• Last week, a special CBI court found Rashid Masood, a Congress Rajya Sabha MP, guilty of nominating undeserving candidates to medical seats. It was a ‘scam’ that broke out when Masood was minister of state for health in 1991. He now faces the prospect of disqualification as an MP following the supreme court’s order in July that bars parliamentarians and legislators convicted for at least two years in jail.
  
• Lalu Prasad, the former chief minister of Bihar and now a member of parliament from his Rashtriya Janata Dal, a UPA ally, is likely to face a verdict from special CBI court on September 30 in the fodder scam.

In normal circumstances, both would have ceased to be members of parliament with immediate effect. But Indian politics does not always amble along on a course called normal by most normal people. Ergo, both might just escape.

The key to their escape route – an ordinance brought in by the government that says convicted legislators can continue in office if the appeal against conviction is admitted by a higher court within 90 days – now lies with President Pranab Mukherjee, who has to sign the ordinance for it to take effect.

Mukherjee, who is now besieged with requests not to sign the ordinance, is in the piquant situation since the government could not get Rajya Sabha to pass a bill to similar effect – primarily negating the supreme court’s negation of convicted criminals, a.k.a. legislators, to rule over the fate of the average Indian. As the bill has gone to the standing committee on law, a hurried, and harried, government moved an ordinance on September 24 to shield its tainted MPs and MLAs.

ALSO READ Jagdeep Chhokar’s letter to Pranab Mukherjee: Pranab-da, look before you sign this ordinance

According to the ordinance, convicted MPs and MLAs may continue to participate in proceedings of parliament or state legislatures but will not be entitled to either vote or draw salary and allowances till the case is settled. Now, this set is certainly not small in numbers, for a study by the National Election Watch and Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) reports that 31 percent of MPs and MLAs/MLCs have criminal cases pending against them.

The opposition party, BJP, which ironically had no objection to the bill that sought to allegedly protect criminals legislators, is now criticizing the government’s decision to take the ordinance route. “I think the Congress is all hell-bent on demolishing democracy…. Why does Congress want cheats, rapists and murders as MPs and MLAs?" BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy wondered aloud.

The Left also questioned the “timing” of the ordinance. “Definitely the timing is highly questionable; that is why people from different walks of life are questioning the intent of this ordinance, which is going to be promulgated by the union government,” said D Raja of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Note the stress on the “timing”. Would it have been all right to bring a law, or issue an ordinance, that protects convicted legislators from facing immediate disqualification?

The BJP has asked President Mukherjee not to sign the ordinance, as has the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the new kid on the block that is contesting the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

If Mukherjee still signs the ordinance, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal said they will challenge it through a PIL.

So will the president give a fresh lease of life to the likes of Rashid Masood and Lalu Yadav, and the other one-third of their brothers and sisters in parliament and state legislatures? As former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian told a news channel: “We also want to see whether he (Pranab Mukherjee) is a Congressman or the president of India.”