President Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said that corruption was a cancer and noted that fault lines in democracy were handiwork of those who had made power a gateway to greed.

In his address on the eve of Republic Day, the president said that democracy has never been betrayed by people.

“Some cynics may scoff at our commitment to democracy but our democracy has never been betrayed by the people; its fault-lines, where they exist, are the handiwork of those who have made power a gateway to greed,” he said.

He said people feel angry, “and rightly so”, when they see democratic institutions being weakened by complacency and incompetence.

“If we hear sometimes an anthem of despair from the street, it is because people feel that a sacred trust is being violated,” he said.

“Corruption is a cancer that erodes democracy, and weakens the foundations of our state. If Indians are enraged, it is because they are witnessing corruption and waste of national resources. If governments do not remove these flaws, voters will remove governments,” he added.

  cancer, corruption, says President