Years of political dominance has "overshadowed" the importance of bureaucracy leading to suffering of good governance in the country, former judge of the Supreme Court Justice Santosh Hegde said today.
Terming corruption as a menace, Justice Hegde said it is due to the "collective greed" of elected representatives as well as the bureaucracy as both legislature and bureaucracy seem to have merged into one group like "conjoined twins".
"Over the years, political dominance in the guise of representing peoples will has overshadowed the importance of bureaucracy. This dominance is not resisted by many in the bureaucracy. On the contrary, many willingly or meekly submitted to this dominance because of which good governance has suffered," he said.
While delivering a speech here on 'Is good governance a fundamental requirement of good democracy?' at the seventh V M Tarkunde memorial lecture, he said "if our constitutional organ is independent and honest, there could be no "political corruption and vice versa.
"Over the years, for the reasons well known, legislature and bureaucracy seem to have merged into one group like the conjoined twins, one supported by the other....If there is corruption as stated by the Prime Minister and as I believe it to be true, then it is because of the collective greed of the elected representatives and bureaucracy," he said.
Justice Hegde, also a former Lokayukta of Karnataka, said good governance can be provided by public servants only if they realise that they are "not masters of the people but they are only servants of the people and that they owe a duty to the people."
Besides Justice Hegde, former Attorney General of India Soli J Sorabjee also attended the lecture.
