Karnataka lok ayukta wants youth to be in the anti-corruption vanguard

In youngsters, lok ayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde sees the hope for winning the battle against corruption.

Speaking at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), on Tuesday, in a lecture organised by Centre for Corporate Governance and Citizenship, Hegde urged youngsters to take the cudgel against corruption. He was delivering a lecture on ‘Ethics and Individual Responsibility’, as part of the three-part ‘LeaderSpeak’ series, on ‘Ethics in Business and Society’, organised by IIMB in its auditorium.The next two lectures will cover topics on ‘Ethics and leadership’ and ‘Ethics and governance’, and are slated for January and February, next year.

Addressing about 100 eager youngsters in the packed auditorium, Hedge said “I request our future managers to maintain integrity and honesty in their work. It’s not wrong to be rich. But one should not earn wealth through illegitimate means.”

He said that in spite of the “darkness” (corruption) around, he could see light at the end of the tunnel. “Young people are my inspiration to fight the battle against corruption. Youngsters can change the system. We cannot change the system by preaching, we have to practice honesty and integrity in our lives,” said Hegde.
“In the process of fighting against corruption, young people might have to sacrifice a lot.” he added.

Welcoming the audience and speaker at the lecture, Vasanthi Srinivasan, chairperson of CCGC at IIMB said the lecture was timely, as the country was currently going through a bad phase where a series of financial scams were being unearthed.
Hegde felt that corruption has increased manifolds post Independence. “I am starting my lecture bringing forth an account of our freedom struggle. Our freedom fighters fought against British rule and scarified everything, including their lives, for the cause of freedom.

“But today, we see politicians wasting exchequer money. The Parliament was not allowed to function for a single day in the winter session as politicians sparred over whether to have a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to find the truth behind second generation spectrum scam or not.  India lost around Rs180 crores, in less than 20 days.”

Hegde said that our freedom fighters decided to adopt the democratic form of governance to give voice to the common man.