tainted" ministers in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has brought into focus as never before the infiltration of, and acceptance for, criminal elements in public life. In a Lok Sabha of 542 members, there are no less than 100 MPs who’ve been chargesheeted in criminal cases, ranging from minor misdemeanours like "disturbing the peace" to the omnibus charge of "rioting" to serious offences like murder, rape and dacoity.

Of these five-score MPs across the political spectrum, roughly one-third can be described as those involved in heinous crimes. A dozen have murder charges against them, another 10 have been charged with attempted murder. Around 11 of them are, in public perception, known as "dons".

This "representative" character of the 14th Lok Sabha was on display on its inaugural day as two of Bihar’s most notorious dons, Mohammad Shahabuddin and Suraj Bhan, sat sandwiched between home minister Shivraj Patil and former DGP and newly-elected Congress MP Nikhil Kumar on the backbenches. The irony of having...