New Delhi: Likening corruption to a cancer that would blight the system, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday called for a comprehensive approach to eliminate sleaze and emphasised that lessons must be learnt from the film Lage Raho Munna Bhai.
Delivering the keynote address at a conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state anti-corruption bureaus here, Singh also announced that his government proposed to bring forward a Public Services Bill before Parliament that would define a public services code of ethics and management.
While referring to the smash hit film that had brought Mahatma Gandhi back into the popular reckoning, Singh said he was touched by one incident where a senior citizen was trying to get his pension without having to pay a bribe.
"In stripping his clothes, as an act of protest, this pensioner was stripping our system, exposing the ugly nakedness of the self-aggrandisement of those who man our institutions of governance," said Singh in his second mention of the Sanjay Dutt starrer in less than two months.
"Any system in which a retired senior citizen is required to pay a bribe to secure his legitimate dues is a most despicable system," he emphasised, adding, "Such corruption must be visited by the sternest action to reform, restructure and rejuvenate the system."
The Prime Minister had recently watched a special screening of the film along with members of his staff and family.
Some of the other provisions of the proposed Bill include protecting whistleblowers and having the objective of developing public services as a professional, politically neutral, merit based, and accountable instrument for promoting good governance and better delivery of services to all citizens.
Pointing out that the level of tolerance of people to corruption in public life and administration had changed, the prime minister said he was happy that India's ranking had improved in the global index of corruption in the last two years.
PAGE_BREAK
Graft watchdog Transparency International said in its report last week that India was perceived to be marginally less corrupt than in 2005—climbing to 70 of 183 countries.
Alluding to economist Gunnar Myrdal's book The Asian Drama that identified corruption as one of the constraints on development, Singh agreed with the author's perception that corruption in public life had contributed to India being a "soft state".
"The scale, the typology and the mechanisms of corruption may have changed, but the problem of corruption has not gone away," he said.
Comments
0 comment