Bengaluru, Dec 9: Social activist S.R. Hiremath said that in the political history of the country, Amit Shah was the biggest ghost of corruption.

Speaking at an elocution and discussion programme on ‘International Anti-Corruption Day’, organized by the Corruption Free Karnataka Nirmana Vedike at the Legislators House here on Sunday, he said that “majority of the political leaders including former chief ministers Yeddyurappa and Siddaramaiah, present chief minister HD  Kumaraswamy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others are corrupt. So, we should not oppose politics. Instead, we should question the corrupt practices of the politicians”, he said.

“Man is a most greedy animal as he is incomplete. It is not possible to do everything good. So, in order to remove corruption, the fight should start from our homes. We should inculcate meaningful habits and we should be complete men before the corrupt persons. Those who exploit the people are more prejudiced and hate people because they have lost humanity. We should try to establish humanity in the society with constructive and strategic efforts. We should have the confidence of winning the war. It was said that we would not get even 5 per cent success in Ballary. But we continued our fight and got the result more than our expectation”, he said.

After independence, misuse of power and nepotism have paved away for widespread corruption in the society. Unfortunately, the present youth have not understood the intention of the Constitution and democracy. They should understand that they were the real owners of the Constitution and democracy and politicians were just the servants of the people, he said.

The elected representatives and those who are at the helm of affairs were not speaking about public problems. The Prime Minister has not uttered a single word about the Rafale deal which is the biggest scandal in the history of Defence Ministry of the country, and atrocity on dalits in Gujarat but he was busy on speaking in the election rallies, he said.

Vedike president Ravi Krishna Reddy said that the corruption was rooted right from higher education to higher positions. CID sources have been saying that for AC post, the candidates have to give Rs 1 crore and Rs 80 lakh for tahsildar’s post, which shows the real situation of the country. Those who have dream of getting good education and good job to serve the society were disappointed. So, people should elect non-corrupt candidates and those would appoint non-corrupt officers to right positions. This would certainly reform the society, he said.

Social activist HM Venkatesh, Kaleel, Vijay Raghava Marathi and others were present. The winners in the elocution contest were given prizes on the occasion.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Mumbai (PTI): The rupee depreciated 31 paise to settle at 91.99 against the US dollar on Wednesday, touching the lowest closing level for the second time in less than a week, amid increased month-end demand for the greenback.

Forex traders said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe offered quiet reassurance. However, increased month-end demand for the American currency as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions dented investors' sentiments.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 91.60 and touched an early high of 91.50, but pared all the gains to touch an intra-day low of 91.99 against the greenback.

The domestic unit settled 31 paise down, revisiting its lowest-ever closing level of 91.99 against the greenback. The Indian currency previously ended at this level on January 23 when it also hit its all-time intraday low of 92 against the US dollar.

On Tuesday, the rupee rebounded from its all-time low levels and gained 22 paise to close at 91.68 against the US dollar.

Analysts said the rupee opened higher as the US dollar index softened and a long-awaited trade breakthrough with Europe bolstered investor sentiment.

India and the European Union on Tuesday announced the conclusion of negotiations for the free trade agreement (FTA), under which a number of domestic sectors such as apparel, chemicals and footwear will get duty-free entry into the 27-nation bloc, while the EU will get access to the Indian market at concessional duty for cars and wines, an official said.

The deal has been dubbed the "mother of all deals" as it will create a market of about 2 billion people.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading 0.07 per cent lower at 96.14.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading 0.43 per cent lower at USD 67.28 per barrel in futures trade.

On the domestic equity market front, Sensex jumped 487.20 points to settle at 82,344.68, while Nifty surged 167.35 points to 25,342.75.

Foreign Institutional Investors turned net buyers and purchased equities worth Rs 480.26 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.