Ethics Panel For Declaration Of Assets By Mps

Noting a general decline in moral and ethnical standrads in public life, a ten-member Rajya Sabha committee led by former Union home minister S B Chavan has recommended a code of ethics including mandatory declaration of assets by members and their families.

Apart from drafting a framework for a code of conduct, the committee has recommended that, to insulate Rajya Sabha elections from money power, an open ballot should replace the current secret ballot. On corporate funding of political parties, the committee has only said that its "ramifications need to be further examined".

"The committee noted the emerging trend of cross-voting in the elections for the Rajya Sabha...It is often alleged that large sums of money and other considerations encourage the electorate of these two bodies to vote in a particular manner leading sometimes to the defeat of the official candidates belonging to their own party", the committee remarked in its first report report presented yesterday.

The committee visited several countries to study the question of ethics in their respective parliaments, and is expected to publish subsequent reports on the procedures to be adopted to handle complaints and the mechanism for investigation into a complaint.

Some of the key elements of the code of conduct are:

* In their dealings if MPs find a conflict between their personal interests and public trust, private interests should be subordinated;

* MPs should never expect or accept any fee, remuneration or benefit for a vote given or not given on the floor of the House, for introducing a bill, for moving a resolution or desisting from moving it, putting a question or abstaining from asking a question or participating in the deliberations of the House or a parliamentary committee;

* MPs should not take a gift which may interfere with honest and impartial discharge of their official duties. They may, however, accept incidental gifts or inexpensive mementoes and customary hospitality;

* If MPs are in possession of confidential information by virtue of their position, they should not disclose it for advancing their personal interests.

The committee favoured political parties devising "self-controlling norms" to regulate the conduct of their members and deny tickets to people with criminal record or those with doubtful integrity. It did not favour the idea of subjecting the members to the disciplinary authority of an agency outside the jurisdiction of the house.