Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday became emotional in the Lok Sabha on the Opposition's allegations that he had encouraged corruption. He said “to err is human,” but the charge that he had connived in corruption was not correct.
Replying to a debate , he said that in the last seven years of his prime ministership “...I may have made mistakes. Who is above making mistakes? To err is human, but to accuse me of evil intentions, of conniving with corruption is a charge I firmly repudiate.”
If the Opposition felt that he had done anything wrong, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj could look into the property he might have accumulated in the 41 years of his public life and that of his family members. He would accept her verdict if Opposition found that he had used the public office to amass wealth for himself or for any member of his family.
Dr. Singh promised the House that in its remaining term, the UPA-II regime would do everything in its power to clean up the system from corruption.
On Bharatiya Janata Party member Murli Manohar Joshi's “personal attack” on him on Wednesday that he was the “fountainhead of corruption” and that he knowingly connived in corruption of some of his colleagues,” Dr. Singh said he considered it beneath his dignity to enter into an argument on issues that were before the Public Accounts Committee and courts.
“In my seven years as Prime Minister even when the Opposition members accused me of many crimes, I have never used harsh language in describing the conduct of any member of this House.”
“Anger in the country”
In his 41 years of public life, of which 20 years were in Parliament, he had tried to serve the country to the best of his ability. “Corruption is a multifaceted problem. Therefore, we as a nation have to find practical, pragmatic, effective means to tackle it; and this is not merely the responsibility of the Central government.” The State governments too had the responsibility. “There is anger in the country. There is anger about the misuse of public offices.” Therefore, both at the Centre and in the States there was need to clean up the system of governance.
Whatever the Opposition might say, India was respected the world over because of the inherent strength of its economy, polity and democratic system, he said.
In the past seven years or as Finance Minister earlier “I did make a small contribution in my own way to enhance the prestige of this country, and therefore, when charges are levelled against me, it hurts…”
In the nearly 20-minute reply, Dr. Singh reeled out measures taken by his government to plug the sources of corruption like removing the Licence Raj in certain areas and reforms in export/import controls, taxation rates. But, there were many other areas where corruption still persisted. “We have to tackle this problem from various angles.”
The Prime Minister also suggested that the Public Procurement Act, like in some countries, be enacted to streamline contracting mechanisms to bring down corruption.
Dr. Singh said the government was planning to put in place a mechanism to reduce the scope for misuse of discretionary powers by the Union ministers without detriment to the public interest or achievement of the public good.
