When Crime Pays
Author- Milan Vaishnav ( Carnegie Endowment for International Peace )
Genre- Non fiction
Political scholars like Aristotle and John Stuart Mill were opposed to bringing democracy in societies lacking democratic culture. This is because they feared that it would turn democracy into a mobocracy , or in the words of Pratap Bhanu Mehta , a “Plutocracy.” The criminalisation of politics in India has always dented the credibility of India’s democratic culture and accountability of its institutions. But why have we reached to such a sorry state of affairs where 43% of Lok Sabha MPs face at lest one criminal case pending against them, is something the book dwells into in depth.
The author has not written a book, but a critically analysed research paper that spans 300+ pages and this is precisely the beauty of this book. It explains each and every phenomenon that leads to the criminalisation of politics in great detail in a logical and coherent manner. The seamless flow of the book by breaking down each and every component in great detail is the proof of author’s success in conveying the arguments to his readers in a convincing sense.
The author presents an “electoral marketplace” where there is a demand and supply of criminal politicians. He then analyses the demand side factors and the supply side factors taking into consideration all the stakeholders like the candidates, the political parties, the Election Commission , public institutions and the voters. He analyses why candidates with criminal antecedents enter the electoral fora in the first place, why political parties give tickets to such candidates and most intriguingly why do the electors choose them overwhelmingly even after knowing their backgrounds in a cognisant manner. He analyses the role of caste/ethnicity in determining the choice of voters.
To answer all these, he brilliantly uses data from various public databases and plots them on graphs to give a logical and clearer understanding of the issues involved . He gives case studies of various criminal candidates , their lives and their electoral careers. He highlights the increasing role of money in elections that have made Indian elections only next to the US elections in terms of election spending. He also highlights the issues of weak enforcement of laws, over-bureaucratised state, lack of public provisioning of services to the poor and a delayed judicial system. He concludes by suggesting ways like state funding of elections, giving teeth to election commission to take stringent actions, etc.
All in all this book is an eye-opener and gives a beautiful insight into the dark corners of what has been described as the country’s biggest festival and I highly recommend this book who has a keen interest in the arena of politics.
Genre- Non fiction
Political scholars like Aristotle and John Stuart Mill were opposed to bringing democracy in societies lacking democratic culture. This is because they feared that it would turn democracy into a mobocracy , or in the words of Pratap Bhanu Mehta , a “Plutocracy.” The criminalisation of politics in India has always dented the credibility of India’s democratic culture and accountability of its institutions. But why have we reached to such a sorry state of affairs where 43% of Lok Sabha MPs face at lest one criminal case pending against them, is something the book dwells into in depth.
The author has not written a book, but a critically analysed research paper that spans 300+ pages and this is precisely the beauty of this book. It explains each and every phenomenon that leads to the criminalisation of politics in great detail in a logical and coherent manner. The seamless flow of the book by breaking down each and every component in great detail is the proof of author’s success in conveying the arguments to his readers in a convincing sense.
The author presents an “electoral marketplace” where there is a demand and supply of criminal politicians. He then analyses the demand side factors and the supply side factors taking into consideration all the stakeholders like the candidates, the political parties, the Election Commission , public institutions and the voters. He analyses why candidates with criminal antecedents enter the electoral fora in the first place, why political parties give tickets to such candidates and most intriguingly why do the electors choose them overwhelmingly even after knowing their backgrounds in a cognisant manner. He analyses the role of caste/ethnicity in determining the choice of voters.
To answer all these, he brilliantly uses data from various public databases and plots them on graphs to give a logical and clearer understanding of the issues involved . He gives case studies of various criminal candidates , their lives and their electoral careers. He highlights the increasing role of money in elections that have made Indian elections only next to the US elections in terms of election spending. He also highlights the issues of weak enforcement of laws, over-bureaucratised state, lack of public provisioning of services to the poor and a delayed judicial system. He concludes by suggesting ways like state funding of elections, giving teeth to election commission to take stringent actions, etc.
All in all this book is an eye-opener and gives a beautiful insight into the dark corners of what has been described as the country’s biggest festival and I highly recommend this book who has a keen interest in the arena of politics.
It seems interesting. I should read and let you know. ☺️
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