The Hindu : 38 'tainted' candidates win in Gujarat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 20, 2002

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National

38 'tainted' candidates win in Gujarat

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD Dec. 19. The maiden effort of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) to educate the voters in Gujarat on the "criminal background'' of the candidates in the Assembly elections does not seem to have paid much dividend. As many as 38 candidates with a "tainted past" have been successful in the December 12 elections in the 181-member House.

Among the elected representatives with dubious records, 29 will adorn the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party benches, while seven have been elected on the Congress ticket and two are from the Janata Dal (United). None of the 74 independent candidates with "criminal background'' were successful.

The ADR, formed recently by some professors of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a few others, set up a 12-member Election Watch Committee headed by the former Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court, Justice B.J. Diwan, with several other retired judges and other prominent citizens as its members. The committee after screening all the documents available, particularly the affidavits filed by the candidates themselves before the returning officers as required under the amended Act, prepared a list of 138 candidates which it believed had a tainted past.

Of the 34 candidates put up by the BJP with a tainted past, all but five were elected by the people while for the Congress seven of its 28 "criminal'' candidates were successful. The JD(U) could win only two seats, the father and son combination of the party's State unit president, Chhotubhai Vasava, and both have been accused of robbery, dacoity, criminal intimidation, attempt to murder and such serious crimes.

In nearly half-a-dozen cases, both the contesting candidates of the BJP and the Congress were people with criminal background giving the voters very little choice but to pick one of the two and shockingly in most cases the candidates with records of more serious crimes than his rival were elected.

Topping the list of the 38 successful candidates with a tainted past will be the Chief Minister-designate, Narendra Modi, himself but he was included in the list just because he was indicted by the independent Concerned Citizens' Tribunal for making "inflammatory speeches'' in the post-riot period. His name does not figure in the police crime record as not even a complaint filed against him, but most other successful candidates with "criminal background'' have more serious charges registered against them.

The Health Minister in the caretaker Modi Ministry, Ashok Bhatt, who is also tipped to become a Minister in the new Cabinet, is facing murder trial in the Ahmedabad civil and sessions court for the killing of an on-duty constable and injuring a home guard during the riots in 1985.

As the case was committed to sessions court after 15 years, Mr. Bhatt was obliged to resign as the Minister then but was taken back in the Cabinet after the High Court passed an order to quash the proceedings. The sessions court, however, did not agree with it and the case is still pending. Also, he also faces fresh charges for preventing police from doing their duty in 1997 and for suppressing information and impeded investigation as Revenue Minister on a Rs. 10 crore land grabbing scandal which is pending in the High Court.

Another Minister, Dillip Patel, has multiple cases pending against him including rioting, and a case filed by the Reserve Bank of India against him for alleged fraud on the Karamsad Urban Cooperative Bank besides being allegedly involved in burning people alive and looting during the recent communal riots as well as in a murder as recent as November, this year.

Several other Ministers in the outgoing Cabinet, Gordhan Jhadafiya, I.K. Jadeja, Vajubhai Vala, Purshottam Solanki, and other senior BJP MLAs including Kantilal Amrutiya, Jethabhai Bharvad, Jitubhai Vaghela and Kantibhai Kachoriya are also facing charges of rioting, intimidation, bank frauds, murder and such other serious charges.

The people with criminal background elected on the Congress ticket also have similar rioting, dacoity, murder, rape, land grabbing and such charges pending against them.

The ADR is not going to give up the fight easily. As its convener, Trilochan Sastry, said it would try to go deeper into the records of those elected with a tainted past to find if anyone had not made full mention of the charges pending against them in the affidavits and file petitions before the Election Commission or challenge in the court to set aside their elections.

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