Therefore when the Election Commission vouchsafed a desire to cleanse the political system it was cause enough for celebration. The former chief election commissioner, T.N. Seshan, was the first to go public with his desire to prevent criminals from joining mainstream politics.

M.S. Gill and G.V.G. Krishna-murthy, not to be left behind, also fulminated long and furiously against criminality in politics.

But all those brave words and postures will not prevent people who have chargesheets against them from participating as candidates in the assembly elections that are to take place in November in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Mizoram. Truly there's many a slip between the lip and the lists.

Thus far, political candidates are required to reveal only whether they have been convicted ornot. It was widely hoped that in these elections they would be made to fill in revised performas soliciting information on whether any criminal chargesheets had been filed against them.

The rationale behind such a measure is simple, and has been delineated by election commissioner Krishnamurthy in a draft performa submitted last fortnight.

The fact is that many a criminal who had committed serious offences like rape, extortion and even murder and who were presently chargesheeted but not convicted for their crimes, faced no hurdle in contesting elections, getting elected and even going on to become ministers holding important portfolios.

Why the Election Commission did not go ahead and include the performa this time is a mystery. Hardly a day goes by without a reminder of the dangerous nexus between the criminal world and the various legislatures.

When the dreaded UP don, S.P. Shukla, was gunned downed recently, his close links with many worthies now adorning the UP cabinet were revealed. Similarly,the unholy connections of men like Romesh Sharma, presently under judicial remand in Delhi, brings a certain urgency to the need to de-criminalise politics. Sharma straddled the twilight worlds of big money, big business and mainstream politics with consummate ease, acquiring land, houses, cars, a helicopter and a political party in the process.

Of course, performas of the kind that Krishnamurthy has envisaged, do not by themselves break the criminal-politician nexus. But they represent a small, but significant initiative to address the problem.

When criminals acquire political legitimacy, their capacity to wreak havoc on the political system and civil society are enhanced many times over. Left to themselves, ordinary people would not willingly vote in such persons.

But all too often they are left with little choice, with these dubious candidates having acquired both respectability and the support of major political parties.

It is the political careers of such people which need to be nipped in thebud. The Election Commission exists to ensure that democracy in this country is protected and enhanced. To play its appointed role, it will have to take its tasks as gate-keeper to the country's political processes more seriously.