NEW DELHI: Press Council of India chairman P.B. Sawant last week called upon the press to mobilize the masses and build a public opinion for uprooting the malice of criminalization of politics.
“The fourth estate should fulfill its duty of exposing corruption and the criminalization of society. This along with increased awareness among the masses will result in a revolution breaking the nexus between politicians and criminals,” Mr. Sawant stressed while speaking on “Criminalization on politics and the role of press” at a meeting organized by the Rotary Club of Delhi, Panchshila Park here.
Mr. Sawant expressed concern over the trend of newspapers ignoring their watchdog role in society and serving the interests of the business houses that owned the publication.
“A section of the corporate sector, is running newspapers to use their clout for seeking favors from: politicians and in the process, the freedom of the press has been severely constrained, he said.
Lauding journalists, who had been exposing the politician criminal nexus despite odds, he said the press needed collateral support form society and protection from the government for Carrying out the job in a better way. However, the latter, he regretted, was not forthcoming due to corruption and the entry of criminals into pol tics.
Mr. Sawant traced the origin of the criminalization of politics to the increased play of money. Our electoral process is such that political parties need to maintain a cadre, rig votes and, at times, even mayhem rivals to come to power. Funds for all such activities are provided by the section of organized “white collar criminals” who in return seek cover for their crimes from parties and politicians, he said, Of late, criminals, rather than relying on politicians for protection, have themselves started to occupy political offices. The fact that 182 legislators in the recently dissolved Utar Pradesh house had criminal records is an excellent example of this, he said.
Recently a breed of leaders, from sections of society which have not experience of using power, have come to the fore and they have been often misguided and exploited by criminals, he said.
Mr. Sawant said the criminalization of politics had also corrupted the executive and certain levels of judiciary in the country. “Still, everything is not lost,” he said, adding, “Corruption and the nexus between crime and politics exists even in most advanced societies and the ultimate solution to check this is to curb consumerism. It’s consumerism which is the root cause of rime and instigates the have-nots to resort to crime for attaining the standard of living similar to the rich,” he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 24, 1995
