There has been a national outcry seeking harsher laws for rapists in India. As the outrage grows against the heinous incident of gangrape in Delhi and Parliament discusses the issue, Vicky Nanjappa takes a look at the background of our lawmakers (members of Parliament and members of legislative assemblies) with respect to rape cases and other crimes against women based on their self-sworn affidavits.
The Association for Democratic Reforms, which provided a report on the issue shows that a large number of candidates with rape charges against them were given tickets by political parties to contest the elections.
Highlights:
Six MLAs have declared that they have charges of rape against themselves in their sworn affidavits submitted with the Election Commission at the time of their election.
Of these six MLAs with declared rape cases, three belong to the Samajwadi Party -- Sribhagwan Sharma, Anoop Sanda and Manoj Kumar Paras (all from Uttar Pradesh), one from the Bahujan Samaj Party namely Mohd Aleem Khan from (UP), Jethabhai G Ahir from Gujarat (Bharatiya Janata Party) and Kandikunta Venkata Prasad from Andhra Pradesh (Telugu Desam Party).
Thirty-six other MLAs have declared that they have other charges of crimes against women such as outraging the modesty of a woman, assault, insulting the modesty of a woman etc.
Of the 36 MLAs who have declared that they have charges of crimes against women, six MLAs are from the Congress, five from the BJP and three from the SP.
UP has the maximum number of MLAs (8) who have declared that they have charges of crimes against women, followed by Orissa and West Bengal with seven MLAs each.
Two MPs, namely Semmalai S of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam from Salem constituency in Tamil Nadu, and Adhikari Suvendu of All India Trinamool Congress from Tamluk constituency in West Bengal, have declared that they have charges of crimes against women, such as cruelty and intent to outrage a woman's modesty etc.
Candidates
Political parties gave tickets to 27 candidates who contested the state elections in the last five years, who have declared that they have been charged with rape.
Of these, seven are independent candidates, five have been given tickets by the SP, two have been given tickets by the BJP and two are BSP candidates.
Out of these 27 candidates who declared rape charges, 10 are from UP, and 5 are from Bihar.
Political parties also gave tickets to 260 other contesting candidates in the legislative assembly elections held in the last five years have declared that they have charges of crimes against women such as outraging the modesty of a woman, assault, insulting the modesty of a woman etc.
Out of the 260 candidates who declared that they have been charged with crimes against women, 72 are independent candidates, 24 have been given tickets by the BJP, 26 by the INC, 16 by the SP and 18 have been given tickets by the BSP.
Maharasthra has the maximum number of such candidates (41), followed by Uttar Pradesh (37) and West Bengal (22).
In the Lok Sabha 2009 elections, political parties gave tickets to six candidates who declared that they have been charged with rape. Of these, one is from the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, one from the Rashtravadi Communist Party, one from the BSP, one from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and two independent candidates.
Out of these six candidates who declared rape charges, three are from Bihar, one from Delhi, one from Uttar Pradesh and one from Andhra Pradesh.
Thirty-four other contesting candidates from the Lok Sabha 2009 general elections declared that they have charges of crimes against women.
Twelve out of the other 34 Lok Sabha 2009 candidates declared that they have been charged with crimes against women, 77 are IND candidates, 4 are BSP candidates and 2 each from AITC and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation.
Maximum cases of crimes against women are against candidates from Bihar (9), followed by Maharashtra (6), and Uttar Pradesh (5).
