Graft and greed on rise, putting Indian values in danger: Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI - Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday stressing on the need for an efficient government to augment managerial capacity to deliver better services to the public, said ‘graft and greed’, which are on the rise are putting in danger the principles on which independent India was founded.

“Prosperity has increased but so has social conflict in tolerance of various kinds is growing. Graft and greed are on the rise. The principles on which independent India was founded for which a whole generation of great leaders fought and sacrificed their all are in danger of being negated,” said Sonia Gandhi.

“A coherent social democratic agenda is there for essential. It must be based on rights and entitlements and not on charity,” she added addressing the tenth Indira Gandhi Conference to mark the occasion of 93rd birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi here today.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson further said that she was conscious of the gap between promise and delivery.

“I am of course conscious of the gap between promise and delivery. The debate on social democracy in the west is often about big versus small governments. This is less relevant to India. What we need here is more effective and efficient government,” said Sonia Gandhi.

“The Indian state, at its many levels, needs to augment its financial and managerial capacity to deliver public goods and services better,” she added.

The theme of the conference for this year is ‘An Indian Social Democracy: Integrating Markets Democracy and Social Justice’.

This three-day Conference would conclude on Sunday. (ANI)