Who has custody of the custodians?

Even though, the video footage of Gujarat Congress MP Vitthal Radadiya brandishing gun at toll plaza attendant went viral on TV news channels, the state Congress has been trying hard to play down the incident. The toll booth operator has been accused of impertinence and Radadiya has claimed that he was “surrounded by 15 men” (none of whom are visible in the CCTV tapes).

Apparently, the toll booth operator had been impertinent enough to ask for identification from the MP, which was enough to incite the latter to pull out his gun. Nothing surprising in that. After all, the ruling classes in the country are known to have fragile egos, easily offended. It was not too long ago that former Indian cricketer Atul Wassan was roundly thrashed by the body guards of Haryana's Minister of State for Home Gopal Kanda. The offence then, was having overtaken the august minister's car on Delhi-Gurgaon highway at night.

In another incident in 2010, Kanda was caught on camera using abusive language and asking his security personnel to fire at traders who were observing a strike in Sirsa district after his motorcade was stopped during the protest. Kanda has since, lost his post after one misdemeanour too many, this time leading to the suicide of a lady.

Even a cursory glance at the backgrounds of our lawmakers justifies the nation's nonchalance. Over 24 per cent of the 541 Member of Parliament have serious criminal records. This seems rather ironic and even a little hypocritical on the part of the MPs because a government official – one is al least a graduate, who has to go through rigorous examination to be selected for the post he holds, undergoes training for more than a year to undertake his responsibilities and then rise up through the ranks to attain his position – will be unceremoniously removed from his post if he spends more than 24 hours in police custody.

The scenario is equally bad at the state level. Thirty five per cent or 252 of the 690 MLAs elected to the five Assemblies — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa — have criminal background, a rise of eight per cent from 2007. The analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms and the National Election Watch, 189 (47 per cent) new MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly have criminal cases against them.

Even looking back, the country has an extensive history of known criminals acting as lawmakers. We have had a much feared bandit acting as an MP twice. We had a man convicted of having kidnapped and murdered his personal assistant become a minister in the Union Cabinet. The list goes on and on.

The question that remains to be asked is, with such men at the helm, is there much hope for democracy to bloom in this country?