Bring fugitive economic offenders to book: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu
Hyderabad: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu here on Saturday stressed the need to bring to book the fugitive economic offenders who defrauded the shareholders and other stakeholders of a company.
He further stated that India simply cannot allow scams, frauds, scandals to happen at this crucial juncture of nation's development, Speaking at the Hyderabad Management Association's 46th Annual Awards function, the Vice President expressed his distress over political discourse reaching a new low in the recent years leading to frequent disruptions of Parliament and State legislature.
He called for reversing the disturbing trend at the earliest. Venkaiah Naidu felt that reducing the pious, legitimate forums to 'disruptive platforms' was a clear negation of the vision of Constitution makers.
"In a way, it is an affront to the spirit of the Constitution of India. It is the apathy towards the hopes and aspirations of the people. It is an utter disregard for people's mandate.
It is a betrayal of the people's faith in these pillars of democracy," he bemoaned. He said those in public life must understand that they were only rivals and not enemies.
Quoting the former President Pranab Mukherjee's advice, he said, "Discuss Debate and Decide but not Disturb" should be the best way forward for the effective functioning of the democratic institutions.
Observing that dysfunctional legislatures would strengthen the demand for 'recall of legislators,' the Vice-President said, "I am afraid that we are moving towards that stage." He said the presiding officers of legislative bodies must decide anti-defection cases within three months.
Similarly, election petitions and criminal cases against political leaders must be decided quickly by special benches of higher courts in a time-bound manner, he added.
He said the people had made their choice with a resounding clarity in the recent elections and voted for stability and continuity.
Referring to the World Bank's latest forecast, Venkaiah Naidu said the whole world was looking towards India for investments and stressed that it was the time to accelerate the reforms initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India the third largest economy in the coming years.
He also presented awards in various categories, including Manager of Year-2018 to Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary to Government of Telangana.
The President of Hyderabad Management Association, Ravi Kumar Peesapati, members of the association and several other dignitaries were present on the occasion.