• Criminalization of Politics means that the criminals entering the politics and contesting elections 
  and even getting elected to the Parliament and state legislature. 
• Criminalisation of politics is the focus of public debate when discussion on electoral reforms takes place. 
• The issue of candidates facing criminal charges getting elected to Parliament and State legislative Assemblies is often raised.
• Data from the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) indicate that 179 out of the 543 elected MPs in the present Lok Sabha have some kind of criminal case pending against them. 
• In the case of over 100 MPs, the cases were of a very serious nature such as crimes against women and kidnapping.

Reasons why criminalisation of politics still exists in India:

• Corruption:
  1. In every election political parties  put up candidates with a criminal background.
  2. Evident link between criminality and the probability of winning is further reinforced when winnability of a candidate is looked into. A candidate facing criminal charges is twice as likely to win as a clean candidate.
• Vote Bank: The political parties and independent candidates have astronomical expenditure for vote buying and other illegitimate purposes through these criminals.
• Denial of Justice and Rule of Law:
  1. Toothless laws against convicted criminals standing for elections further encourage this process. Under current law, only people who have been convicted at least on two counts be debarred from becoming candidates. This leaves the field open for charge sheeted criminals, many of whom are habitual offenders or history-sheeters.
  2. Constitution does not specify what disqualifies an individual from contesting in an election to a legislature.
  3. It is the Representation of People Act which specifies what can disqualify an individual from contesting an election. The law does not bar individuals who have criminal cases pending against them from contesting elections
• Lack of governance: The root of the problem lies in the country’s poor governance capacity. .
• Scarcity of state capacity:
  1. The scarcity of state capacity is the reason for the public preferring ‘strongmen’ who can employ the required pulls and triggers to get things done.
  2. Criminality, far from deterring voters, encourages them because it signals that the candidate is capable of fulfilling his promises and securing the interests of the constituency.
• No political party is free of this problem. The use of muscle power along with money power is a weapon used by all political parties to maximise electoral gains.
• With cases dragging in courts for years, a disqualification based on conviction becomes ineffective. Low conviction rates in such cases compounds the problem;  voters don’t mind electing candidates facing criminal cases.
• Voter behaviour then emboldens political parties to give tickets to such candidates who can win an election on their ticket etc

Way Forward :-

• Law panel report bats for using the time of the framing of charges to initiate disqualification as an appropriate measure to curb the criminalisation of politics. 
• Political parties should themselves refuse tickets to the tainted. 
• The RPA Act should be amended to debar persons against whom cases of a heinous nature are pending from contesting elections. 
• Bringing greater transparency in campaign financing is going to make it less attractive for political parties to involve gangsters
• The Election Commission of India (ECI) should have the power to audit the financial accounts of political parties, or political parties’ finances should be brought under the right to information (RTI) law
• Broader governance will have to improve for voters to reduce the reliance on criminal politicians.
• Fast-track courts are necessary because politicians are able to delay the judicial process and serve for decades before prosecution.
• The Election Commission must take adequate measures to break the nexus between the criminals and the politicians.
• The forms prescribed by the Election Commission for candidates disclosing their convictions, cases pending in courts and so on in their nomination papers is a step in the right direction if it applied properly.
• Addressing the entire value chain of the electoral system will be the key to solving the puzzle of minimising criminal elements from getting elected to our legislatures. This process would involve sensitising the electorate about the role and responsibility of the elected representatives. 
• Political parties will have to be encouraged to have stronger inner party democracy to attract this new set of leaders to join the party. And finally, our judicial system will have to be overhauled drastically to ensure that justice is dispensed swiftly in all cases.