NEW DELHI – More than 40 percent of lawmakers in India’s new parliamentface criminal charges — some as serious as murder and rape — and the listis growing, an electoral reform group said Saturday.
One member of parliament for the opposition Congress party is battling 204cases including manslaughter and robbery, the Association of DemocraticReforms (ADR) said.
At least 233 of the 543 members named as winning seats on Thursday facecriminal proceedings, according to the ADR, whose election chief Anil Vermasaid there is a “disturbing trend” in parliament that “is bad for thedemocracy”.
The ADR said it studied the records of 539 of the winners and found thatthe number facing criminal cases was the highest since it started studiesin 2004.
The report said 116 of the 303 lawmakers from Prime Minister NarendraModi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) landslide win face charges, includingone for terrorism.
Twenty-nine of the 52 Congress MPs face cases. Dean Kuriakose from Idukki,in Kerala state, faces 204 criminal cases.
The ADR said the number of lawmakers facing grave criminal cases had morethan doubled in a decade — including 11 murder cases, 30 manslaughtercharges and three accused of rape.
Indian laws bar people from contesting an election if they have beenconvicted while in office for crimes that carry jail terms of two or moreyears, with some exceptions depending on the crime.
Candidates standing for office for the first time are allowed to have aconviction.
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None of the 185 lawmakers from the previous parliament who faced criminalcases was convicted. Many have returned for a new term.
Firebrand Hindu nationalist nun Sadhvi Pragya Thakur, a newly elected BJPMP, faces a terrorism charge over a 2008 attack near a mosque that killedsix people. She denies the charges and says she was framed by a previousCongress government.
Parties often brush off charges against their candidates by saying theywere victims of political vendettas.
This year India’s election commission made it mandatory for candidates topublish details of their criminal records during the campaign period.
The ADR campaigns to bring accountability into Indian politics andsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to make candidates file theireducational, financial and criminal records.
Verma said the political class sought to avoid reform. But he added: “Wewill continue to legally fight this menace and demand that courts barcandidates facing criminal charges.” -APP/AFP
