Several prominent personalities, including former lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, ex-CBI director Joginder Singh and former Director General of Police (DGP) Prakash Singh urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to implement the recommendations of the Election Commission and law Commission to stop criminals from taking part in the forthcoming assembly elections in four states.
In a letter to the PM, they said the recommendations of the two Commissions are the most reliable, implementable and comprehensive documents for decriminilisation of politics. "We request you to implement the recommendations in letter and spirit before forthcoming assembly elections and shut the doors for aspiring criminals," they said in their letter on August 20.
Among the other signatories were former law Minister Ram Jethmalani, Justice(retired) DS Tewatia, ex-bureaucrats Bhure lal and KJ Rao, former Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran, ex-DGP Shashi Kant, DIG Amitabh Thakur and ex-DIGs Ranbir Sharma and Subhash Kumar.
Senior advocates of Supreme Court Rajeev Dhavan, MC Mehta and Adish Agarwala were other signatories besides actors Mukesh Khanna, Mangal Dhillon and spiritual guru Pawan Sinha. Senior journalists NK Singh and Anurajan Jha, social activists Shyam Rudra Pathak, Raj Arora , Rajesh Gupta, Rakesh Aggarwal, Suresh Sharma, Jay Kant Mishra, Ashwini Upadhyay, Basav Raj Patil, Nutan Thakur and Sunita Godara besides retired Major Generals R P Chaubey and Vishnu Kant Chaturvedi also signed the letter.