Deepak Parekh criticises Kejriwal, says corruption cannot be eradicated

Mumbai: Eminent banker Deepak Parekh on Sunday said corruption cannot be eradicated from the system and disapproved the way activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal is going about with his exposes.

"Corruption is not going to go away from our country ... I think the manner in which he (Kejriwal) is going about is not right," Parekh, the HDFC chairman, told a gathering of top industrialists and bankers at an award function held by a private channel here over the weekend. Asked whether he would help Kejriwal if he seeks his advice on economic policy matters, Parekh said he will never do so and would never vote for his candidates as he does not approve of the way he is going about with his plans. Parekh also slammed the media for incessant coverage of Kejriwal & Co and asked it to report other important issues. "I would like to blame you, the media...You have nothing else to report other than Kejriwal. Why do you give so much of importance to all this? Give us some news, don`t tell us what Kejriwal said," Parekh said. Kejriwal had last week claimed that "crony capitalism" pervaded the system and slammed both the BJP and the Congress for having favoured Mukesh Ambani`s Reliance Industries. Alleging that Jaipal Reddy was unceremoniously ousted from petroleum ministry at Ambani`s behest, he had said the country was being run by the industrialist. In the past two months since he decided to go political, Kejriwal has made a string of corruption charges and targeted Robert Vadra, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari and external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, apart from the country`s largest company Reliance. On corruption, Parekh said, "I know many crony capitalists, but I know many more corrupt politicians (as well)," but declined to name anyone. Newly-appointed corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot also criticised the strategy of "naming and blaming" being adopted by Kejriwal. "I don`t think naming and blaming and creating an atmosphere of mistrust is a positive thing," Pilot said without naming Kejriwal and admitted that "there are people and institutions who are trying to misuse the system." Parekh said he fears that the 2014 elections will throw up a hung house with a "messy" coalition taking charge and asked everybody to vote for either of the two national parties at the next hustings. "There will not be a single majority party. Both the Congress and BJP will get lesser seats than they have today and it will be a real mess. It would be a coalition of a larger (number of regional parties) and that will not be good for the country. "We would like the people to either vote for the Congress or BJP in the next national elections and do whatever they want in the regional elections," he added. Exuding confidence that the Manmohan Singh administration is serious about the reform agenda, Parekh, who was very vocal in blaming the government for policy paralysis and inertia in the past, said he expects more measures being ushered-in in the coming months. Parekh was part of the team of prominent industrialists who released an action plan for the government and blamed it for the present economic paralysis. PTI