The President advised the Lokayuktas to remember that their duty is not just to indict public functionaries when they are guilty but also to protect them when nothing is found wrong with their conduct and to correct wrong perceptions about them with equal force and earnestness. It must be ensured that in the name of checking corruption, vilification campaigns are not carried out to defame or destroy reputations, he said. The President stated that false allegations aimed at impugning reputations are bad.
The President also said that Institutions are the visible pillars of our Constitution, and if they crack then the idealism of our Constitution cannot hold. Our institutions may have suffered from the weariness of time. The answer is not to destroy what has been built, but to re-engineer them so that they become stronger than before. Institutions are the ultimate guardians of our liberty. All these must strengthen existing institutions of accountability not displace them or undermine them. We must also distinguish bonafide errors of judgment from graft and corruption, civil wrong from criminal intent and the need to have swift and effective sanctions against corruption from the imperative of protecting the innocent, he added.
