Corruption has infested the lives of people in the country like termites and the Union government, with the continuous help of technology, is taking various steps to get rid of it, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday.
"My dear countrymen, you know it very well that corruption and nepotism have hurt our country beyond imagination and they have infiltrated our lives like termites. We are trying continuously to throw them out," Modi said in his Independence Day speech.
India has got some success in rooting out corruption, but the disease is so deep and widespread that everyone has to continuously try at every level -- not just at the level of the government -- to end it, he said.
"All the work may not be over in one attempt. Bad habits and old diseases get cured sometimes but then such a disease makes a comeback whenever it gets an opportunity," the prime minister said.
He also said,"Corruption is a disease and to defeat it, we have taken certain steps by using technology continuously."
He said, "The system that prevailed over the past seventy years had aggravated separatism and given birth to terrorism. It had encouraged dynastic rule and in a way strengthened the foundations of corruption and discrimination."