The topic for next week's forum which is to appear on Saturday is:

Subhash C Agrawal: There cannot be two opinions about punishment for accumulation of wealth by unfair or corrupt means being justified. Otherwise also adoption of global-design of 'free economy' much deviated from erstwhile Indian pattern of 'mixed economy' has made wealth accumulated in hands of few rich as is evident from statistical data where number of billionaires in the country has risen sharply and manifold as compared to development growth thus enlarging gap between rich and poor resulting in crushing of silent majority of middle-income group. Abnormal price-rise in property is result of ultra-rich craze to acquire more and more property. Even accumulation of wealth by authentic means in hands of few is disastrous even for those benefited. Such a trend if allowed to continue beyond limits can develop money-related crimes like kidnapping or murders. On the other side, failed middle-income people not being able to keep up with society, can resort to suicides like has happened especially with some people in business-class.

Instead of blindly following global design of 'free economy', government should better adopt 'swadeshi economy' designed to suit needs of world's largest and fastest growing Indian economy.

RJ Khurana: To be rich is glorious and to be poor is a curse. It is absolutely human to break the shackles of poverty and aspire for the comforts of life that come with wealth. Accumulation of wealth, therefore, is not a crime if it is done by employing legitimate means and all taxes due to the state are paid on time. But if the wealth is accumulated through dishonest and non-transparent methods and no taxes are paid to the state as per the extant laws, it is certainly a crime and deserves to be punished. That is plain and simple corruption. Lately the tendency to make wealth by hook or by crook has been on the rise contributing to widespread maladies in the society that are not only eating into the vitals of our nation but are also taking a heavy toll on common man's very existence.

Chinmay Vyas: In my opinion punishment for accumulating wealth is justified in all aspects. One can fulfill all his demands, can purchase all luxuries, one can attain all the assets of life through wealth but all these elements or the components are left aside when one is not satisfied internally.

The drawbacks of wealth accumulation are;

1. This is the one cause of widening gap between the rich and the poor, where the rich are enjoying in every core of the world and the poor are begging for mercy every moment. 2. The other flaw of accumulation of wealth is that the money becomes the convergence, it fails to circulate in the market as the money players take the contracts to play with it.

3. And another point against wealth accumulation is that, money does not make man, man makes money. It can divert man's mind towards wrong doings. One should always remember that to live a healthy and a peaceful life the basic necessity is inner satisfaction.

As the Warren Bafout, great investor says we should always follow the two rules- first is work and enjoy to that extent which cannot harm others and the second one is obey the first rule.

Let your thoughts be high but living simple.

SS Chitwadgi: Justified, indeed. This kind of accumulation amounts to sinning doubly ones guilty of paying bribe by the person other than the one secondly who receives. This causes serious financial imbalance in the society. Illicit gains are unaccounted for. There are specific laws for all such crimes but the one guilty transgresses his own conscience since he commits sin or crime knowingly that he is guilty.

A person like Chief Secretary and the like go on receiving bribes and surreptiously thinking that people do not observe, amounting to the cat drinking milk shutting its eyes. Action taken against such an accused is like the operation of fighting fire. By the time he is caught much damage has already been done to the society. He is already swollen with huge amount of wealth.

What I am at, is a watch dog attitude to catch the guilty red-handed or during committing of an offence. Unfortunately it is easier said than real attempt to catch at the initial stage itself. I am not coming out with any solution but I am convinced that it is absolutely necessary to contain this cancer in the society by way of framing more rigorous rules at the level of parliament in order to get rid of this crime from the country.

Now or never since we are in the full grip of corruption at various levels of administration and politics.

S Mahesh: This is a highly debatable topic. Why should one be punished for accumulating wealth? In fact, all of humanity is engaged in accumulating wealth in one form or the other. Initially, we start creating wealth to meet our daily needs; once we attain a certain level of material prosperity, we start creating additional wealth to spend on luxuries (most of these luxuries have, today, become necessities!).

Finally, we start accumulating wealth to help us tide over possible difficult times in the distant future. The hope of accumulating wealth and the desire to accumulate it goads us to work hard and results in material prosperity and progress not only for the individual concerned in particular, but also for the entire society and the nation at large.

This is highly desirable. Poverty is a curse; prosperity is a boon. Only if people are allowed to accumulate wealth will there be progress; otherwise life will be full of misery. This desire to accumulate wealth should, however, not turn into greed. Also accumulation of wealth should be through legal means and not through hook or crook or by exploiting others. As long as accumulation of wealth is through fair and legal means, it should be encouraged and not punished, else we will end up like the Communist countries which do not allow its citizens to accumulate or own wealth in any manner. But, when wealth is accumulated through unfair, illegal methods, punishment is justified.

Dr Suram Singh Verma: Economic divide in the society is the biggest drawback of a democratic system. This divide is further aggravated by the changing materialistic lifestyle thinking of masses in general and corrupt bureaucrats and politicians' nexus in particular. Growing cases of wealth accumulation by influencing people in the society through unfair means are of serious concern for the well being of the society.

People's confidence in governance, judiciary, and law enforcement agencies is eroding which is again a matter of serious concern.

If the accumulation of wealth is hard earned money (ie by fair means) which is impossible, then the punishment is not justified but in most of the cases the accumulation of wealth is associated with fraud tactics of cheating the common masses hard earned money by misusing the political and bureaucratic nexus. Thus, the punishment for accumulation of wealth beyond means (declared sources of income) is not only justified but the punishment should be hard enough so that it will give a lesson to the other people in a corruption rampant country like India not to follow the path of wealth accumulation through unfair means.

Ramesh: Right from the time a human being takes birth, his parents have been tormented due to lack of money. Ask any person how much he wants to earn, and he will say `there is no end'. To satisfy this desire we have programmes like `Kaun Banega Crorepati? And various gift schemes in purchase of consumer items. So the basic thrust is on acquiring wealth, money by any means.

Even when a man retires from govt or private jobs after 62 years he wants to work again and bemoans that he lacks money even though there are pension schemes and PF money to help the aged. So it is basically the greed factor (human nature) which is ruling the heart.

After acquiring more and more money the people do not want to part with it as taxes. It is for this reason that the IT Dept this fiscal released huge ads in papers daily papers.

Our system is literally punishing people who are acquiring wealth. The two doctors who have been punished for possessing wealth are the victims of their human nature and a corrupt society which believes in bribing people. Corruption is rampant in all the depts right from top to bottom. Everybody is in race for acquiring more and more money. The truth is man lacks the knowledge of how to live, acquire wealth. We have framed half-hearted erroneous laws on money which are cause of a fearful life (pay your tax or be jailed says the IT and the BMC). The solution lies in going to God in all humbleness and seeking solutions in handling money matters.

Krishna Chander Mouli: Punishment? Yes, only if such wealth has been accumulated through fraudulent means and methods. In fact when the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi said that for even good ends also good means should be practised, Bapu precisely meant that wealth should not be accumulated alone but also generated and regenerated in boosting the economic activities of the Nation and strengthening the Nation's financial health. It is a different thing now that Bapu's preachings are a forgotten past and many of us indulge today in accumulating wealth rather than generating wealth through honest means. Wealth properly accounted for and transparent in terms of the known sources of income is defined as wealth generated since the accounting and transparency enables the taxing agencies to deduct the due taxes on the earnings and deposit the same into the State exchequer. But where wealth has no proper accounting and lacks transparency and is manifest beyond the known sources of income it is defined as accumulated wealth. A great share of such wealth would obviously be black money/property. While at one end the Nation's exchequer is deprived of its tax share from such wealth at the other end it becomes very difficult to calculate the government's tax share on such wealth because the records, relevant papers and other documents are so skilfully manipulated to escape from the tax net and other legal obligations. It is precisely for this reason that raids and searches carried out with a great pomp and show and media hype on those suspected to have accumulated wealth beyond their means fade out into oblivion with every passing day and as a rule in large number of cases nothing tangible happens. This erodes the credibility of the government as well as the agencies and the investigating authorities involved in such raids. As for punishment for accumulation of wealth beyond one's known sources of income, no leniency should be shown in such cases no matter how influential, big, powerful a person may be, because such an act is no less than cheating the country and treason.

Sonal Chhaya: Indian constitution does not tavern anybody for accumulation of wealth. Thus since independence people have not been punished for accumulating wealth. But India is a democratic country as well. Welfare of people is our prime concern. Socialistic pattern of society was a vision of our freedom fighters. If we think in this way, then accumulation of wealth is certainly not a good habit. We must think about punishment of those people who are accumulating wealth. There is big mismatch between poor and rich. Someone has lot of money at the same time someone has nothing to survive. This is a matter of great concern.

One thing is clear that means of accumulation of wealth are always wrong. We cannot accumulate wealth without applying bad means. Film stars are known as harbingers of social reforms. In spite of that they are evading tax. The media is doing the same thing. Now, we cannot say that media is mirror of society. It is just tool of accumulation of wealth. Nobody is anxious about welfare of people. Everyone is engaged in accumulation of wealth.

Moreover some people understand corruption as their god. List of such people is long. There are a host of leaders who are not free from any tinge. From peon to an officer, work of a common man cannot be done without parting with some money. Is all this not accumulation of wealth? But such people deserve punishment.

India is not a developed country. Per capita income of Indian people is very low. Purchasing power of a common people is also minimal. Some people are even not able to take food both times. So far as justification of punishment is concerned I think this is certainly justified if we punish those people who are accumulating wealth. It is responsibility of the government and rich people to provide food to common people.

RK Kutty: It is highly justified because it is Godly ordained. We all are living on this God's Earth. We are bound to obey, therefore, the edicts, laws and decrees of the Almighty God in matters of handling the resources of this earth. As we all know, God is a just God. He does not look at man's face while imparting justice. He is no respecter of personality. For him the rich and the poor, weak and the mighty, prince or commoner, black or white, easterner or the westerner, all are equal.

One example can very well explain the ways of God's justice to prove this point. When Israel, God's own people, was coming out of Egypt under their great Prophet Moses and Aaron, in the wilderness God rained the heavenly Manna to feed them. The instructions God gave to Moses was very clear. Each family was to collect one Omar of the Manna for each member a day. On the sixth day they were permitted to collect double of it so as to meet the requirement of the 7th day, the day of rest or Sabbath. Even when the instruction was such clear of God's true justice, there were greedy people who collected more than what of their requirement. But what happened was that the next day, the extra they collected were contaminated and they not only threw it away but invited the wrath of God as well.

It is what exactly happens when the people of this world accumulate wealth through unjust means.

Here I am reminded of the story of King Midas. This man wanted to have a wish fulfilled that all he touches must turn into gold. His wish was granted. And he was happy. But he could know of the folly of his unwise wish only when he touched the food that he had to eat.

Most of the people in our times in their unending greed to accumulate as much wealth as possible don't know that they themselves are falling victims of such diseases that they cannot even taste salt, sugar, fat and lots of other food the Almighty God wanted man to enjoy, while living on this Earth strictly as He will.

Many have abundance of wealth but no peace of mind. Homes are turning literally jails for them. They have no family life; if there is one, it is so pathetic that while the husband and wife lead their own ways, the children have theirs. I may suggest such ones to read a wonderful book, the best seller, titled "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" by Robin S Sharma to stop running after accumulation of ill-gotten wealth.

Dr Visal A Khan: About one lakh people in India account for at least one tenth of the country's GDP. The rich is becoming richer and poor is declining towards much more poorness.

Culture of West in Indians has attached great importance to the accumulation of wealth by "usury," the gathering of interest with time without any further expenditure of energy by the possessor. The longer this kind of wealth is kept in the position where it can accumulate interest, the more valuable it becomes when it is finally transferred to a new owner. Since a father not unnaturally desired that his children shall have the maximum benefit of his wealth and at the same time he is likely to be convinced that he is the best judge of how to invest it, he is apt to retain control of it as long as he possibly can. With this kind of system, an inheritance normally is only passed on to the children when the benefactor can have no further interest in it.

Throughout most of the world's history, the possibility of accumulating interest in this way has been somewhat limited. Where wealth was property, rights, or in the form of otherwise un-exchangeable things, the present owner often had no particular reason for maintaining sole ownership until he died. As a consequence, those who were to inherit his wealth often had the right to claim their inheritance at any time.

In his Ancient Law pointed out that in his time among the Hindus the instant a son is born, he acquires a vested right in his father's property which could not be sold without recognition of his joint ownership. When he attained full age he could, if he so desired, compel a partition of the estate, even against the consent of the parent.

Counsellor Troi and Captain Picard have both boasted about how the accumulation of wealth is no longer an incentive. What they don't explain is why. Humans have always been territorial (and so have our evolutionary ancestors), so our desire to accumulate more assets seems more like a basic facet of human nature than a temporary cultural phenomenon. It can be suppressed or modified through education and social conditioning, but such methods are hardly 100% effective.

are: First Neelesh Chaubey , Second Debi Mukherjee , Third BB Dube