Corruption

Election V/s Corruption
Corruption in Indian elections has always been a key issue. As corruption is also closely linked to crime and underworld activities, many laws have been promulgated and stringent rules instituted by the Election Commission.

However, with corruption largely being a moral issue at the roots, law enforcing agencies have always found it hard to root out corruption through either enforcement or preventive surveillance.

Now that the dates for Indian elections have finally been announced, the Election Commission and its representatives countrywide are keeping a watchful eye on the activities of parties and their candidates. The idea is to prevent unethical practices like bribery, intimidation and also a misuse of office and power.

According to a veteran political analyst and former editor of The Statesman, Pran Chopra, India's political system has greatly vitiated by communalisation and criminalization. Sickness of corruption and influence of money and muscle power along with the use of religion in there in our electoral process.

He said that in many places, degeneration of electoral system as a result of illegal and immoral practices is being used for winning election. He also pointed out that the outgoing Parliament had only 332 sittings as compared with the previous 356, and had wasted a total of 423 hours-24 per cent of its time — on disruptions and adjournments due to disorderly scenes.

He also added that if immediate corrective measures are not taken pro-actively by all concerned, the future of democracy will face serious problem. One should never forget that democracy is not all about periodic elections and political rights alone.