Current Events
Look At The Results Of A Much Needed Broom-Sweep in India’s Capital:
Now, How About The Rest Of India?
NEWS REPORT
New Delhi, India
Spring comes early in North India. Delhites picked up their jharroohs (brooms) and swept their city-state clean of the Congress and the BJP in the election a few days ago.
Now see what it has done to the quality of Delhi’s Members of the Legislative Assembly (“MLA“s):
The capital’s new list of law makers, for the first time in years, has no MLAs charged with ‘heinous’ criminal offences, the Association for Democratic Reforms’ (“ADR”) analysis of their electoral affidavits has found.
However, over one out of three MLAs has been charged with other criminal offences, including Delhi’s incoming Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has 10 trumped up charges of rioting, defamation and unlawful assembly against him by the BJP gang.
But, none have murder convictions or charges, for robbery, rape, kidnapping, etc. For India, this is a breath of fresh air!
Even given the less than serious charges, this is the lowest number of MLAs charged with criminal offences since 2008, the first election in Delhi for which candidates had to declare criminal offences in their affidavits.
Candidates with criminal charges are still more likely, though, to win election than those without, ADR’s data shows; one out of five candidates with a criminal record won, while less than one out of 10 candidates with a ‘clean’ record won.
The new assembly will also have the fewest members with assets over Rs. 10 million among the last three assemblies.
And, the new House also has more educated MLAs than before; 24 MLAs have not studied past Class XII, while 43 are graduates and above; 47 MLAs are under the age of 50.
The number of women MLAs has doubled since 2013, but is still less than 10 per cent of the Assembly’s strength.
Imagine, all of this was achieved by simply throwing out the BJP and Congress politicians from one state alone.
It’s the tip of the iceberg, though.
But to make it really meaningful, the broom has to be applied to the rest of the country. How will that happen though, with Amit Shah as the President of the country’s ruling party, BJP?
Amit Shah personally had charges pending against him for scores of murders, all backed by substantive evidence only last year … and guess what?
They’ve all disappeared into thin air since Narendra Modi and the BJP came to power 9 months ago and Shah became the president of BJP!
A mighty big jharrooh is sorely needed now …
February 12, 2015
Conversation about this article
1: Sriram Dayal Prasad (Kanpur, India), February 12, 2015, 2:39 PM.
What's this? Nobody is impressed by Modi's suit with his own name embroidered on it a thousand times, over and over again? What else, and how much more, do the people expect from this fearless and charismatic leader?
2: Sangat Singh (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), February 12, 2015, 4:24 PM.
Arvind Kejriwal is the man of the hour who, unlike the insincere and hugely arrogant Modi, speaks from his heart and acts with his head. His direction indicates that he would solve old problems in new ways although given the enormity, it is akin to emptying the polluted ocean one tea spoon at a time. But he has shown that the people's power built on their participation, even without money power, can still do wonders. It is now Punjab's turn to rally behind his clarion call.
3: Gurinder Singh (Stockton, California, U.S.A.), February 13, 2015, 3:13 AM.
I am sure Punjab will back his party and throw out the shameless Akalis. They have tarnished the image of Sikhs by indulging in corruption and promoting drugs, and consequently destroyed the economy and the public morale.
4: Sriram Dayal Prasad (Kanpur, India), February 13, 2015, 4:51 AM.
And then, this man -- Narendra Modi -- and his massive marketing complex, feign surprise when his chamchas in his home state (the same where he engineered the mass-murders and thus endeared himself to the local Hindus) erected a Hindu temple with Modi as the main idol! His hollow attempts at humility in asking that the idol be removed, remind me of Julius Caesar who, as Shakespeare describes so vividly, had Mark Anthony offer him a crown thrice, publicly, which he then did thrice refuse, in an attempt to show how much of a people's man he was. Did that impress anybody? If I remember correctly, a bunch of his own friends knocked him off not long after that, didn't they? Beware the Ides of March, Mr Modi!