Noted personalities ask govt to tackle corruption urgently

New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) A group of prominentpersonalities, including industrialists Azim Premji, KeshubMahindra and Deepak Parekh, have expressed concern over aseries of scams leading to "governance deficit".

They asked the government to deal with burning issues likecorruption urgently.

In an ''open letter'' addressed to the leaders, they said:"We are alarmed at the widespread governance deficit almost inevery sphere of national activity covering government,business and institutions. Widespread discretionary decision-making have been routinely subjected to extraneous influences.

Asking politicians to rise above party politics, theletter said "time is overdue for India''s electedrepresentatives to distinguish between dissent and disruptionwhile the era of coalitions, tolerance of compromise stillremains a challenge."

"Elected legislators and leaders must acknowledged anddemonstrate their collective role and responsibility inrestoring the sense of purpose and confidence in nationalinstitutions."

"The topmost responsibility of those at the helm of thenation''s affairs must be to urgently restore the self-confidence and self-belief of Indians in themselves and in theState as well as in Indian business and public institutionswhich touch the lives of every Indian."

The signatories to the letter also include JamshydGodrej, Justice Sam Variava, Prof M Narasimham, Yezdi Malegam,Anu Aga, Dr A Vaidyanathan, Bimal Jalan, N Vaghul, NachiketMor, Justice B N Srikrishna and Dr Ashok Ganguly.

The letter comes against the backdrop of 2G, CWG andAdarsh scams, and also leakage of tapes involving corporatelobbyist Niira Radia''s conversations with variouspersonalities, including industrialist Ratan Tata, politiciansand journalists.

Deepak Parekh had earlier echoed Tata in voicingconcern over the leakage of the tapes stating such incidentswere only generating negativity, which threatened to derailIndia�s growth story.

"In the last few months, the country has witnessederuption of a number of egregious events. There are, atpresent, several loud and outraged voices, in the publicdomain, clamouring on these issues which have deeply hurt thenation," the letter said. .