Criminalization of Politics

Over the last two decades, the influence of criminals in the political arena has shown a tremendous increase. Earlier these criminal elements used to influence the elections from outside but now they have become a part of the political system by contesting the elections themselves. The Supreme Court made the disclosure of criminal antecedents of candidates mandatory; following which Election Commission of India started asking candidates contesting elections to the Parliament and State Assemblies to file affidavits in the specified format disclosing the same as essential parts of their nomination forms.