Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Bill's main failure

Sir,— The urgency shown by the Union Law Ministry in drafting the Representation of the People Bill 2002 is welcome. But the Bill cannot effectively deal with the present faults in the election process. The Bill undoubtedly goes beyond Election Commission's directives in that any candidate who has been "charged" (as against "convicted") by competent court at least in two separate cases of "heinous crimes" (why two is another question) would be disqualified. But the problem is with the definition and connotation of the term, "heinous". The most important drawback in the proposed Bill is that it does not speak about the disclosure of personal assets. Does the Union Cabinet not consider having assets above known sources of income a "heinous crime?" Having assets above known sources of income is nothing less than dacoity. Criminalisation has to be comprehensively defined to include misuse of money and muscle power or else any law would be highly defunct or liable to be misused.

Puttanna,

Bangalore

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