Making big people accountable to law sent a positive message: Pradeep Kumar

HYDERABAD: Holding powerful people accountable to law in recent scams like 2G and CWG has sent a positive message that the high and mighty cannot get away with any wrongdoings, Central Vigilance Commissioner Pradeep Kumar said here today.

"I mentioned that a number of scams had caught the attention of public and media. But, I had also mentioned that for the first time in the history of India, the high and mighty could not get away and are being held accountable.

"This is a positive development and we are moving towards a rule-based democracy where the law will be uniformly applied to rich, powerful and an ordinary citizen," he told reporters here on the sidelines of the XI anniversary celebrations of Vigilance Study Circle.

Highlighting the ill-effects of corruption, he said good governance would not be possible if the malaise of corruption prevails.

Observing that people in the country are fed up with "all-pervasive" corruption, the CVC asserted that "young Indians do not want to put up with business as usual."

This situation offers a tremendous opportunity to the vigilance fraternity to redouble their efforts against graft, he said.

"In the last few years, there has been a number of scams.

The CWG, the coal, 2G etc have got the headlines. There has been a general disquiet that perhaps the corruption in this country has increased manifold.

Many powerful people have been put behind bars. Union Ministers, Secretaries, corporate bigwigs have been facing prosecution. Chief Ministers have lost their jobs," he said.

Though corruption is not new, the tolerance of people towards the menace has changed, he said.

In his speech earlier, Pradeep Kumar also said that the Vigilance Study Circle is celebrating its anniversary at an interesting time when a new government has been formed at the Centre and people have high hopes from it and expect good governance.