It is the voters who elect 'thieves and corrupts' as their representatives: Bihar speaker

PATNA: Bihar assembly speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary has said the elected representatives like MPs and MLAs are not ‘thieves and corrupt’, rather voters have elected people with questionable background as their representatives and later expect all virtues from them.
“There is a perception that all leaders have become ‘thieves and orrupt’. I am telling the same thing in other words that ‘thieves and corrupt’ persons have been elected by people as their representatives.In elections, all types of candidates-good and bad -- remain in the fray. But voters elect ‘thieves and corrupt’ people and later on, they expect all sorts of good qualities from such elected representatives,” Choudhary said while addressing 6th edition of the Bhartiya Chhatra Sansad (BCS) held at Pune, where CPM stalwart Sitaram Yechuri and former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hedge were other speakers.
The video of Choudhary’s speech which he delivered at the BCS last year was replayed at a programme at Bihar assembly’s annexe building here on Wednesday before a gathering of woman legislators and media persons.
The today's event was organised to motivate Bihar’s woman legislators to participate in the first National Woman Parliament to be held in Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) on February 10-12 this year. The three-day event is being jointly organised by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, Andhra Pradesh Government and MIT School of Government, Pune.
In his Pune speech, Choudhary while supporting reforms in the country’s electoral system, also called upon the youths to join politics. “You cannot reform it (politics) unless you enter in it,” he said, adding that there was an urgent need to create an atmosphere so that ‘Sachche log’ (truthful people) get elected as the members of legislative houses.
Briefing about the importance of the forthcoming national woman parliament, Choudhary said there are altogether 401 woman legislators and 93 woman MPs across the country. In Bihar, there are 28 woman legislators. The Andhra Pradesh speaker has appealed all woman lawmakers to join the first of its kind event. “Efforts are being made that maximum number of woman lawmakers from Bihar attend the Amaravati event,” Choudhary said.
Lauding the role of Nitish government in the field of woman empowerment, Choudhary said Bihar has been pioneer in facilitating strengthening of women by providing reservation in different sectors. He said, Bihar is the first state which provided 50% quota to women in local urban bodies and panchayat raj institutions way back in 2006 as well as 35% quota in the state government’s jobs. Bihar has provided 50% quota to women on the post of teachers in the government-run primary and secondary schools.
More than a dozen woman legislators including Leisi Singh and Ranju Geeta (both former ministers), Ejya Yadav, Prema Chourasia, Bhagirthi Devi, Gayatri Devi, Baby Kumari, Sweety Seema Hembrom and Rekha Paswan were present at the programme.