Former Union Minister and senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Wednesday said here that the government was dragging its feet on certain electoral reforms. The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of his plea to have both ballot papers and electronic voting machines during polling, but the government was delaying its implementation, Dr. Swamy said.
He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Corruption and electoral reforms’, organised by the YMCA, Ernakulam, as part of its platinum jubilee celebrations.
Electronic voting, Dr. Swamy said, was not transparent as rigging had taken place in many parliamentary constituencies where the electronic voting system was used.
Arguing that the nation’s attitude to politics should change, the BJP leader urged people to take initiatives to prevent bogus voting at the booth level.
“If we want to free the country from corruption, some of the big people should be caught and punished. Target people at the top.”
The process, he said, had already started with a few ministers and legislators being sent to jail.
Dr. Swamy related the rise in corruption to the degeneration in the value system.
Ownership of wealth determined social status today while, in contrast, sacrifice and learning were in focus in olden days, he said, adding that globalisation had changed the scenario.
The BJP leader attributed price rise to the government policy of permitting forward trading in agricultural commodities.
Black money, he said, was being raised through hawala transactions and monetary remittance methods such as participatory notes.
Dr. Swamy even alleged that the government was facilitating investment through Mauritius to avoid taxation issues, pointing out that in the 2G case, most of the companies involved were Mauritius-based.
