34 pc of new members of Indian parliament face criminal charges

NEW DELHI May 20 (agencies) India's next Prime Minister Narendra Modi has generated hopes, sold dreams and his huge poll mandate may have washed away the 2002 Gujarat riot stigma. But look at the company Modi will find himself in!

India's new parliament, the Lok Sabha or Lower House, will have the highest proportion of lawmakers with criminal cases against them and will also be the richest since 2004.

More than one- third or 34 percent of new Members of Parliament face criminal charges, data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms' (ADR) suggests.

It is compiled from election affidavits filed before the Election Commission of India (ECI) as saying.

In 2009, 30 percent MPs faced criminal charges against 24 percent in 2004, said the report.So lawmakers with criminal charges are on the rise.

Over a third of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) new MPs -- 33 percent-face criminal charges and more than one-fifth of them -- 21 percent-face serious criminal charges, said the ADR report.

18 percent of Congress MPs face criminal charges -- 7 percent face serious criminal charges.

The states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar account for the highest rates of criminal cases against the victorious lawmakers.

With 82 percent of its members in the 'crorepati' bracket worth more than 10 million rupees each, this will also be the richest known Lok Sabha, compared to 2009's 58 percent and 2004's 30 percent, according to the report.

The BJP won a crushing victory in the Lok Sabha election and has an absolute majority of 282 seats in the 543-seat house. The Congress has won only 48 seats.

Meanwhile: : The United States hopes to be able to expand naval cooperation with India once a new government is in place in New Delhi, the chief of US naval operations said on Monday.

Admiral Jonathan Greenert said the United States would like to see this cooperation extend to India's participation in exercises in the Western Pacific region, where an increasingly powerful China is becoming more assertive.

"There's a strategic partnership and opportunity up there with India that is emerging," Greenert told a Washington think tank. "My goal would be to get back to where we were in mid-2000s."

"We were doing very, very comprehensive events. We were doing carrier operations together, very, very complex, integrated ... and I think it would be great if we could get back to that level," he said.

"Then maybe India would be willing to come over to Western Pacific ... we will just have to see what the political ramifications are and where they are willing to go."

US officials say plans to expand naval cooperation with India ended up on a back burner during a long-running row between New Delhi and Washington over the treatment of an Indian diplomat in New York and in the run-up to India's election earlier in May.

Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party won a resounding victory in the election.