Taking a swipe at political rivals targeting him over demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said it is unfortunate people in public life are daring to brazenly support corruption and black money and openly stand with those indulging in it.
"Values in public life are eroding... I see unfortunately that people in public life are daring to give speeches supporting corruption and black money and are coming out in support of those indulging in corruption and black marketing. They are brazenly out in the open doing so. The erosion of values is the biggest crisis for any country," he said.
Speaking at the release of a book published in memory of late party veteran Kedarnath Sahni, who was a prominent leader in the Jan Sangh and then in the Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi, he said the coming generations will never forgive such people and called for standing out against this "compromise mentality" gripping society.
"The generations will never forgive those who are betraying the values," he said.
Modi said this erosion in values is unfortunate for the country and a small section of people in this fight against corruption and black money is daring to come forward to support the corrupt say that they will keep standing with those indulging in them.
"Keeping in view the future and for welfare of coming generations, one has to stand out against this 'compromise mentality' and fight out against it," he said, recalling how Sahni lived like this.
He said one should be spotless in public life and cited the example of Sahni in this regard.
Recalling the incidents in the aftermath of Indira Gandhi's assassination, the prime minister attacked the then Congress government saying "all are aware of the attitude of the then regime" and alleged that "human slaughter" happened at that time and families of Sikhs were butchered.
He also recalled how Sahni gave shelter to numerous Sikh families at his home and mobilised party workers and others to help them during the riots in the wake of Indira Gandhi's assassination.
Modi lamented that there was a time when people stood for values and the times changed where people started making compromise on corruption and then to such times when people considered corruption as a way of life and is not an issue.
He recalled the changing times when in the olden times people would indulge in cheating in exams for their career on the sly and did not want anyone to know, but times changed to such an extent that now they keep a knife on their table and dare anyone stop him.
He said there may be people who do not have the courage to fight, but we should carry forward this pledge to fight out against those carrying aloft the "flag of evils" and said such people create a big crisis for society. The society should be told and trained about this, he urged.
Modi also recalled how Sahni, along with V K Malhotra and Madan Lal Khurana showed the way on how to work in a party organisation. He highlighted how former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit wrote about Sahni saying how she found his views on a policy matter valuable.
Photograph: Kamal Singh/PTI Photo