Former judge PM Dhakephalkar was speaking at a discussion on ‘Corruption ridden India’, organised by Community Aid and Sponsorship Programme (Casp) Prabodhan Mandal at SP College on Sunday.
“The Right to Information (RTI) Act is a very powerful tool to fight the cancer of corruption, which is eating away at the vitals of the country,” stated former judge PM Dhakephalkar.
He was speaking at a discussion on ‘Corruption ridden India’, organised by Community Aid and Sponsorship Programme (Casp) Prabodhan Mandal at SP College on Sunday.
Apart from Dhakephalkar, resident editor of Pune edition of DNA, Abhay Vaidya, former director general of Maharashtra police Jayant Umranikar and former Union cabinet secretary BG Deshmukh spoke during the event.
Making a strong case for judicial activism, Dhakephalkar enumerated the various instances when the Judiciary had stepped in to assume executive roles to fight corruption. “The Supreme Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to investigate the 2G spectrum scandal. It does stretch the limits of the judiciary to the extreme, but the magnitude of corruption has made the court to take up this step,” he stated.
He urged citizens to use the Right to Information (RTI) Act, at individual levels to fight corruption and check malpractices.
Recalling his experience as the chief of CID, Umranikar narrated how corruption is not a threat only to morals in society, but also to national security.
“While investigating the 1993 Mumbai bomb blast, we came across a senior custom officer who had turned a blind eye towards smuggling of RDX in the country. During interrogation, he admitted that he had no idea there were explosives in the boxes, instead of the normal consignments of illegal gold and silver. National security is at stake because of corruption and we can hardly sleep over it,” he remarked.
Vaidya spoke at length about the culture of paid news, which seems to have made headway in media circles. “The tentacles of corruption have reached extremes. The government bends its own rules to suit certain people and the reason is not hard to guess,” he said.
“The only way to fight corruption lies in using RTI and electoral reforms advocated by many. Once we as a people demand accountability from those in power, the cancer of corruption will be under control,” he opined.
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