President feels indifference to corruption is a crime

Indifference to rampant corruption in Indian society is criminal, President K R Narayanan said soon after his swearing-in ceremony on Friday.

Corruption, the President said, has become widespread and that all political parties had the responsibility to fight it. He also rued the spread of violence in all walks of life and vowed that as supreme commander of the armed forces, he would endeavour to preserve, protect and defend the country's integrity.

"Corruption has become widespread, violence has been erupting in almost every walk of life, and values we have cherished are being eroded in an alarming manner," he declared.

The President said there was a need to strengthen secularism, meaning equal reverence for all religions, and to abolish poverty, hunger and ignorance. "We should sink our differences and devote our attention to the development of economy and welfare of the people," he said.

He lauded the economic and technological development India has made in the past five decades and said the economy had given new dynamism to development. He, however, said the underprivileged, the minorities and the backwards had to be economically and socially empowered.

He thanked all people and political parties "who have reposed faith, trust and confidence in me for choosing him for the top post in India."

"To be chosen by an overwhelming majority... is an exceptional honour," he said, adding that "the nation has found consensus for someone who has grown up in the heat and dust of the sacred land. The common man has moved to the centre stage of political life."

Pledging to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, Narayanan said, "We owe a debt of gratitude to those known and unknown heroes and heroines whose life-long struggle and sacrifices brought us freedom, and to those great personalities who bequeathed to us this Constitution."

Narayanan said India had achieved substantial progress since Independence under the framework of democracy and through peaceful means. He said the nation now had the obligation to direct its efforts to the task of abolishing poverty, ignorance and disease.

Excessive obsession with pure politics has often overshadowed the social, economic and development needs of the people, he said.

"Can we not sink our differences, as we have done in critical occasions in our history, even in the recent election of the President of the Republic, and devote our undivided attention, for a time, to the development of the economy and the welfare of the people," he asked.

Shifting to the issue of the under-privileged sections, he said, "The scheduled castes and tribes, the backward classes, the minorities and the women, who alone constitute half of our population, and the poor of every strata of our society, irrespective of religion or caste, must be made to feel the sensation of participation and empowerment." He said everyone must be made to realise that the future destiny of the nation lay in the hands of the youth.

Narayanan said there were signs of a weakening of the moral and spiritual fibre in public life as evils of communalism, corruption and casteism bedevil society. He pleaded with political leaders not to show indifference to such grave matters.