Throughout the UPA regime, there has been an endless relay of corruption scams. Every time, the scam has gotten bigger. What the UPA cabinet just did with its ordinance on allowing politicians with criminal records to contest elections, is easily the mother of all scams ever. It has put our democracy in deeper danger. The ordinance protects convicted MPs and MLAs from facing immediate disqualification.

On July 10, 2013, the Supreme Court had pronounced a historic judgment which mandated that a lawmaker (MP or MLA) would stand immediately disqualified from office if convicted by a court for crimes with jail punishment up to two years or more. Moreover, the convicted lawmaker would also be barred from contesting elections. Using the latest ordinance, the UPA has reversed the Supreme Court’s judgment.

The motive behind UPA’s move doesn’t seem too difficult to comprehend, considering the timing of this ordinance. As per Hindustan Times, there could be two chief beneficiaries of this new law. One is the Congress Rajya Sabha MP Rashid Masood who has been convicted in a corruption scam. The other beneficiary could be Congress ally Lalu Prasad Yadav, in case he is convicted in the notorious fodder scam. The sentencing in the case of Masood and conviction in the case of Lalu are due next week.

But that’s not all. Here are some shocking findings of a report posted on IBN Live. Out of 543 Lok Sabha MPs, 162 have criminal cases pending against them. In fact, 75 of them are facing serious criminal charges. In all, there are about 4,835 MPs and MLAs in India. Of these, about 1,448 are facing criminal cases. Out of these 1,448 members, 641 have declared serious criminal cases like rape, murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, robbery, extortion, etc. Need we comment on this?

The general elections are less than a year away. And the ruling party seems to be determined to go to any extent to ensure that it comes back to power, even if that means destroying the democratic fabric of the nation.

Let’s pledge to vote, vote against the criminal bugs who have percolated in the roots of politics of the country which has an aureate history of freedom struggle through ahimsa. Let’s fight another freedom struggle.

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