The Hindu : National : Fernandes writes to Surjeet on `tainted' Ministers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

National

National

Fernandes writes to Surjeet on `tainted' Ministers

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 9. The National Democratic Alliance convener, George Fernandes, has urged the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, to join the effort to cleanse the body politic of corruption.

In a letter to Mr. Surjeet on Tuesday, Mr. Fernandes said the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre had "some notoriously corrupt and criminal elements" in the Union Council of Ministers and demanded that they be immediately ousted from their offices.

Saying that he wanted to join their effort to fight corruption, he said there was a demand, both inside and outside Parliament, for the removal of the Ministers, but the UPA Government, which the CPI (M) had propped up, had chosen to let Parliament be paralysed.

Referring to the President's Address to the joint sitting of Parliament, he said that paragraph number 46 contained a commitment similar to that of the UPA Government to fight corruption.

"The war against corruption has to be a sustained one. It cannot afford to be partisan. People at various levels have to be drawn into it to make it successful. The corrupt have access to resources with which to bribe those who are employed by the State, to hunt them down and thereby to continue with the crimes."

While people may differ on umpteen issues, the fight against corruption need not divide them, Mr. Fernandes said. "We have to together win this fight if our country has to prosper and our commitment to provide a better life to the poor and the down-trodden of the country has to be fulfilled. If we lose this war against corruption and if those corrupt and criminal elements who are present in the UPA Government are not immediately ousted, a day may come when such people claim the Prime Minister's chair."

He said he had been through the party's election manifesto and was happy to read about their determination to fight corruption through "suitable institutional mechanism." "Your idea to target members of the Cabinet and the Prime Minister, members of Parliament and judiciary is most welcome. However, giving two years to proceed with the case, including trial is, in my view, a long time."

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National