n Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday stressed that no corrupt person should get political and social support and asked institutions like the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) not to be “defensive” while acting against the corrupt and the corruption.
“Many times the corrupt people are glorified in spite of being jailed even after being proven to be corrupt. This situation is not good for Indian society,” Modi said, adding, “even today, some people give arguments in favour of the corrupt who have been found guilty. It is very necessary for such people, such forces to be made aware of their duty by society. In this also concrete action taken by your department has a big role”.
The PM was addressing “Vigilance Awareness Week” programme of the CVC in Vigyan Bhawan. On the occasion, he also launched the new Complaint Management System portal of the CVC.
The Prime Minister said that the campaign of “Vigilance Awareness Week” that began with the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel is taking place to realise the dreams and aspirations of a corruption-free India and underlined its importance in the lives of every citizen.
“For a developed India, we have to develop such an administrative ecosystem with zero tolerance on corruption”, said Modi.
Principal Secretary, Dr. PK. Mishra, Minister of State for Personnel & Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Jitendra Singh, Cabinet Secretary, Central Vigilance Commissioner Suresh N Patel and Vigilance Commissioners PK Srivastava and Arvinda Kumar were those present on the occasion.
While dealing with the subject of a corruption-free India, the Prime Minister said “for a developed India, trust and credibility are critical”.
“Earlier Governments not only lost people’s confidence but they also failed to trust people”, he said.
“We have been trying to change the system of scarcity and pressure for the last 8 years. The Government is trying to fill the gap between supply and demand. Technology, service saturation and ‘Aatmnirbharta’ are three key ways of tackling corruption”, said the Prime Minister.
He asked the CVC to “devise a way of ranking departments on the basis of pending corruption cases and publish the related reports on a monthly or quarterly basis”.
“No corrupt person should get political-social support, every corrupt person should be put in the dock by the society, it is also necessary to create this environment”, the Prime Minister told the gathering of the officials.
“Many times the corrupt people are glorified in spite of being jailed even after being proven to be corrupt. This situation is not good for Indian society. Institutions acting against the corrupt and corruption like the CVC have no need to be defensive”, said the Prime Minister.
He further said “When you take action with conviction, the whole nation stands with you”.Making the objective before the CVC clear, Modi said no matter how powerful the corrupt may be, they should not be saved under any circumstances. “It is the responsibility of organisations like you,” he went on to add.
The legacy from the long period of slavery of corruption, exploitation, and control over resources, unfortunately, received more strength after the independence, he said.
This severely harmed at least four generations of this country, he said. “We have to change this decades-long way fully in the Azadi ka Amrit Kaal”, the Prime Minister pointed out and referred to his call from the ramparts of Red Fort for “a decisive battle against corruption”.
Modi pointed out two key reasons for corruption and hindering people’s progress, i.e. lack of amenities, and unnecessary pressure from the Government.
He said for a very long time, this absence of amenities and opportunity was deliberately kept alive and a gap was allowed to widen leading to an unhealthy competition of a zero-sum race.
This race fed the ecosystem of corruption. Corruption created by this scarcity affects the poor and middle classes the most.
“If the poor and middle class spend their energy to arrange for the basic amenities, then how will the country progress?” the Prime Minister asked. “That is why”, the Prime Minister commented, “We are trying to change this system of scarcity and pressure for the last 8 years.”
“The Government is trying to fill the gap between supply and demand. The three ways adopted to achieve this are advancement in technology, taking basic services to the saturation level, and finally heading towards atmanirbharta,” he said.
With regard to the use of technology, the Prime Minister mentioned linking PDS to technology and removing crores of fake beneficiaries and saving more than 2 lakh crore rupees from going to the wrong hands by adopting Direct Benefit Transfer.
Similarly, the adoption of transparent digital transactions and transparent Government procurement through GeM is making a huge difference. The Prime Minister said that too much dependence on foreign goods has been a big cause of corruption. He highlighted the Government’s push towards ‘atmanirbharta’ in defence and underlined that the possibility of scams is ending as India would be manufacturing its own defence equipment, from rifles to fighter jets to transport aircrafts.
Terming the CVC an institution that encourages everyone’s efforts to ensure transparency, the Prime Minister recalled his request last time for ‘preventive vigilance’ and praised the efforts of the CVC in that direction. He also asked the vigilance community to think about modernising their audits and inspections.
“The will which the Government is showing against corruption, the same will is necessary to be seen in all the departments as well. For a developed India, we have to develop such an administrative ecosystem, which has zero tolerance on corruption”, he said.
The Prime Minister asked for a system where corruption-related disciplinary proceedings are completed in time-bound mission mode.
The Prime Minister stressed the need to bring in common citizens in the work of keeping a vigil over corruption.
He stressed that there is no requirement to work on any political agenda but to work towards making the lives of ordinary citizens simpler.
“Those who have vested interests will try to obstruct the proceedings and defame individuals associated with these institutions”, the Prime Minister interjected, “But Janta Janardan is the form of God, they know and test the truth, and when the time comes, they stand with those in support of the truth”.
The Prime Minister also expressed delight in interacting with the winners of the essay competition and suggested the introduction of a speech competition in the future.