Sir,
It is deplorable that 46 per cent of those elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly this time have criminal backgrounds as reported by the Odisha Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms.
Democracy, a product of developed civilisation, is based on sacrosanct principles. A politician desiring to contest election for serving people should be a person of honesty, integrity and transparency, without which he is unfit to be a people’s representative.
While 67 MLAs out of 146 of Odisha have declared criminal cases in their affidavits, it is morally inappropriate on their parts to contest elections. Is it not the moral responsibility of the Chief Minister to debar these criminal politicians from contesting elections? Politics is the business of the rich and powerful these days.
There is no chance of poor and lower middle class persons to compete in the electoral democracy.
The objective of the elected representatives with criminal records is to indulge in corrupt practices to amass wealth for their fourteen generations.
Are not the politicians of our State suspected of complicity in mining scam looting crores of public money? People expect Naveenbabu this time to take appropriate steps to eradicate PC and corruption at least at the Ministerial level.
