At a time when corruption has cast an unwieldy shadow over governance, at both the central and state levels, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, the BJP’s Rajya Sabha member and one of the party’s chief spokespersons, has sought direct election of the prime minister and the chief ministers of different states. According to Rudy, who has moved a private member’s bill for this, the executive should be delinked from the elected political representatives, or lawmakers — at both centre and state level.

Barring lawmakers from assuming ministerial or other positions would weed out corrupt elements as politics would no more be attractive to them, Rudy contends, according to a report in the Indian Express (read it here).

The prime minister or the chief minister — in his words the "chief executive" at the centre and states — should be selected through direct elections like in the US and some European countries. "They can pick whosoever they want as ministers," the report quotes him.