No quick fix solution
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: October 24, 2013 -

A day after Congress MP Rashid Masood was disqualified from being a member in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament, following his conviction in a corruption case related to fraudulent nomination of undeserving candidates to MBBS seats allotted to Tripura in medical colleges across the country from the central pool while he was the Health Minister in the National Front Government of 1990; two more MPs namely Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and Jagdish Sharma of Janata Dal (United) have faced the same ignominy of being disqualified from their seats in the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the Parliament on October 22 after they were convicted in the multi-crore fodder scam.

All these developments, which none could have ever expected to see or even thought of its possibility, has come fast and swift after the Supreme court verdict of July 10 last which struck down subsection (4) of Section 8 of the Representation of People’s Act, and upholds immediate disqualification of convicted legislators from not only continuation in their seats in the Parliament or State Assemblies but also from contesting elections.

Thus, Congress MP Rashid Masood has become the first casualty of the apex court order while Lalu Prasad and Jagdish Sharma, though both share the dubious distinction of become the second victims, are also the first among Lok Sabha members to be disqualified after the Supreme Court order.

The strong objection raised to the Supreme Court order when it was first announced and the subsequent all-out efforts made by all the political parties, both ruling and the opposition, to defang the apex court ruling even to the extend of passing an ordinance hastily in a bit to shield the convicted lawmakers from disqualification, and of course, the drama enacted by Rahul Gandhi after the ordinance was cleared by his own Government, have all become a thing of the past today.

With disqualification of three convicted Members of Parliament (MPs) one after the other, it seems that India is finally on the right track of cleaning up its own political system which has become synonymous with corruption at all levels.

But will this Supreme Court order, though appreciable, be actually helpful in preventing corrupt politicians from entering into politics or rooting out corruption that has eaten into the very core of Indian society? We doubt.

The notion behind the Supreme Court verdict is to keep the electorates from choosing criminals as their representatives just by putting in place some legal restrictions.

It is like a quick fix solution. But this is not how a democracy should function.

For a meaningful democracy, what is more important is to make the electorates be able to differentiate and single out corrupt politicians who are unworthy of becoming their representatives.

So, the bottom line is, we need sensible and enlighten voters, who would not be lured by anyone with a Rs 500 or Rs 1000 note during election time in exchange of their precious voting rights.