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Criminal politicians in India promote crime, including against women

The situation is even worse in Indian states with weaker institutions, where the impact on the economy and crime is particularly severe.

Pappu Yadav speaks at a party meeting.
Pappu Yadav, a long-serving member of the Indian Parliament, is currently facing 41 cases and has already been convicted of murder. Photo by Santosh Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Pappu Yadav has been a member of the Indian lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, for almost 25 years. For almost as long, he has been facing serious criminal allegations.

Yadav, who represents a constituency in the state of Bihar, has 41 cases pending against him. He was convicted of murder in 2008 and given a life sentence, but was acquitted in 2013. And in 2021, he was arrested in connection with a 32-year-old kidnapping case.

Yadav is not alone.

Nishith Prakash, a professor of public policy and economics at Northeastern University, says the veteran politician is one of many politicians in India who have managed to bend or break the law for their own benefit. Another politician, Anant Singh, a four-time elected member of the Bihar Legislative Assembly, faces over 38 criminal cases, including seven murders, 11 attempted murders and four kidnappings.

“They are elected, and over time the number has only increased,” says Prakash. “In some states, it could be as many as 40% of the people representing the state who have some sort of criminal charge against them.”

This is not unique to India, Prakash notes. However, in a recent paper in the Journal of Law Economics and Organization, Prakash and his co-authors found that states with more indicted politicians also have higher crime rates. Crime breeds crime, Prakash says.

“If you look at states with weaker institutions, you get the bigger picture,” says Prakash. “In states with weaker institutions, these politicians have actually increased crime, and if you classify these cases as serious allegations, those involving kidnapping and murder, then they have a greater effect on crime.”

This trend is more common in states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, which are historically considered to have weaker institutions, adds Prakash.

An increase in the number of criminal politicians in these states was accompanied by an increase in overall crime of 4.3% per year. This figure rises to 5.8% when taking into account the increase in the number of politicians accused of serious crimes such as murder or kidnapping.

Based on a concept known as weak rule of law, Prakash says that politicians facing criminal charges either directly or indirectly benefit from, contribute to, and can exacerbate a deterioration in public order in states whose institutions are already weakened.

Lalu Prasad Yadav, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal political party, is one of the most notorious examples of this trend. Yadav's regime in Bihar frequently made headlines for its involvement in high-profile kidnapping cases and earned the name “Jungle Raj” in the 1980s and 1990s, when kidnapping for ransom became big business.

“These kidnappers were indirectly or in some cases directly supported by the state or the person in power,” says Prakash. “In the late 1990s, the situation became extremely dire when several doctors migrated abroad due to extortion. The crisis deepened further when even school children became targets of kidnappings.”

Prakash points out that tracking down politicians accused of crimes has become easier in India thanks to a landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2003. The court ruled that anyone running for political office must disclose all criminal cases in which they have been involved, including accusations and charges, but not convictions. Anyone convicted of a crime cannot run for political office in India.

The researchers also examined the extent to which politicians accused of crimes influence crime more specifically: They found that an increase in the number of criminal politicians also led to a 12.6 percent increase in crimes against women.

There were also corresponding effects on women’s participation in the workforce.

“It is precisely where crime is increasing that women's participation in the workforce is also lower,” says Prakash. “This should be reflected, because when crime is high, women do not feel safe and do not go to work.”

Prakash says that historically, women's labor force participation in India is lower, especially in urban areas. However, in areas with more politicians facing criminal charges, the proportion of women participating in the workforce fell by 10 to 11 percent.

Previously, Prakash had found that the quality of elected politicians also has another economic impact: in regions of India where there are more politicians accused of crimes, economic growth is 2.3 to 6.5 percent lower annually.

Change happens slowly, if at all, Prakash says, but in recent years there has been a push to reform India's political system, thanks in part to this research, which has attracted the interest of India's courts and Election Commission.

“The quality of politicians is important,” says Prakash. “Who you vote for affects the outcomes that we care about. It can be economic growth, it can be crime against women, it can be labor force participation. These are very important outcomes for society and the economy.”

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