Time to rid politics of criminals: Trinamool's Dinesh Trivedi

Welcoming the Supreme Court's opinion that lawmakers facing criminal charges should not be made ministers, Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi Thursday called for weeding out criminals from politics.

"I think there has to be some kind of channelisation, where forget about being a minister, a criminal will not be able to contest elections. However, the charges levelled should be heinous and not politically motivated," Trivedi told media persons on the sidelines of a programme here.

"I think time has come to get rid of each and every criminal from politics and the people will have to play a key role in that," said the former railway minister.

With several Trinamool leaders and lawmakers caught making hate speeches or facing prosecution in criminals cases, Trivedi made clear that his views were applicable to all irrespective of party.

"I don't differentiate between country or state or party. When I say it I mean it for everybody, otherwise I won't be honest to myself.

"Somewhere down the lines we have to call a spade a spade and in the process if you lose your job so be it," said Trivedi who was unceremoniously dumped as railway minister in 2012 by party supremo Mamata Banerjee for proposing a hike in passenger fares.

Trivedi also regretted that a few "tainted" people were part of the erstwhile Manmohan Singh-led central government.

"A prime minister or a chief minister should never accept a criminal as a minister. I was very sorry to see a very honest person like Manmohan Singh accepting a few of the people with known criminal antecedents and even facing cases before the Supreme Court," he said.