Udupi (The Hindu): “The ongoing developments in the State are worrisome. It is essential that those now in the administration should give a serious thought to correct them,” said S.M. Krishna, former External Affairs Minister, here on Monday

Replying to questions from presspersons on the way the State government handled the alleged suicide of the Deputy Superintendent of Police M.K. Ganapathy, Mr. Krishna said that the administrative system should create conditions for government officials to function freely.

The officers should work for the benefit of the people within the ambit of rules and regulations, he said.

“If there are any deficiencies in the functioning of the officials, they should be corrected in the right forum. This would help in providing good administration in a large measure,” Mr. Krishna said.

‘Conscience’

Asked if the Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George should resign over the Ganapathy issue, Mr. Krishna said that he would not discuss individuals for the simple reason that he was not privy to all that had happened. Besides, he had not looked closely at what had happened, how it had happened and what were the reasons for the suicide.

“Those who are in power and administering the State have all the necessary information. Each one of us has something called conscience and we will have to be guided by our own conscience,” he said.

On the Congress government in the State facing repeated crisis, Mr. Krishna said that all the governments had to face one crisis or the other at some point of time. “When I was the Chief Minister, I had to face a series of crises. When compared to that, the crisis before the present State government appears small. How we overcome the crisis is essential. This is an opportunity to honestly show our transparency,” he said.

On the increasing clamour in the Congress for Priyanka Gandhi to lead the party’s campaign in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Krishna said: “It is for an individual to decide for himself whether he should come into politics. I have not met anyone of those (clamouring for it) in the recent past. Unless I talk to them, I will not make any public comment,” he said.

On senior Congress leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge’s reported statement that nobody in the party should speak openly against the State government, Mr. Krishna quipped: “I will respect Mr. Kharge’s words and not speak openly.”