Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal claimed on Monday that he had not said anything about Parliamentarians that had not been said before or written about before. “But if Parliamentarians feel that by punishing me they can restore the dignity of the House, they can do so,” he said.
Reacting to the pandemonium leading to adjournment in the Lok Sabha over his remarks about criminal charges against some members, he wondered whether the dignity of the House was not lowered when mikes were thrown about, chairs were hurled and Bills torn on the Floor of the House. “I respect Parliament and that is why there is a worry that if there are 162 people in the House with criminal background, with charges of murder, attempt to murder, cheating and kidnapping against them, how can we expect them to pass a law against corruption or to strengthen the criminal justice system? There is a direct conflict of interest here.”
Seeking electoral reforms that kept out people with criminal background, he said he was questioning the system, not lowering the dignity of Parliament, adding that political parties who gave ticket to tainted candidates were just as answerable to people.
“Shooting the messenger is not the solution,” said another Team Anna member Kiran Bedi. “What has been said is in the public domain. It is part of so many films in India, cleared by censor boards. The question, therefore, is why we have come to this state of affairs. I wish Parliament calls a special session to reflect upon people's perception about politicians.”
Mr. Kejriwal has been served privilege notices by the Lok Sabha secretariat on complaints of Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress members. On Monday, during social activist Anna Hazare's one-day fast at Jantar Mantar here to highlight the weaknesses in the Whistle-Blowers Bill, Mr. Kejriwal had named United Progressive Alliance Ministers against whom, he said, media had reported charges of corruption.
Keywords: Team Anna, Arvind Kejriwal, Parliamentarians
mvrangaraajan: Thank you for this insight!
We usually get around 50% of voter turn out, and these are the people
who elect the incompetent, the corrupt and the criminals. Don't they
know what they are doing? What is wrong here? Don't they know that the
freebies they get mean bad roads, bad education?
Someone should make a movie on what the poor people (majority of the
voters) think and how they make decisions. Also movies are a great way
to educate them on basic economics and civics.
Readers who have free time, and would like to do something with a
social benefit: I urge you to make a video tutorial in your local
language on any topic you are good at and post it on youtube. It will
just take 1 hour of preparation and 1 hour of recording with a laptop.
Maybe someone will watch it and maybe someone will show it on a screen
to 20 illiterate people on a projector. Whatever maybe, it is better
than spending 2 hours watching mindless TV or lazying around!
These politicians are real crook. They know very well that they are in a mess already. Whether its BJP or Congress its all the same, two sides of a coin. They just want to divert the main topic. By the way how come these politicians have their own privilege but the people of India don't have .
The parliamentarians are unnecessarily making a fuss for nothing. 75%
of the people in India live on a salary less than 20 rs per day. For
all the people where does the concept of voting for the right guy comes into the picture. Doling out Rs 2000 per vote is like giving them 3-4 months salary for casting their vote who can't understand its vote value. Education is must for making them understand and without it its very difficult to change India. It is a deliberate ploy on the part of most of the politicians to keep India this way so that they can thrive.
Mr.Arvind Kejriwal has not said anything out of the way. But at the same time the parliamentarians were elected by voters. Hence the voters should be blamed first. Unless clean candidates are in the fray people should not vote for anybody in an election. A country, election and government are not created for the benefit of politicians to carve out a career for them. In fact nobody should be given a second consecutive term in any elected office. This will help so many newcomers to represent people and then go back to their former occupation. Some may argue about the pension burden to ex-PRs but the cost should be borne to have a clean system of governance.
What Kejiriwal said was stated in many TV programmes and News papers already.So where is the action against them? Where is the action against the Police who had filed cases on them?
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