The debate on corruption is as old as Constitution

The debate is as old as Constitution

It is not for the first time that the parliament has debated the issue of fighting corruption. Indeed, the debate is as old as the constitution itself, and with precise foresight one member of the constituent assembly Mahavir Tyagi had analysed the scenario on November 26, 1949. "All democracies are run by professional politicians and I am afraid that is the main cause of their failures, because such people begin to live on democracies. It becomes with them a profession, the statecraft, becomes their only source of living. That is the bane of democracy and I want to make the future generations aware of this. It creates professional politicians — those whose earning depend on politics, with the result that they cut themselves adrift from all creative professions," said Tyagi. In an intervention that lasted just five minutes, Tyagi then went on to observe that the Constitution should rather be run by political professionals - persons who have their own professions to live upon, but who come here to run the state voluntarily or on small pays. Acknowledging that such an amendment could not be accepted by the constituent assembly, he then suggested a future one. "Notwithstanding anything contained in this Constitution, no citizen of India shall draw for his personal use either from the public exchequer or from private enterprise a pay, profit or allowance which exceeds the earnings of an average wage earner." Tyagi concluded with an assertion that the Constitution will only safeguard the bread of those whose hands are full of bread and not of those whose hands are empty if such an amendment is not introduced.