Dhananjay Munde’s resignation from Maharashtra’s council of ministers once again turns the spotlight on the shadowy links between criminal elements and the political class. The former’s role in election funding represents a serious challenge to the country’s internal security
Dhananjay Munde, the Food and Civil Supplies minister in the BJP-led Maharashtra cabinet resigned on Tuesday (March 4), ostensibly on ‘moral grounds’ after a close aide of his, Walmik Karad, was accused in December last of the brutal murder of a local sarpanch in the Beed district.
The timeline, from December to early March, tells its own tale of governance lapses and draws attention to one of the most tenacious and intractable structural elements degrading India’s internal security – the linkage between politics and crime.
The fact that Munde belongs to the NCP faction led by Ajit Pawar points to the complexity and compromises that shroud the coalition politics of Maharashtra, where the BJP-led Mahayuti government assumed office on December 5 and the sarpanch, Santosh Deshmukh was murdered on December 9. This was a gruesome murder with regional caste overtones and triggered by an extortion racket exposed by the sarpanch.
Data shows increasing evidence of legislators with criminal cases
As per data collated by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Maharashtra Election Watch, out of the 42 ministers analyzed in the Maharashtra cabinet - 26 (62 percent) ministers have declared criminal cases against themselves. Furthermore, 17 ministers have serious criminal cases against themselves, which is 40 percent of the cabinet.
This pattern of elected representatives with criminal cases against them is visible in the Lok Sabha also and ADR (which must be commended for its perseverance and due diligence in compiling such reports) noted that in the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, 251 MP-s (46 percent) of the newly elected MPs have criminal cases registered against them. This figure of 251 is just 21 short of a majority in the Lower House and is a sad reflection on the integrity index of Indian democracy. It is instructive that as per the ADR data - of the 240 BJP MPs in 2024, 39 per cent had criminal cases against them, with 26 per cent facing serious criminal charges.
That the cross section of those with criminal cases is steadily increasing in the Lok Sabha is borne out in the numbers. The total number of MPs with declared criminal cases against themselves is as follows: 125 in 2004; 162 in 2009; 185 in 2014 ; and now 251 in 2024.
Buried investigation into the criminal-politician nexus
The overlap between criminality and politics was put under the scanner by PM PV Narasimha Rao after the serial bombings in Mumbai in early 1993. Then Home Secretary NN Vohra was directed to review the nexus between crime syndicates and well entrenched extortion gangs that were protected by political personalities and certain government officials. The findings of this Vohra Report were deemed to be explosive and predictably, these details were never made public.
Successive governments (Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh and Modi) chose not to place the Vohra report in the public domain and it is now part of the sealed and forgotten archives of the Indian state.
Illegally generated money being acquired to fund elections and the elected representative then providing shelter and patronage to the criminal elements, who become the money-bags, has evolved into a robust ecosystem and this was alluded to by Mr. Vohra in the 2020 Sir Syed memorial lecture at the Aligarh Muslim University. He noted: “With known criminal elements enjoying the protection and patronage of powerful elements in the ruling hierarchies, a ‘criminal nexus’ between the polity, corrupt public servants and the mafia networks has been functioning for the past many years now.”
And referring to his own report, Governor Vohra added in his characteristically understated manner: “The Home Secretary submitted his report in early October 1993. Nearly three decades have since elapsed. The action taken on the findings in this report, which has generally been referred to as the 'Vohra Committee Report' is not in the public domain. Meanwhile, the criminal nexus has enormously extended its reach in several parts of the country and become many times more powerful.”
An unsafe country for whistle blowers
The Munde resignation is reflective of this deeply entrenched and well-oiled criminal nexus that runs a parallel form of governance through brazen extortion and in this case the sarpanch Deshmukh exposed the criminals and paid with his life. Earlier a journalist in Chhattisgarh, Mukesh Chandrakar who exposed an Rs 120 crores corruption case was murdered in January by the tentacles of the same nexus and the sad conclusion is that India is not a safe country for whistle blowers.
Given the snail-like pace with which such cases go through the labyrinth of the Indian investigative and judicial process, it is unlikely that the killers of sarpanch Deshmukh will be apprehended and sentenced in a swift manner. One hopes that CM Fadnavis will take ‘baby steps' on cleansing Maharashtra politics towards ethically better standards of political morality.
At the national level, steely political resolve and the highest levels of institutional integrity in the executive, police and judicial domains are required to tame this unholy nexus. On current evidence, this seems very unlikely and India’s internal security, alas, will continue to haemorrhage.