Kumaraswamy's Gandhi remarks meaningless: Pranab

Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy's remarks that Mahatma Gandhi would have turned corrupt in the present day politics on Monday drew sharp reaction from leaders including Gandhian Anna Hazare, who wondered how the country could eliminate corruption if leaders talk like this.

"If our leaders are talking like this, how are you going to root out corruption," 73-year-old Hazare, who successfully led the agitation on the Lok Pal bill issue, said.       

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee described as "meaningless utterances" the comments by the JD-S leader. "No, I will not comment. It is a meaningless utterance and I will not give a reaction to it," Mukherjee said in Kolkata.

Taking a dig at Kumaraswamy, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad asked, "What else can you expect from Kumaraswamy? Nothing better." He said the whole movement against corruption in the country arose because of the "patent disgust" which the people were suffering because of the spate of scams like 2G to Commonwealth Games to Adarsh Housing Society.

"Those who are in politics and those who do people-oriented politics need to understand and take corrective measures but the entire politics of Mr Kumaraswamy survives on corruption, that is the problem," Prasad said. However, Kumaraswamy said that he has been misquoted. Clarifying that no politician can survive by his or her money in view of the cost of the day-to-day political activities, he said, "I did not say that Mahatma Gandhiji if alive and if he was in politics would have turned corrupt."

"In this situation I think he (Mahatma Gandhi) would have run away from politics. These are the words I used."