Paper short abstract:

The paper seeks to understand the historical institutional development of Indian parliament through its persistent association with corruption.

Paper long abstract:

This paper analyses criminality and corruption in India's parliament, which pose a serious challenge to the legitimacy of an institution that is central to Indian and indeed any democracy. It does so through the lens of the privileges of parliament and its members. A disconcerting feature of India's parliament is the significant number of MPs with criminal charges against them. In 2008 opposition MPs said they had been offered bribes to vote for the government during a no-trust vote. Such acts bring up the question of how far privilege and immunity to MPs should extend. This issue goes as far as back as 1951 when an MP was accused of receiving money to ask questions and move amendments in parliament. The 2008 cash-for-vote scandal raised troubling questions about the behaviour and accountability of MPs. Thanks to public interest litigation, the courts have periodically stepped in and imposed regulations on the eligibility of election candidates and the levels of transparency they should be subject to. The paper seeks to understand the historical institutional development of Indian parliament and its persistent association with corruption in the context of the following set of questions: Do the privileges of the House and its members perpetuate the poor image of representatives? Are the privileges an impediment to accountability? Does parliament have adequate mechanisms to ensure that the privileges are not abused? What is the role of the courts, civil society and the media in highlighting and regulating these abuses?