Kolkata, July 8 (IANS) Former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee Thursday called for putting in place a “sound institutional mechanism” for containing corruption, criminalisation and communalisation of politics to enhance the quality of democracy.
“We need to seriously ponder and address the issue of corruption, criminalisation and the communalisation of politics, the vicious role played by money and muscle power and inadequate representation of women,” Chatterjee said while delivering the maiden Jyoti Basu Memorial Lecture at the West Bengal assembly on the communist patriarch’s 96th birth anniversary.

“It is imperative for us to have a sound institutional mechanism for containing corruption, strengthening accountability, promoting good governance and thereby for enhancing the quality of democracy,” said Chatterjee, one of the closest associates of the former West Bengal chief minister.

Calling for the creation of a secular polity, he said it was needed to strengthen parliamentary democracy and national integrity, in an atmosphere vitiated by intolerance, negativism, hatred and violence.

Eulogising Jyoti Basu, Chatterjee described him as the “tallest public leader”, and the greatest statesman that India ever had.

“He always tried to strengthen parliamentary democracy and symbolised the ‘inspiring and dedicated leadership’ of the struggling masses and the common people,” he said.

“His clean image, the sacrifices he made in his personal life for the sake of the people and his capacity to ventilate their problems made him one of the most admired politicians of his time,” he said.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker also unveiled a lifesized portrait of Jyoti Basu, created by noted painter Wasim Kapoor.