Modi urged to include only clean politicians in Cabinet
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, May 24 2014 :
National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) have jointly written a letter to the Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi, bringing to his notice the disturbing fact that the newly formed 16th Lok Sabha has a sizeable number of 112 MPs facing serious criminal charges and requesting him to include only clean representatives in his Cabinet.
The letter jointly signed by the Head of ADR and NEW Maj.
Gen.
(Retd.) Anil Verma, Founder Members Prof.Trilochan Sastry and Prof.Jagdeep Chhokar said that the steady increase in the number of MPs facing criminal charges over the years is a matter of grave concern to the country.
In the Lok Sabha 2004, the number of MPs facing criminal charges was 24 per cent, while in the Lok Sabha 2009 it increased to 30 per cent, the letter pointed out, saying that in the newly elected Lok Sabha, the number has reached the mark of 34 per cent.
In BJP alone, 98 (35%) out of 281 MPs analysed by NEW & ADR have self-declared criminal cases, whereas 63 (22%) have self-declared serious criminal cases like murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, dacoity, etc.
Given Modi's commitment to critically examine MPs with self-declared criminal cases and fast tracking cases against them, which he reiterated during the recent Lok Sabha campaign saying, "the next Parliament would be cleaned by punishing the guilty," the civil society organizations expected that the 14th Prime Minister will provide clean and exemplary governance.