‘Corrupt politicians should be barred’

Corrupt politicians should be banned from public life permanently, said eminent journalist and former Union minister Arun Shourie.

 He also mooted minimum educational qualification for legislators and certain other amendments in the existing law to keep the country corruption-free.

 Speaking at the EG Parameswaran endowment lecture on “Are we integrating or disintegrating the nation” at the Sundarayya Vignana kendra on Friday, Shourie said the All India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi has lost her grip on her party like the bosses of other political parties.

 People always look towards leaders to keep the country integrated, but there is none at present who can ensure that integration, he added.

 The remedy, according to Shourie, lies in simple changes like expediting trials and punishing the corrupt politicians.

 Eminent personalities should be given place in the Cabinet, he said and added that a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) boss was a defence minister in the US.

 Shourie also mooted induction of subject experts in the Upper Chamber similar to the one proposed in China.

 He lauded EG Parameswaran as a good academician and a former vice-chancellor of the Osmania University