Tuesday, May 15, 2012

A Piece on Corruption


Corruption and abuse of power is deep rooted in our nation. Way back in 4th century BC itself Kautilya’s Arthashastra had given detailed description of the duties of the heads of states, various forms of corruption and the punishments for the crime.  This is clear evidence that corruption was prevalent even in those ages. Kautilya points out how these practices were rampant amongst the administrative officers and the law enforcers. The only major difference that prevails between now and then is that at those ages we had strong laws which were strictly enforced by the kings and well abided by the citizens due to fear of harsh punishments for embezzlement which even included murder. Presently there are laws but are limited to the books. In practice it hardly punishes the corrupt. And even if it does, it is either too less a punishment for the committed crime or is much delayed. Corruption has an enormous impact on the social, economic and political fabric of a nation, eventually disempowering the state.  It provides a free run for the rich who can afford to pay bribes and get their things done speedily, whereas hits hard at the people who cannot afford to pay the bribes. Corruption often leads to criminalization of politics and politicization of crime thereby affecting the political structure of the nation. Transparency International’s survey ranked India at the 95th position in the list of nations in overall extent of graft. On corruption perception index, India scored 3.1 on a scale from zero to 10, where anything below five is bad news.

Indians, in the past couple of years have been witnessing a galore of scams like the 2G, CWG, Adarsh, revelations on black money, etc. The CWG scam came at a time when the people in the nation were elated seeing the expansion of the Delhi metro, construction of new fly overs, widening of existing roads and beautification of the city. We were proud that we were the hosts to the games. Newspapers were filled with articles and advertisements sensitizing people on basics of civic sense, how to treat foreign nationals, etc. The means of corruption and figures truly let down the people and made them feel ashamed. A treadmill was rented at Rs. 9.75 lakh for 45 days when one could be bought for half the price. Liquid soap was quoted at Rs. 3397 per unit when the same was available in the market at Rs. 460. The way in which the parties involved fudged contracts and manipulated the prices further distressed the people. This showed how the Organizing Committee was not answerable to any one and carried out the malpractices easily. The 2G scam which succeeded the CWG came as another shock to all. The scale of money involved fetched it the tag of India’s biggest scam ever. The DMK’s interest in the issuing of telecom licenses to companies they favoured was clear here. This was carried out right under the nose of the head of our government. It did not take much time for the Adarsh scam to be revealed. It involved the top brass of bureaucracy and military alongside the top politicians including the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The expose regarding the black money of many Indians stashed abroad in the Swiss banks brought much more shame. Estimates revealed that India has $1,456 bn in these banks. The amount if bought back to our nation can liquidate the entire debt of the nation, provide tax free budgets for the next 30 years and also can give Rs. 2.5 lakh per family. The government has not even revealed the names of those persons who have such accounts abroad. Kautilya had an interesting take on the money stashed in another kingdom. He says “Whoever is niggardly in spite of his immense property , hordes in his own house, deposits with citizens or people of his country, or sends out to foreign countries – a spy shall find out more about his income and expenditure as well as who the advisers, friends, servants, relations, partisans of such a niggardly person are. Whoever in a foreign country carries out the work the work of such a niggardly person shall be prevailed upon to give out the secret. When the secret is known, the niggardly person shall be murdered apparently under the orders of his avowed enemy”.

Why is it that India still lags behind in fighting corruption? Political will to curb corruption is most needed. We need a good mechanism too. The mechanism that prevails is limited to the Central Vigilance Commission at the centre. It handles cases against senior officials and has substantial independence. But the problem is that the CVC acts just like an advisory body. All government departments also have a Chief Vigilance Officer. Here the appointments are often delayed and the officer appointed to this post often handles vigilance part time which reduces his efficiency in both works. The Right to Information (RTI) has been a blessing in terms of exposing various crimes but this again can only bring out the data and put pressure on the government. Once the data is known by filing an RTI, what does an individual do?

For curbing corruption we need the right laws and we will also need to educate the people to have the right attitude and understand how the cancer of corruption is affecting the nation. Corporate donations to political parties were banned and this made corporates to make payments covertly for economic favours. Though the ban was lifted in 2003, the corporate and the political parties found it better to make and receive payments covertly. This has rotten our democracy too.

People should understand that bribing is not an investment which gives one a moral right to expect a return through more corruption. The Lokpal Bill if passed will be a tuff law which will, to a great extent stem corruption. The CBI should be made free and independent so that the ruling governments do not use it to silent the opposition. The Lokayuktas should be installed in all states so that the common man in any part of the nation can get speedy justice. The judiciary also needs a revamp. There are around 2.5crore cases pending in the lower courts, 37lakhs in the High Courts and 4600 in the Supreme Court. India has just 12,000 judges for a population of 1.2 billion, which means one judge should look after 8572 people’s cases. This is the reason for the delayed justice which is equivalent to justice being denied. Once all this starts happening, the new entrants into the powerful sectors will be aware of the dire consequences they will have to face.

Coalition+Weak Centre+Bad Governance


A weak Central government is what India is having now and it is sure that no one would have second thoughts on this. The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), both major national parties, do not have the required numbers to form a government in the Centre. They are forced to form a coalition government by obvious softening of stands. The present UPA II has been slammed from the left, right and centre for their inefficiency in tackling inflation, corruption and policy paralysis. Only two major schemes namely the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the Unique Identification Number (UID) were implemented. The latter one again has raised serious questions about the money involved in it and the scheme’s effectiveness itself. Major bills like the Lokpal and the FDI had to be stowed due to lack of support from its own allies. The Centre has been running from pillar to post for gaining credibility and to sustain the government at least till the 2014 polls. In this process of tireless running it often gives in to most of the states’ demands. The demands however are not small - Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh all asking for a moratorium of the state debts. The Centre is seen heeding to most of them! Are these really necessary? 

Punjab’s SAD’s election manifesto promises included free laptops with data card for children, plots for landless, provident fund for farmers, unemployment allowances, etc. – the implementation of all these costing Rs.10,000crore, this is in addition to the total state expenditure of Rs. 50,883crore. The new annual expenditure thus has increased than the preceding year’s by a whopping 28%, largely due to the rising bills of salary, pension, subsidies, etc. Subsidies alone cost the state Rs.7000crore. Soon after the elections, Prakash Singh Badal did not have second thoughts in appointing 21 Chief Parliamentary Secretaries (CPSs), the highest number appointed ever. Each CPS being allotted an official red beacon car with unlimited fuel, a four bedroom house – whose estimated monthly rent would amount to Rs. 75,000, monthly emoluments worth Rs. 60,000 and an annual out-of-state travel allowance of Rs. 2,00,000. And now he CM asks for a waiver of all small saving loans worth Rs. 22,202crore and a moratorium on repayment of Central loans.

The always unpredictable West Bengal CM Mamta Banerjee too has asked for a bailout of the debt bequeathed by the Left Government, which amounts to just Rs.2.3 lakh crore. Without losing the golden opportunity, the newly elected young CM of Uttar Pradesh too has asked for a bailout of Central loans amounting to Rs. 2 lakh crore. 

A weak Centre heeding to all these unreasonable demands is a very sad sight. Hope we get a good, strong, stern and development oriented government at the Centre soon.