Shri Narendra Modi called for the need to have ‘Apradh-Mukt Raajneeti’ (clean politics) that is also development-oriented, in his recent interview with the ANI. Sharing his deep concern for the criminalization of politics, which has torn the Nation apart, Shri Modi said, “In our country, criminalisation of politics is a grave issue. It should be the concern of every party and all the leaders. While in the beginning, leadership for the country emerged from the revolution for Independence, it later shifted to social welfare and then towards casteism. However, gradually, this took the form of criminalization and leadership thereafter emerged through the gunpoint. This way, things got reversed, and instead of the political parties taking help from the criminals, as was the case earlier, now it were the criminals who took the charge. Even if at a meager 2 - 3 %, this was a grave concern.”
Shri Modi further went on to state a feasible and revolutionary solution for this concern, and asserted that while not giving tickets to such leaders would not solve the problem completely, he affirmed that after coming to power, every MLA or MP with a criminal charge, irrespective of the party he or she belonged to, would be tried in special courts, the cases of which would be disposed off within a year. Shri Modi said that he did not believe in vindictive politics, and added, “This way, if a person is convicted and his seat gets vacated, a person of non-criminal background can takeover.”
Suggesting that he was open to other practical ideas too, Shri Modi said that his inclination to have special courts should not be taken in the political context of putting people behind bars, but rather of punishing those who had done the wrong. “There is nothing vindictive in what I am saying. It’s not that we will start a new CBI inquiry or dig out files of certain leaders. I don’t want to commit this sin. I want the credibility of the Indian institutions and the respect of the constitutional organization to be increased. If the country stands on multiple pillars of constitutional institutions, then it will emerge stronger,” affirmed Shri Modi.
