New Delhi, Nov 18 (PTI) In a direct reference to the cash-for-query and cash-for-vote scams that rocked the Parliament, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today said the "malady of money power" was corrupting our democratic institutions.

"The malady of money power has become so deep rooted that it has even begun to intervene directly with the functioning of our core democratic institutions," Chatterjee said at a seminar on National Values Crisis and its Redressal.

He said the cash-for-query scam had struck at the very foundations of our democratic practices and "desecrated the sanctity of Parliament". He described the expulsion of ten MPs involved in the scam as a "watershed event".

Talking about the July 22 cash-for-vote scam, Chatterjee said, "this was the day when values and Parliament as an institution hit the nadir, the rock bottom in our public life and undoubtedly the saddest day for every conscientious citizen," he said.

The former CPM leader said there was a need for bringing back values into public life.

"This can be achieved only if committed and conscientious people, particularly the youth, come into the arena of politics and deal with the problems from within," he said.

Chatterjee expressed regret at the fractured polity in the country and said it was "almost totally governed by politics of confrontation, if not hatred of each other".