When India attained independence from British colonial rule on August 15, 1947, it had a galaxy of political stars, most of whom were also prominent intellectuals and writers. Jawaharlal Nehru, B.R. Ambedkar, C. Rajagoplachari, Abul Kalam Azad, E.M.S. Namboodiripad and many others who entered parliament and state assemblies did their best to follow the practices of Westminster-style parliamentary democracy and raised the level of political discourse to great heights.
However, despite widespread poverty, illiteracy and under-development, makers of the Indian constitution in their wisdom decided to adopt universal suffrage. While it widened the base of democracy and offered equal opportunity to everybody to participate in the political life of the country and aspire to rise to the highest post, it also inflicted certain deformities on the political system.
Over the past four decades, more and more candidates with questionable background have contested elections and entered parliament as well as state assemblies. Some of them also became ministers.
India is in the process of electing a new parliament. So far five phases of polling are over, in which 3,305 candidates have contested. According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, 557 of these are facing criminal cases against them in courts. As many as 328 candidates face serious criminal charges like murder, rape and robbery. It is obvious that one cannot expect decent democratic behavior from people with a criminal background in parliament and state assemblies.
In the past two decades, most state assemblies have witnessed scenes of people's representatives trading abuses, uprooting microphones from their desks and using them as missiles to physically assault their opponents.
It's not surprising that the level of political discourse in the country in general, and during elections in particular, has touched unimaginable depths. The trend is not healthy for the future of Indian democracy. For the past decade, the BJP has been using pejorative terms for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh like "nikamma" (incapable), "rubber stamp", "without authority in his cabinet" and "taking orders from Congress president Sonia Gandhi."
In the last parliamentary elections, Sonia Gandhi raised a controversy by calling Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi "maut ka saudagar" (trader of death), while Modi called the Congress party symbol, the hand, a "khooni panja" (blood-stained paw).
Some time ago, BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had provoked a volley of protests from the Muslims when he indirectly equated them with "puppies." He has also been in the habit of taunting Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi as "Shahzada" (Prince), and attacking his brother-in-law Robert Vadra for alleged corruption in land deals.
Amit Shah, Modi's close confidant and in charge of the BJP's election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, made a provocative statement in Muzaffarnagar, which had witnessed fierce Hindu-Muslim violence last year, exhorting the Hindu voters to "take revenge" against Muslims.
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav advocated lenient laws for repeat rape offenders, while his trusted lieutenant Azam Khan claimed that only Muslim soldiers fought and sacrificed their lives during the Kargil war and attained victory over the enemy while no Hindu took part in it.
BJP leader Giriraj Singh in Jharkhand has threatened that those who oppose Modi will have no place in India after the elections and they will have to migrate to Pakistan.
Scared of negative fallout, his party dissociated itself from his remark, but he has not budged from it although the police have registered a complaint against him and the Election Commission of India has issued him a show cause notice.
In a democracy, elections provide a chance to every political party and candidate to propagate their policy stance and influence the opinion of the voters. Threats, inducements or bribes have no place in a free and fair election.
However, the absence of serious political dialogue and discourse has prompted leaders of various political parties to issue threats. In Maharashtra, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has been accused of threatening to stop the water supply of voters in Baramati constituency that if they did not vote for his cousin and party candidate Supriya Sule.
The trend of launching personal attacks rather than making political criticism is gaining ground. The unruly behavior of members often stalls the proceedings in parliament and state assemblies. This cannot result in anything but the weakening of Indian democracy.
The author is a Delhi-based journalist who writes on politics and culture. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn