Congratulating the Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi and expecting him to deliver his promise to provide ‘clean and exemplary’ governance, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch have written a letter urging him to include only “clean” MPs in his cabinet.

The letter also brings to Modi’s notice the disturbing fact that the newly formed 16th Lok Sabha has a sizeable number of MPs facing serious criminal charges. It says 186 (34 per cent) of the 541 newly elected MPs analysed by ADR had declared criminal cases, with 98 out of 281 MPs in BJP alone.

The ADR reminded Modi of his promise in the election campaign that “the next Parliament would be cleaned by punishing the guilty”, and urged him to ensure that MPs with serious criminal cases should not be made Ministers or given chairs of responsibilities in Parliament such as in Standing Committees, Financial committees etc.

Also, any such MP should not be assigned a portfolio in the Cabinet that poses a conflict of interest with his/her business interests.​

Pointing out that the steady increase in the number of MPs facing criminal charges over the years was a matter of grave concern to the country, ADR said “while in Lok Sabha 2004,​the number of MPs facing criminal charges was 24 per cent, in 2009 it had increased to 30 per cent, and in the newly elected Lok Sabha 2014, the number has reached the mark of 34 per cent.”