Devesh Vijay
The Tribune
13/1/08
The Cancer of Organised Crime
Organised crime is not unique to India. In the advanced
west also, where huge profits are available in the flesh trade, drug
peddling, money laundering and arms and human trafficking, thousands
are organised in criminal syndicates ready to kill or maim for
profit. But the extent to which hardened criminals have found entry
in our legislatures, ministries and big businesses of late and
accumulated power, prestige and apparent immunity from the rule of
law in populous states such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh is a matter
of immense concern for the whole nation. According to Intelligence
Bureau’s latest estimate, nearly one fourth of MPs and MLAs from the
above states have heinous criminal cases registered against them.
In this context, the introduction of the Uttar Pradesh Control of
Organised Crime Act (UPCOCA) by the Mayawati government to counter
the menace of a well entrenched mafia should have been widely
welcomed. Yet, the cancer of criminalization has spread so far today
that any reckless surgery also threatens to aggravate it further
now. The opposition to the wide ranging powers bestowed by the above
legislation on police and magistrates has thus emanated from all
political parties in UP barring the ruling BSP. The
criminal-politician conundrum in our society needs to be examined
very closely in this complicated scenario.
Only a few years ago, the N.N. Vohra Committee, appointed in the
wake of the 1993 bomb blasts, had observed that in several parts of
the country “the mafia is virtually running a parallel government,
pushing the state apparatus into irrelevance---criminal gangs and
armed senas have developed extensive contacts with bureaucrats,
politicians, media persons---(and) even the members of the judicial
system”. A decade after the publication of this report, even this
alarming portrayal appears rather dated as the virus of
criminalization seems to be crippling not only the polity today but
also the civil society as a whole. The Deol Committee report
submitted by IB to the PMO spells out the same in some detail.
Till the early sixties, for example, criminals could
hardly dare to stand in elections. Today, in some states, they have
graduated from aiding politicians to controlling them. Honest
officers are transferred, promoted and, sometimes, murdered at their
instance. Their henchmen can run kidnapping and extortion rackets
even from jails while agents from enemy states use them for
unleashing terror, riots and separatism at times. Their ‘businesses’
are not only run along corporate lines but whole industries such as
real estate, bootlegging, entertainment and lately, the printing of
currency too seem to be swamped by them.
Yet, this is not the entire story of criminalization in India. The
problem has actually infected the very core of our society. For
instance, extortion and molestation have been reported even from
places of worship; vice chancellors of some of our universities have
been known to have hired criminals to maintain ‘order’ on campuses;
in several smaller towns it is scary for anyone to move alone on a
new vehicle or with cash; youngsters from affluent families are also
taking to kidnapping and carjacking just for ‘fun’; prostitution
rackets have moved beyond brothels and hotels to middle class
housing societies and government offices and, what is even more
worrisome, we the people have not only watched the spread of the rot
silently but have also learnt to laugh at it as evident in block
busters flooded with the underworld’s lingo and paeans sung for film
‘stars’ who would not hesitate to dance like bar girls for the
underworld. Even in smaller towns and villages now mobs seem ever
ready to lynch petty offenders but ‘ethnic’ dons have enough clout
to win elections with huge margins. Sadly, our academic discourses
and text books seem nowhere ready to even register the problem in
spite of this grim scenario.
The need for a major overhaul in our legal system to
plug the loopholes which enabled the mafiosi to spread its tentacles
so wide is pressing. According to the latest report of the National
Crime Records Bureau, the rate of conviction in the adjudged cases,
in 2004, was less than 40% while the percentage of cases pending was
as high as 85% of the total. Yet, an over dependence on laws
which merely inflate the powers of the police and the ruling party
to hang ‘criminals’ selectively, may turn out to be a case of
killing a patient through over-medication.
The gauntlet thrown by Mayawati at the Bahubalis is undoubtedly bold
and praiseworthy. Yet, just as in the case of POTA and TADA, the
critical point is whether we need firm and fair implementation of
existing laws or partisan application of draconian new acts.
Fortunately UP, despite being high on crime and violence, has uptil
now remained relatively free of the problem of naxalism and
separatism. If the legal process is misused for crushing dissent,
this saving grace of the Hindi heartland may also erode.
A number of inquiry commissions have listed a slew of small but
vital steps for checking organized crime including a speedier
criminal justice system (the pendency of 2.5 crore cases in the
lower courts and another 3.5 lakh in different High Courts is truly
demoralizing for the nation), better collation of
intelligence—nationally and internationally, foolproof protection to
witnesses daring to help the law against murderous gangs, electoral
reforms to debar history sheeters from elections and prison reforms
to turn jails into reformatories rather than universities of crime.
Apart from this, extensive computerization of banks and property
transactions as well as police stations and, above all, a resolve
among political parties to not grant tickets to criminals for
elections. Unfortunately, few of these have been meaningfully
implemented. In this scenario, the media can make a vital
contribution by keeping a relentless focus on the reach of the mafia
and particularly the criminal antecedents of politicians and
bureaucrats whether calling themselves nationalists, socialists,
revolutionaries or watchmen of tradition or community.
The stakes in this war are very high indeed. Organised crime not
only creates a spiral of violence and insecurity but also stalls
development and perverts the functioning of democratic institutions
entirely. Once over the hill, the slide into chaos or, its obverse--
fascism, may be extremely difficult to arrest in the present state
of our political culture.
Dr. Devesh Vijay
Reader in History
Zakir Husain College, University of Delhi
Res: D 14-A/2, Model Town
Delhi-110009.
Ph: 65470370.
