Jalandhar, July 26, 2016:
US Based North American Punjabi Association (NAPA) has accused that union government for adopting different yard sticks with the people of Punjab.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, NAPA executive director Satnam Singh Chahal said that if the Suspension of MP Bhawant Mann is justified then one-third of MPs in the Lok Sabha who face criminal charges should be suspended immediately till the time they prove themselves innocent.Chahal said that the 16th Lok Sabha have the highest number of MPs with criminal cases against them according to election affidavits filed by them before the Election Commission. Among the major parties, the Rashtriya Janata Dal leads the table with all its four MPs facing criminal charges, followed by the Shiv Sena (15 of 18 MPs) and the Nationalist Congress Party (4 of 5 MPs).
Over a third of the BJP’s new MPs are facing criminal charges and over a fifth face serious criminal charges. For the Congress, the proportion is lower at 18 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.Across parties, candidates facing criminal charges were more than twice as likely to win as compared to those with a clean recor.Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have the highest number of candidates with criminal cases against them.