Straight Answers

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">P B Sawant</span> former Supreme Court judge on agreeing to probe charges of corruption against four ministers and Anna Hazare''s Hind Swaraj Trust:<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Eyebrows were raised when you refused to investigate allegations of corruption against Democratic Front ministers.Why have you now agreed to take charge?</span><br /><br />Anna Hazare met me in Pune and said that he never cast aspersions on my appointment for the one-man committee to probe the charges. I had gathered from the media that he didn''t want me to do the job - at least that''s what I inferred. But when Hazare told me that what he said was not intended against me, I relented.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">What are the probe''s terms of reference?</span><br /><br />I haven''t yet received the government notification appointing me to the post. So I don''t know the exact details of the scope of this committee.<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Having been part of the judiciary, what do you think are the root causes of rising corruption?</span><br /><br />Greed - to have more and more money. Consumerism, privatisation and globalisation have brought in its wake corrupt practices. Even a free-market economy, which earlier had some regulations, has no such strings attached to it now. The entire system, both political and economic, is a breeding ground for corruption. If there are charges of corruption against ministers, it is because politicians haven''t been able to project themselves as good. The election system is faulty. Where has the grasroots democracy gone?<br /><br /><span style="" font-weight:="" bold="">Is there no solution? There are persons like Hazare fighting the system, but can a small number of people fight a mammoth system?</span><br /><br />What starts as a small movement can take bigger shape later on. Indian independence did not start with a huge movement, but see how we got freedom. The need of the hour is a movement against the corrupt system, never mind its size.</div> </div>