Senior journalist and former Union Minister Arun Shourie said corruption and degenerating politics were the two greatest threats to the country’s unity. He cautioned people against accepting evils as this would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Delivering the third Prof. E.G. Parameswaran Endowment Lecture organised by Pragna Bharathi here on Friday, Mr. Shourie stated that democracy in the country was in disarray and the infection, which was only limited to some legislatures, had spread to Parliament in the absence of minimum qualification for people’s representatives.
Mr. Shourie recalled the closing remarks of then President Babu Rajendra Prasad after Parliament accepted the Constitution, when he had said that the country would pay dearly for not stipulating a minimum qualification for legislators.
“Root cause of the problem lies in legislatures as they select the executive and set the tone for governance,” he said while delivering the lecture on the topic “Are we integrating or disintegrating the nation”.
Stating that there was complete homogenisation of politics in the country he noted that all parties were on a par on the parameters of corruption, criminalisation and liberation from good ideas. “Only the signboards are different as they are same in nature and the consequence is that bringing reforms in the political system has become very difficult,” he remarked.
Drawing a parity between the problems in Jammu & Kashmir and Assam, the senior journalist attributed them to continuous neglect of social problems there by the State.
“When the state fails in attending to social conflicts society will take law and order into its hands,” he said. A section of local people were made refugees in their own country in both the cases, he noted.
