NEW DELHI, 24 December 2005 — Taking a strong stand on corruption, India’s Parliament yesterday voted to expel 11 lawmakers who were caught taking bribes in a sting operation by a television channel.
The lower house voted to expel 10 lawmakers and the upper house, Rajya Sabha, expelled one member, the first time that body has expelled one of its own. The powerful lower house, or Lok Sabha, had not removed a member since 1951. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Chhattrapal Singh Lodha made history by becoming the first Rajya Sabha member to be expelled.
The ten expelled Lok Sabha members are — M.K. Anna Sahib Patil (BJP, Erandol, Maharashtra), Y.G. Mahajan (BJP, Jalgoan, Maharashtra), Pradip Gandhi (BJP, Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh), Suresh Chandel (BJP, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh), Baba Saheb Chandra Pratap Singh (BJP, Sidhi, Madhya Pradesh), Ram Sevak Singh (Congress, Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh), Manoj Kumar (RJD, Palamau, Jharkhand), Narendra Kumar Kushwaha (BSP, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh), Lal Chandra (BSP, Robertsganj-Uttar Pradesh) and Raja Ram Pal (BSP, Bilhaur-Uttar Pradesh).
The 11 legislators belonging to different political parties, were shown on the independent Aaj Tak television channel earlier this month accepting cash from journalists who posed as representatives of a fictitious lobbying group.
The expulsion follows the findings of a five-member committee appointed by the speaker of the powerful lower house which ruled that the conduct of the lawmakers was “unethical” and they should not be allowed to continue as members of Parliament.
“The expulsion is not a matter of legality but that of our conscience,” said Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee after the motion was passed in both houses of Parliament.
“It was a painful decision but will vindicate the dignity of our sovereign Parliament,” said Mukherjee, who as leader of the Lok Sabha moved the resolution in the lower house.
The televised vote was unanimous in favor of the expulsion after the BJP walked out ahead of the ballot, saying the punishment was too harsh and did not match the offense.
“It was unbecoming conduct on the part of the involved members. But this kind of punishment is unjustified,” said BJP leader L.K. Advani. Six of the lawmakers are from his party.
However, some questioned the legality of the move. “The term of a Rajya Sabha member is fixed and there is no provision in the constitution that allows for shortening that term,” Ram Jethmalani, a former BJP law minister told the Press Trust of India news agency.
The journalists managed to get the lawmakers to take them up on the offer, paying the politicians from across the political spectrum between 15,000 rupees and 110,000 rupees to submit more than 60 questions to the Indian Parliament’s rigorous selection process.
The TV station working along with a website, Cobrapost, said they were trying to expose corruption.
