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India protests after Singapore PM’s remarks on Lok Sabha MPs
The Indian side took up the matter by calling in Singapore high commissioner Simon Wong to the external affairs ministry, people familiar with the matter said.
India on Thursday formally protested against Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s remarks that almost half the members of the Lok Sabha have criminal charges pending against them, describing the comments as “uncalled for”.
The Indian side took up the matter by calling in Singapore high commissioner Simon Wong to the external affairs ministry, people familiar with the matter said.
“The remarks by the prime minister of Singapore were uncalled for. We have taken up the matter with the Singaporean side,” one of the people cited above said.
Lee referred to both India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and members of the Lok Sabha while participating in a debate in Singapore’s Parliament on Tuesday on a former lawmaker found guilty of abuse of privilege for lying in the House twice last year.
The thrust of Lee’s speech was on how a democratic system needs lawmakers with ideals and values and the importance of public trust in a government. He said most countries start with high ideals and noble values but, more often than not, things change over decades and generations once a nation’s founding leaders and the pioneering generation are out of the scene.
“Things start off with passionate intensity. The leaders, who fought for and won independence, are often exceptional individuals of great courage, immense culture, and outstanding ability. They came through the crucible of fire and emerged as leaders of men and nations. They are the David Ben-Gurions, the Jawaharlal Nehrus, and we have our own too,” Lee said, referring to the first prime ministers of Israel and India.
He added, “But beyond that initial fervour, succeeding generations often find it hard to sustain this momentum and drive.”
In the case of India, Lee noted: “While Nehru’s India has become one where, according to media reports, almost half the MPs in the Lok Sabha have criminal charges pending against them, including charges of rape and murder. Though it is also said that many of these allegations are politically motivated.”
He added that many political systems of today would be “quite unrecognisable” to their founding leaders. “Ben-Gurion’s Israel has morphed into one which can barely form a government, despite four general elections in two years. Meanwhile, a stream of senior politicians and officials in Israel face a litany of criminal charges, some have gone to jail,” he said.
Lee was also critical of the democratic systems in the US and Britain. Trust in the political system in the US “has all but broken down”, and three-quarters of Republican voters were made to believe the presidential election in 2020 “was stolen” and that Joe Biden is not a legitimate president and Donald Trump should be the president, he said.
Britain has been rocked by the “Partygate” scandal attributed to “failures of leadership and judgment” in an official report. “By ignoring its own rules, the current UK government has caused a severe breakdown of trust, and lost credibility in its Covid-19 controls,” Lee said.
The debate in Singapore’s Parliament focused on Workers’ Party lawmaker Raeesah Khan, who resigned last November after admitting she lied in the House twice about a sexual assault victim being treated insensitively at a police station. Khan was fined SGD 35,000 for stating an untruth in Parliament and repeating it.
According to an analysis done by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) after the last general election in 2019, nearly half the Lok Sabha members had criminal charges against them.
Of the 539 winning candidates analysed by ADR, a total of 233 MPs or 43% faced criminal charges. Nearly 29% of these cases involved serious charges such as rape, murder, attempted murder or crimes against women, ADR said. To be sure, in many instances, these cases are filed by political opponents.
