LSP starts '1 Re money order' campaign to highlight 2G graft scam

Saying sorry for the inconvenience he was causing to the postal employees, Lok Satta Party president Jayaprakash Narayan on Friday remitted one rupee by money order to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh marking the launch of a National Campaign against Corruption.

A number of students and youth followed Dr Narayan’s lead by either sending money orders or mailing postcards to the Prime Minister demanding that the Government cancel 2-G spectrum licenses, recover the Rs 1,76,000 crore the nation has lost and constitute an Independent Anti Corruption Commission.

The LSP chief told the staff of Parishram Bhavan Post Office as also the media that the Lok Satta had fallen back on money orders and post cards to enable even the poor to pour out their anguish and indignation over the worst instance of corruption in world history indulged in by the Telecom Ministry, and seek recovery of the money lost and punishment of the guilty.

The former IAS officer charged that the mainstream political parties were indulging in shadow-boxing on the scam with some demanding a JPC inquiry into the scam and some others opposing it. The Congress and the BJP as also the UPA and the NDA were finger-pointing at each other and in the process sweeping under the carpet the crucial issue of recouping the stupendous loss the nation has suffered. The telecom scam was not a private dispute between two political parties.

Dr Narayan said, “It involved the loot of a precious and finite resource like spectrum for the aggrandizement of corporate houses, bureaucrats and politicians. The nation could not be a silent spectator. Ms Sonia Gandhi blaming BJP for retaining Mr Yediyurappa as Karnataka CM, and the opposition blaming UPA for retaining Mr Raja as Telecom Minister in 2009 do not solve the problem. Two wrong will not make a thing right. We need to aggressively pursue a creative, effective anti-corruption strategy to safeguard the future of millions of young people.”

Dr Narayan said that everyone irrespective of party affiliation should fight the corruption menace, which endangered the future of the youth and the country. 

“The Rs 1,76,000 crore the nation lost would have been enough to provide all amenities ranging from roads and drainage to parks and public transport in all cities and 2000 municipalities in the country. It could have been utilized to build 10,000 hospitals at the rate of one for every one lakh of people, (Rs 30,000 crore), build two million class-rooms (Rs 60,000 crore) and develop all universities to world-class standards and provide skill-enhancement and job-oriented training to 50 million youth (Rs 90,000 crore). Two crore houses could have been built to provide shelter to 10 crore homeless people with this money,” the former bureaucrat pointed out.

The LSP chief said that the need of the hour was an all-powerful, independent anti corruption commission that will ensure swift and sure punishment of the guilty including their imprisonment and attachment of illegally gained properties.