Citizens should take lead to prevent influence of money power in politics, says VP Naidu

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that Election Commission alone cannot prevent the influence of money power in electoral politics for which citizens must take a lead.

"Money power in politics cannot be controlled by Election Commission alone. Political parties, civil society, corporates and organisations working for electoral reforms have a larger role to play in countering this. But most important is that the citizen voters should take lead in preventing the use of money power," Naidu said at the annual conference on 'Money Power In Politics' organized by Indian School of Business here.

"Voter should realize that casting the vote for a few thousand is the highest form of moral compromise and it is against democratic ethics. If a citizen sells his vote then he forfeits the right to take on the government he voted for," he added.

Naidu further said that people should be made aware of the power of their votes.

"Electoral reforms should be brought in to break the vicious cycle of corruption and erosion of the quality of our democratic polity. Effective campaigns need to be undertaken to educate the voters about the virtue and power of their votes and adverse implications of compromising voting," he said.

The Vice President said that people should vote on the basis of four C's - Character, Caliber, Capacity and Conduct of the Candidate.

"If you vote according to that then nobody will need to spend much money. But unfortunately, certain politicians and political systems have developed other four C's to rephrase the original four C's - Caste, Community, Cash and Criminality," he added.