CM’S graft quote shocks all
Don’t worry about corruption by politicians, Kiran tells civil servants
Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy’s remarks on Wednesday that one should not worry too much about political corruption, as the excess money earned by a politician would flow back into the system, evoked sharp criticism.
Addressing newlyinducted civil servants, the CM went on to add that one should, instead, be careful about corruption by businessmen and officials as money — hinting at bribes — would remain with them.
The CM was reacting to a question by a probationary civil servant on why political parties had put aside their differences and joined hands to take themselves out of the purview of the Right to Information Act.
Maintaining that he did not intend to encourage corruption in politics, Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy reiterated that a politician would end up spending a lot in elections or on other occasions. “Don’t think too much about political corruption. The money will come back into the system,” he told a gathering of newly-inducted civil servants at the MCR HRD institute.
Besides the content, the timing of the CM’s comment – addressing the newly-inducted civil servants – also did not go down well among bureaucrats, politicians and social activists.
“Is he trying to justify corruption by a politician? Corruption is corruption be it by a politician, or a bureaucrat. These are unwarranted comments by a person occupying the post of Chief Minister,” said former bureaucrat D.C. Rosaiah. Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy’s comments came in the backdrop of the UPA government facing charges of corruption. From the 2G spectrum scam, coal scam to the Commonwealth games, the involvement of political bigwigs, right up to ministers holding respective portfolios like A. Raja and Suresh Kalmadi, has been exposed. In all these cases, investigations have revealed that the violation of rules to benefit individuals or companies took place at the instance of the political bosses.
“The errant bureaucrat draws strength from an errant political executive. Any violation has to take place ultimately with the approval of the political boss in our administrative set up,” said Prof. Haragopal, a rights activist. Corrupt officials are afraid of an honest politician and vice-versa, he added.
No minister was willing to take former bureaucrat S.R. Sankaran in his or her respective departments when he came back from Central deputation during N.T. Rama Rao’s regime. Current panchayat raj minister K. Jana Reddy finally accepted him but within no time had differences with the official who again went back on Central deputation.
The industrial sector was also surprised by the CM’s comments. A former CII representative said if all the three sections – business, bureaucracy and politics – joined wach other in causing loss to the exchequer, then why were politicians alone justified?