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India often celebrates itself as the world’s largest democracy. But a new report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reveals a disturbing truth. Nearly half of India’s ministers are burdened with criminal cases. Out of 643 ministers across states, Union Territories, and the Union Council of Ministers, 302 (47 percent) have declared pending cases in their election affidavits. More worrying, 174 of them face serious charges like murder, kidnapping, and crimes against women.
A Parliament Split Between Justice and Crime
When lawmakers carry the weight of lawbreaking, democracy itself suffers. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 136 ministers (40 percent) with criminal records. The Congress does even worse, with 74 percent of its ministers tainted. The Aam Aadmi Party, which built its identity on clean politics, has 69 percent of its ministers facing cases. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam tops the list, with 87 percent under legal scrutiny.
It is not about one party or one ideology. It is a collective failure of India’s political culture. When voters are presented with candidates who are both wealthy and powerful, criminal backgrounds are brushed aside as irrelevant.
Parties Compete in the Race to the Bottom
Political parties across the spectrum normalize the entry of tainted leaders. Instead of competing to uphold values, they compete in fielding candidates with money and muscle. Voters are left choosing not between right and wrong but between bad and worse. This erosion of standards ensures that the corridors of power remain closed to ordinary, honest citizens.
The Crores Behind the Criminal Records
The ADR report also exposes another dimension: wealth. Together, ministers in India declared assets worth ₹23,929 crore, with an average of ₹37.21 crore per minister. Karnataka ministers top the list with ₹100 crore each on average. The Union Council of Ministers itself includes six billionaires.
TDP MP Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani declared assets of ₹5,705 crore. Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar and Andhra Pradesh’s N Chandrababu Naidu follow with ₹1,413 crore and ₹931 crore respectively. With this kind of wealth concentrated in politics, public service appears secondary to private gain.
Why Citizens Should Be Worried
India’s literacy rate is 80 percent. But political literacy—the ability to judge candidates by ethics, not caste or cash—remains low. This weakness allows tainted politicians to win elections repeatedly. The result is a cycle where criminal cases are ignored, accountability vanishes, and public trust in institutions erodes.
This raises difficult questions. How can laws on women’s safety be trusted when ministers voting for them face charges of crimes against women? How can anti-corruption drives succeed when lawmakers themselves amass questionable wealth? The credibility of democracy is weakened at its core.
What Needs to Change Before It’s Too Lat
India cannot afford to treat this as normal. Some steps are urgent:
- Time-bound trials for elected representatives so that cases are not dragged on for decades.
- Disqualification upon framing of serious charges, not just upon conviction.
- Voter awareness campaigns that highlight the importance of clean candidates.
- Public funding of elections to curb the power of money in politics.
Without these reforms, the problem will only deepen.
The Responsibility Lies With Us Too
Democracy is not just the act of casting a vote every five years. It is about demanding integrity from those who seek to represent us. If nearly half of our ministers today carry criminal charges, it is because millions of us ignored these red flags yesterday.
A democracy that accepts criminals as lawmakers is playing with fire. The line between governance and gangsterism cannot be allowed to blur any further. If India is to remain a true democracy, the time for awareness and reform is not after the next election—it is now.
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