New Delhi: Without naming former chief vigilance commissioner Pratyush Sinha, Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily on Monday slammed him for calling every third Indian utterly corrupt.
"You cannot hurt national pride saying things that are not at all true," Moily said. "I don`t want to name any one, he is a senior official, anyone who says such things is wrong," he said at a function of the Central Information Commission here.
Sinha, who retired as India`s central vigilance commissioner last week, was reported to have said that the worst part of his "thankless job" was observing how corruption had increased as people became more materialistic.
"There would be around 30 percent who would be utterly corrupt. But the rest are people who are on the borderline," he had said in an interview to a newspaper last week.
Moily said: "You cannot say such things at a time when we are definitely competing for the number one spot in next 20 years" and added that he (Sinha) owed an apology to the nation.
The appointment of PJ Thomas as the new chief vigilance commissioner has come under a cloud with allegations being made that he had bagged the post at the behest of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Moily, however, said "you cannot condemn your own government", criticising those who say it was a `partisan appointment`.
IANS
