Legislators must remain sensitive to perceptions of morality:

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said legislators must remain sensitive to perceptions of morality and ethics of people who have elected them.
"Our politics without a self-searching morality cannot sustain a strong society and economy," Hooda stated in his reply to a Calling Attention notice submitted by Congress MLA Anand Singh Dangi on the opening day of Haryana Assembly's monsoon session here.
Hooda's reply was read out by Parliamentary Affairs minister, Randeep Singh Surjewala.
Dangi had expressed his concern over criminalisation of politics saying it has been a matter of constant debate over the last 67 years.
Dangi said Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has been convicted and sentenced in connection with a teachers' recruitment scam for corruption and other related offences and wondered, "Whether it is morally appropriate and Constitutionally correct for such convicted members to continue as members of the House".

Hooda said, there is no doubt that Supreme Court has upheld the Constitutional mandate of being extremely stringent towards legislators who have been convicted of crimes.

"All successful democracies are founded on a strong ethical basis. Elections are a method to demonstrate that the candidate's ethical character is endorsed by the voters.
"Continuation of convicted legislators does not appear to have a moral basis. Those who find themselves in a position of having been convicted, need to look within themselves and decide on grounds of conscience whether they wish to sit in the august House," he said.
"If the time honoured judicial system of our country at any time holds a public representative in breach of law of the land and convicts him of a major crime, he must look inwards and decide if the trust of the people who elected him has been breached," Hooda said without naming Chautala.

As opposition INLD members and one BJP legislator were suspended for the remainder of the session for unruly behaviour, many Congress MLAs including Dangi, Ram Kishen Fouji who spoke on the Calling Attention motion, sought that Chautala should be forcibly made to resign as Leader of Opposition.
Later, the Speaker said that he too associates himself with the motion.
"There is no doubt that there should be probity in public life and high moral standards should be set," he said.