Bhubaneswar: Advocating a strong investigative agency under purview of the proposed Lokpal, Team Anna member Kiran Bedi today said corruption in India was not "accidental or opportunistic but systematic and planned". "Corruption is not accidental or opportunistic but systematic and planned in India. There is need for a system change approach in order to end corruption," she said in Bhubaneshwar.
Citing instances of the CBI being misused due to lack of autonomy, she said the Lokpal cannot deliver desired results unless it had a strong and independent investigating agency.
The CBI should not be dictated but allowed to work independently and this will be possible only if Lokpal guides it, Bedi opined while participating in a debate on "Corruption runs in a vicious circle. Can Lokpal break it?"
Claiming that the UPA government at the Centre had brought some historic legislations like RTI and RTE, senior Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said, "Corruption is in our mindset. Governance without accountability is not democracy."
Chowdhury said the UPA government wanted to install a strong Lokpal with Constitutional authority. BJP's Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra, however, said a single piece of legislation could not alone end corruption. However, the Lokpal system should be provided with adequate dent in order to deliver.
Senior journalist Prabhu Chawla blamed the political system for rise in corrupt practices and stressed the need for electoral reforms.
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