Shantaram Naik: Congress should get the credit for curbing corruption

The All India Congress Committee secretary and MP was speaking to The Hindu at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office where he held a meeting with party workers.

All India Congress Committee secretary and MP Shantaram Naik on Sunday said the credit for curbing corruption in public life should go to the Congress as it was the Rajiv Gandhi government that enacted the Prevention of Corruption Act.

He was speaking to The Hindu at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office where he held a meeting with party workers.

Mr. Naik said the United Progressive Alliance government, under its chairperson Sonia Gandhi, enacted the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Activists were getting information from government departments through this Act and fighting against corruption, he said.

The UPA government’s other welfare programmes include the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Street Vendors Act, he said.

Mr. Naik alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party hatched a conspiracy to scuttle two other important legislations — Citizen’s Charter and Grievance Redressal Bill and Electronic Delivery of Services Bill. He said the party would enact these laws if it comes back to power. He criticised the Opposition, especially the BJP, for unnecessarily attacking the Congress for not taking any steps to curb corruption.

Criticising the communal agenda of the BJP, he said its leaders such as L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi and Jaswant Singh had been relegated to the background after pursuing a right wing policy. He said BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would meet with the same fate after the elections. Exuding confidence that the party would win at least 20 seats in Karnataka, he said that both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G. Parameshwara were working in unison.