Wealthy, tainted candidates: Perfect recipe for violence
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: February 21, 2022 -
When 53 per cent of the candidates contesting the Assembly elections are multi-millionaires, and 21 percent of them have criminal cases pending absolution and educational background in between 5th and 12th standard, then it's obvious that whatever mechanism the Election Commission of India has been continuously formulating to prevent election-related violence would fall short of serving the purpose.
Prior to issuance of the official notification for conduct of the 12th Manipur Legislative Assembly election, the Heirok incident in which political workers gunned down a college student and left his father injured not only hogged the limelight but gave an inkling that the exercise of choosing 60 lawmakers wouldn't be free and fair.
Amid periodical reports of threat and intimidation of political workers, unknown people using firearms to attack houses of candidates and their supporters after the Heirok violence, the Mayang Imphal incident of gunning down two people, who were close to a candidate, deepened the suspicion that deadly attacks would be more pronounced in this election.
Such apprehension among the masses has been corroborated by the latest clashes among political workers as well as the injuries caused to a candidate's father in Andro assembly constituency on Friday evening.
Though identity of perpetrators of the Andro incident is yet to be established, it could be safely stated that the murder bid on father of the NPP candidate was carried out at the behest of one of the rivals and the attack was aimed at creating fear psychosis in the rival camps and among the supporters.
As the firing incident took place close to the residence of the NPP candidate after an election-related discussion, it is also obvious that the intention was to drive home the message that the voters are at risk of facing unwanted consequences if they don't heed the warning.
The Friday incident was not limited to Andro assembly constituency alone as on the same everting NPP Youth Wing president of Mao AC and another political worker of the Front's candidate faced attacks.
Such incidents, though unfortunate and despicable, definitely reflect the frustration of certain individuals or candidates, who aren't interested in upholding the principle of fair play but are hell-bent on securing electoral triumph at any cost.
In view of similar poll-related incidents also reported from different places in the run-up to the election, the current trend suggests that the election wouldn't be free and fair in any sense, no matter how many more security forces are deploy.
Interestingly, these incidents are occurring amid a recent report released by Manipur Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) that out of 173 candidates in the fray, 91 are crorepatis while all major parties contesting in the first phase elections have allotted tickets to 11 to 29 per cent of candidates with declared criminal cases against them.
While the role of money power in elections could be comprehended from all major political parties favouring wealthy individuals, it is the fielding of candidates with criminal antecedents which threatens to turn the ensuing democratic exercise into a battle of who has more firepower.
* Comments posted by users in this discussion thread and other parts of this site are opinions of the individuals posting them (whose user ID is displayed alongside) and not the views of e-pao.net. We strongly recommend that users exercise responsibility, sensitivity and caution over language while writing your opinions which will be seen and read by other users. Please read a complete Guideline on using comments on this website.