Criminals in election fray

It is rather disturbing that there are reportedly 7,928 candidates with criminal cases in the electoral fray. Self-declarations have been given by 1,500. There are serious criminal cases against 1,070.

If 1,500 candidates have given declarations, the remaining 6,428 are mum. While it may not be fair to bar those facing criminal cases in courts from contesting the elections, candidates who have concealed that they are facing criminal cases should be barred from contesting.

The number of candidates facing such cases may be high if politically motivated complaints are lodged and charges are cooked up to prevent a candidate from contesting. Some people declaring and some not bear testimony to how loosely the law has been enacted. The loose-ends must be tied. Necessary amendments, if need be, must be moved.

Hassan, Karnataka

This refers to ‘To improve risk-management practices, RBI tells NBFCs to appoint ‘chief risk officer’’ (May 17). Managing the inherent risks while selling financial products to mobilise resources and thereafter generating credits to deploy funds are essential to avoid defaults and liquidity problems. Investors’ confidence on shadow banks is falling, besides lenders are not evincing interest in funding these entities. In fact, the defaults by IL&FS and other NBFCs have affected the financial market.

At this juncture, the direction to NBFCs having assets of more than ₹5,000 crore to hire a chief risk-officer to protect the interests of the stakeholders is crucial and will ensure confidence-building as well as risk-mitigation while creating the financial liabilities and assets for raising resources.

Kottayam

The Election Commission’s decision to curtail electioneering by 19 hours in the nine constituencies in West Bengal that would go to polls on Sunday was wholly unjustified. Evidently it was taken to benefit the BJP. It was yet another proof that the Commission was doing the BJP’s bidding. It is clear that the Commission fixed the deadline for electioneering as 10 p.m. on Thursday for Modi to do his rallies.

What was needed was not invocation of Article 324 to cut short the campaign period and ‘remove’ ADG Rajeev Kumar and Principal Secretary Atri Bhattacharya, but exemplary punishment to those who unleashed violence in Kolkata and created the ‘fear psychosis’.

Nobody has any illusion that the poll panel is a neutral and impartial umpire. The perception that the Commission condones blatant breach of the Model Code of Conduct by the BJP and denies a level-playing field for all parties not only costs the constitutional body its credibility but also subverts the sanctity of the election process. The Commission shirked its responsibility when it came to taking action on the complaints lodged against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.

Constitutional bodies should adhere to the Constitution without wavering if democracy is to be alive and kicking robustly.

Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

With reference to ‘Lodha Developers revives IPO plan’ (May 17), Lodha Developers’ sales of ₹1,000 crore in its India business is for March 2019 and not FY19, as published. The error is regretted.

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