Book review: Milan Vaishnav, When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics
| Published date | 01 June 2018 |
| Date | 01 June 2018 |
| Author | Gilles Verniers |
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023018762829 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Milan Vaishnav, When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics. New Delhi: Harper Collins. 2016.
410 pages. `799.
In this book, an expansion of his doctoral thesis, Milan Vaishnav describes and analyses one of the most
commonly discussed yet least understood phenomena in Indian politics: the great number of elected
representatives who have been charged with serious crimes, a phenomenon also known as the criminali-
zation of politics. While the book loses some of the statistical richness that was contained in the thesis,
it is an original and thought-provoking account that is reasonably accessible to a wide range of readers
both in and outside of the academy.
Vaishnav introduces this ambitious research agenda with a series of rhetorical questions. Why would
individuals notorious for having committed serious crimes contest elections? Why do political parties
select such candidates? And why would voters opt preferentially for criminally tainted candidates?
Vaishnav’s answer makes use of a market analogy, in which parties, voters and candidates meet in a
competitive political sphere to trade tickets, votes and services. Candidates who have faced criminal
charges place themselves at the disposal of parties, which seek to tap their resources and ability to mobilize
votes. Candidates also proffer themselves to voters, who seek to elect representatives who can act as
effective mediators between themselves and a variety of institutions, both public and private, that oversee
the local or regional distribution of resources. Thus, the supply of criminal candidates by political parties
meets the voters’ demands, as these three groups of actors all work in the pursuit of self-interest (p. 18).
In so doing, Vaishnav discards several misconceptions regarding the criminalization of politics, such as
the idea that voters could somehow have been misled—through misinformation or lack of information—
or coerced—through intimidation and violence—to vote for criminal candidates.
However, the true strength of the book lies primarily in its empirical base, a comprehensive and
critical analysis of the criminal charges levied against nearly every candidate who ran for office in all
35 state elections held in India between 2003 and 2009 and the three general elections held since 2004.
Vaishnav dissects the affidavits of thousands of candidates across India to determine statistically that,
‘even beyond the impact of money, alleged criminality seems to provide an added bonus to candidates’
electoral fortunes’ (p. 153). Throughout his analysis, Vaishnav includes the appropriate caveats to such
data-driven methods and skilfully addresses the counter-arguments that could be advanced against his
data and his treatment of the data.
The second strength of the book comes from the strong, original argument that the importance of
criminality in determining the outcome of local political contests increases when social cleavages—
particularly caste divisions—are more salient. The more parties are incentivized to mobilize on ethnic
lines (when there is competition locally between several castes), the greater the motivation they have
Studies in Indian Politics
6(1) 146–156
© 2018 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2321023018762829
http://journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
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