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Sir, everybody is talking of criminalisation of politics; everybody is talking of entry of criminals into different legislative bodies. How is this queering the entire democratic system? How corruption has become one of the major banes of our national life? These are matters which are not only plaguing this country, but they are also eating into the vitals of our parliamentary democratic system, based on election. We have had surfeit of Committees and Commissions with regard to electoral reforms and everybody talks about them. Now, I find as a Minister of Petroleum, Shri Ram Naik has lost some of his vitality for these electoral reforms, but he has always been a champion of electoral reforms. I admire him for this also, apart from many other things. I do not know whether he will be kicked up or down. We see all sorts of speculations in the newspapers.

SHRI RAM NAIK: Friendship will always be there. … (Interruptions)

SHRI SOMNATH CHATTERJEE : Friendship will always be there so long as you do not totally go away, go astray. Do not clarify too many times yourself. … (Interruptions) We have the privilege of working together, training in this House and working in the same Committees. I have seen his passionate devotion to whatever job he does. I admire it sincerely. … (Interruptions) This is an issue which nobody can deny. I am sure that electoral reforms is a very important issue in this country. I have had the privilege of being a Member of the Committee in 1971, which was set up by the hon. Speaker in which Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Shri L.K. Advani were very important Members. There were other important Members also. I had the occasion to work with them. That was presided over by Shri C. Jagannath Rao, the former Minister of Law of the Congress Government. Then, there was a non-official Committee under the leadership of Shri V.M. Tarkunde. I am sure my good friend, Shri Arun Jaitely is aware of it. Then, we had the Dinesh Goswami Committee.

SHRI RAM NAIK: I have 23 lakh voters.

SHRI SOMNATH CHATTERJEE : So, you have got the distinction of being number one! That is why you are supporting it. But would you like to get rid of any one of them?… (Interruptions) I thought Delhi was first, but you have scored over that.

SHRI RAM NAIK: Thane has 31 lakhs.

SHRI ADHI SANKAR (CUDDALORE): But our Deputy-Speaker’s constituency has only 21,000.

SHRI SOMNATH CHATTERJEE : You cannot add portions of Chennai to Lakshadweep. Therefore, Sir, this is important. I am not denying it because it has not been done for so many years. Even now we have to go by 1991 census; we are not going by 2001 census. We have to go by 1991 census because full results of 2001 census are not available. We shall already be ten years behind. So many changes have taken place within these ten years. Therefore, I call upon the Government not to treat it as a piecemeal issue. We are supporting this Bill, but you cannot just wash off your hands of this. You cannot be the beneficiary of the other distortions. If you want to be the beneficiary of the other distortions, we have to do our job of exposing this. Therefore, I think if there is any commitment on the part of the Government, please indicate what are your time-tables on this. It has become absolutely necessary. There are no two opinions about it. We, the Members of Parliament, are ridiculed today. I would not name the hon. Member who said the other day on the TV. He said: "What is wrong if there are criminal cases against me? I am not yet convicted. People know that I am accused in so many cases, but even then I win." People in jail are winning. We cannot stop them. Therefore, these are matters which have to be looked into. People are ridiculed. Before the last election to Lok Sabha, in one of those discussions on the TV when the audience are brought – Shri Arun Jaitley has innumerous experience, I am sure – the audience were all first-time voters, 18 plus, and one of them said that we today equate a person with dhoti and kurta to be a crook - not as a politician but as a crook – and everybody clapped. I said: "If this is your perception, for heaven’s sake, you come into politics and cleanse it." Merely giving lectures from outside will not help unless good people come into the political stream. We must have a Government. We do not want a Government of this nature perpetually, this motley combination. We have to have a better Government. Therefore, there has to be a constant input of good people also.

Sir, the establishment of a Delimitation Commission is very necessary. It is the need of the hour. Some of the constituencies today only have three to four lakh electorates whereas some of the constituencies have an electorate of 20 to 22 lakhs or even more. So, we need to have delimitation in such cases. We should go in for the establishment of a Delimitation Commission, maybe, after every ten or twenty years. It should be made a mandatory provision.

SHRI RAM NAIK: The Constitution says that it should be done after every ten years.