There are "corrupt and criminal" elements in the Council of Ministers who should be immediately sacked, National Democratic Alliance convenor and former defence minister George Fernandes has said.
There is a strong demand for the removal of these ministers, but the government has chosen to let Parliament remain paralysed over the issue, he said in a letter to Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet.
He noted that President A P J Abdul Kalam's address to the joint sitting of Parliament contained a commitment similar to that of the government, to fight corruption.
"The war against corruption has to be a sustained one. It cannot afford to be partisan," he said.
The corrupt have access to resources to bribe those who are employed with the state, to hunt them down and thereby to continue with their crimes, he added.
While people in public life may differ on umpteen issues, they need not be divided over the fight against corruption, he said. "We have to together win this fight if our country has to prosper and our commitment to provide a better life to the poor and the downtrodden of the country has to be fulfilled.
"If we lose this war against corruption and if those corrupt and criminal elements who are present in the UPA government are not immediately ousted, a day may come when such people claim the prime minister's chair."
Fernandes requested Surjeet, who played a key role in the formation of the Congress-led government, to get all parties of the alliance to address the issue.
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