Corruption – Where and When?

Who is corrupt and who is not is a million-dollar question that needs to be thoroughly probed before somebody can be dubbed so in the modern day context due to the machination of some really corrupt, who normally and cleverly escape the notice of others in the society. Oxford’s English Dictionary defines ‘corruption’ as ‘use of corrupt practices especially, bribery or fraud’. ‘Corrupt practices’ mean ‘fraudulent activity especially, at elections’. ‘Fraud’ means ‘use of false representation to gain an unjust advantage’. ‘Honesty’ means ‘truthfulness’. Honest’ means ‘fair and just in character of behaviour’. So an honest individual, not being corrupt is expected to be fair and just in his thought and action. Similarly, a public servant in a governmental set-up or somebody occupying or about to occupy a public office is expected to avoid bribery or stop the practice of false representation before the powers that-be, to gain promotions and postings for oneself at the cost of better serving and more committed (to the public cause) individuals. Plainly and honestly speaking, I am afraid; more than 90% of those in such positions and professions at the moment in the country would not qualify the aforesaid litmus test of honesty.

Corruption can also be of different types; corruption in monetary terms, corruption in terms of goods and services, corruption in terms of moral turpitude associated with the physical body of an opposite sex or a group of such individuals, corruption in terms of present positions and future prospects etc. etc. All these forms of corruption are being practiced in full measure and at almost all levels; at all work places and at all economic, social and cultural spheres. Similarly, sometimes the self styled honest souls send out signals that they are above board whereas the inner truth would be that their association or proximity to the power-centers enables them to entertain such ideas and impressions or cultivate covertly among their colleagues and subordinates, the media and the people in general. Some of the so-called honest persons do surely indulge in such extremely inexplicable idiosyncrasies morally and monetarily behind the doors and windows. Their insulation from outside influence and attack is so well-managed and cleverly protected that they end up successfully till they reach their graves. At the same time some well intentioned and well-trenched in ideals and principles throughout their career get sidelined, ridiculed and made redundant in their avocations and professions and almost get beaten up mentally and socially till they succeed in proving their rivals wrong and heave a sigh of relief.

Satan corrupted Eve in the Garden of Eden. All her descendants are no doubt corrupt in some way or other. Corrupt and self-seeking Viswamitra successfully ensured the intolerable and nerve-breaking hardships to truth-speaking King Harischandra. Similarly, the legendary Socrates had to swallow poison for telling the truth. Kings of yester years and Rulers of the modern states do indulge in high-handed actions / omissions in the name of public safety and public welfare. Put on a test of individual’s integrity, they might tumble miserably and without any convincing explanation. But what to do! Kings can do no wrong and hence his henchmen enjoy the perks of highest order without any shame or qualm. Much water flows steadily in the Ganges before it is checked, regulated and thrown into the common ‘chaks’ (paddy fields). Nature takes its toll and corrects the imbalance and aberrations but takes time in the duration of which crocodiles and whales get away joyously and jokingly.

Modern Rulers many a time manipulate and seize the seats of power by hook or crook. Once entrenched / seated on the pedestal they get away easily with all sorts of corrupt deals unless some El Nino type of disaster topple these devils and draw them into the deep waters. All sorts of excuses and explanations are advanced in justifying their amazing means to achieve the top posts / positions. In most of the cases they steamroller their views and make attempts to define and deal differently with the so-called corrupt deeds of others and in particular their opponents. Heads of Governments both at central and provincial levels manage their affairs by picking up individuals – both officials and non-officials, for various positions who had successfully maintained or manipulated a so-called good track record on paper and pencil in the system.

When the top becomes corrupt and all its deals are dealt on the basis of currency accruals, the middle tier and the last tier in administrative hierarchy definitely adopt corrupt means to enter the system, meddle in corrupt muddles and practice corruption without any fear of persecution or prosecution. Matters get so much messed up that projects and schemes are over-billed and extra money pocketed by mediators and individuals-in-charge. Hardly any perceptible percentage of project cost gets spent and project execution ensured in a given time-frame. Time and cost over-runs are invariably the end-result – putting extra burden over the state exchequer. Many a time in the very interior places schemes are executed on paper and not on the ground or sometimes in every plan period the same schemes get repeated or taken up as new works or renovation / expansion, modification or strengthening. Good God! – No salvation or compunction, it seems. When the character of a whole nation or a society is such, then who is to blame? Transparency International can only keep publishing figures every year and complaining that India is highly qualified in corruption index (C.I). There is nobody to take notice of and no agency to ponder and provide solutions. C.I further talks of interdepartmental position in the scale of ten. Police Department takes the top spot although very few officials and the staff from the said department are caught in the net of anti-corruption campaign and cases. Departments vitally want to vie with each other to capture the top position in this index. Politicians as a class are the most–visible corrupt class as per its assessment reported of late. How to set right this class of unorganized and highly heterogeneous group while the organized government sector is still out of control all over India?

Soon after Independence, corruption was at low ebb but now it has reached the edge of the cup and it is about to spill over and turn topsy turvy in the whole system of governance in the country. It will be a free for all with no controls whatsoever at any level. Can anyone think of a solution in the long run at least even if not in the short-run?

Long-term solution demands that a system should be developed appropriate and adequate to meet the challenges in spheres like politics, economics, trade, business, finance, banking, manufacturing, primary sector etc. A clean and comparative system suitable to our national interest in India at the moment will be the presidential form of government in which the Head of the State viz. the President should get elected for a fixed tenure of six years with a scope for two terms only as a rule and similarly the head of the govt. at the state level, the governor also to get elected for a tenure of six years with the scope for repetition once more. It would go a long way in controlling the top-level corruption to a large extent. Elected head should be free to choose and appoint his ministers on the basis of their knowledge and experience in the field. Advice and suggestion can come from elected representatives in the form of committees attached to various ministries / departments. The so-called demand for party fund at the time of general election can be kept very minimum by choosing the elected executives and representatives on the basis, in turn, of their election from primary Panchayats and Municipal wards directly and selected on merit and experience to middle tiers like District Panchayats, the State Assemblies and finally to the Parliament – not by lung and money power but by their ability to win the hearts and votes of elected and selected people in a pyramidal hierarchy on the basis of knowledge, talent and experience to govern the state and the country.

In terms of top civil service in departments like general administration, police, judiciary, forest, revenue, accounts and audit should get the services of those individuals who are prepared to commit their lives for the nation with a spouse and a child at the cost of state exchequer with no scope – real or ‘benami’ – for additional comforts, facilities or properties more than what is provided by the state. Service should be the motto and no other consideration for supervising and controlling the lower levels of government and administration as well as the local politicians of any party. Postings and promotions of officials should not take place on the sweet will or whims and fancies of political executives with an over-riding self-interest but on the strong basis of well laid-out and transparent policies and cleared by powerful and independent Boards. Posting would always be for a fixed tenure for achieving certain indentified and quantified goals in real and measurable terms.

Recruitment to almost all the positions, with a few exceptions here and there, in the Government and government-aided institutions is mostly subject to payment of bribes at some level or other so far but invariably so of late. A very powerful, independent and transparent recruiting agency has to be set up at national, state and district levels to curb corruption ab initio in the career of a new entrant. Frauds in business, trade, banking, insurance and industry are to be taken up seriously with fast-track courts to decide and dispose of those cases on time so that they prove deterrent to others and reduce the possibility of corruption including frauds and forgery to a very large extent. Properties accumulated more than declared in returns or found disproportionate to known sources of income by any individual – be it a politician, a government servant, a business man, an artist or an industrialist – should be investigated promptly and regularly at random to register fear and awe in such anti-social and self-seekers in the society.

Development minus discipline is no guarantee for growth with equity in the shortest possible span of time of a nation. Malaysia and Singapore are the best examples of development with discipline in major fields. Freedom of speech is no substitute for a starving and neglected citizen. Growth with no equal opportunity is no growth at all. Billionaires and Millionaires in the Forbes’ list grant very little inspiration to men and women in the lower-middle class category and those millions of people living below the poverty line with US $ 1.25 a day according to the latest definition of World Bank. How to ensure discipline and thereby control corruption? Absence of principles and lack of discipline in the minds of public servants lead to corrupt behavior in all walks of life. Majority of the people in this country would expect to live like human beings. It hardly matters whether they have time or will to talk ill of a corrupt system. All that they want is an equal opportunity to come up in life with no price-tag attached. There is no doubt that many thousands of families have achieved a tolerable standard of living in a few pockets of this country but what needs to be done in its major parts is much more and that too in a shorter duration without waiting for ten more Five-year Plans from the Planning Commission of India.

Reforms in an existing system should ensure that the humble and straightforward do not suffer and the real culprits do not escape from the intended prosecution and punishment. Sometimes, the decent ones get demoralized, prosecuted and punished for want of peer support and the most corrupt ones escape easily and neatly without prosecution and punishment. System is so hopeless at times that a country like Italy has to pass a legislation in its Parliament to protect some four top public servants including Prime Minister Berlusconi from frivolous prosecutions (about 2500 hearings in different courts of law and spending a sum of Euro 174 million in legal fees). Despite several alleged scandals Berlusconi got elected as Prime minister for the third term in his political career of 14 years. Either he is highly corrupt or totally and unnecessarily being tortured by the prosecutors. As a matter of fact he has not been convicted by any court in any case so far. Is the system at fault or not? I do sincerely believe and swear that the system is certainly at fault. All those who tried to prosecute this billionaire need to be prosecuted and put behind the bars so that the real rascals roam never around Rome like Angels in that country.

(Writer wrote this article in 2006 as the Principal Secretary to Govt. of Chhattisgarh State)

WEAK BOTTOM AND HEAVY TOP

Why and how does the system fail to deliver goods very often of late? Law and order is no exception to this bizarre development. The less said the better in terms of internal security, more specifically with extensive coverage and endangering threats to local citizens and foreign nationals residing in any part of the country from outfits such as naxalites and terrorists both from within and from across the borders. What a frequency and how stunning the way the things are unfurling day by day? Hardly a month passes without any major outbursts of violence and deaths caused in some major centre or other. The whole nation shivers at passing of each fortnight or month because anything can happen to anyone anywhere in any ways.

Intelligence gathered properly or otherwise in the field, villages, towns, district, state, metros and forwarded to higher-ups in the HQrs is often dealt with routinely and passed on to the users and decision makers from time to time methodically mainly to fill up the gaps or justify their existence. Looking to the usage of their data over a period of time the gathering functionaries take their jobs not very seriously. Such a to and fro communication loses its significance or validity invariably leading to a situation wherin both the levels lose sight of an emergency and fail to deliver the service for which they have been engaged and employed by the government. Similar is a position obtaining with the intelligence agencies of defence forces and Intelligence Bureau within India as well as Research and Analysis Wing meant for external intelligence across the borders and foreign countries.

Data Collection, scrutiny, assessment, and communication to layers both vertical and horizontal have not been streamlined and standardised from the point of view of its utility in the ultimate analysis. Reliability and accountability warranting action in the short as well as long run are also found wanting unfortunately. Terror attacks in Mumbai on 26th November 2009 are a grim reminder of such a situation prevailing in the country. It is no doubt a great eye-opener to those in charge of internal security. They have learnt at last, but of course at a heavy cost, the fact that there is a terrible mismatch or lack of requisite coordination between defence personnel and civil authorities on the one hand and similarly within the civil hierarchy among the different agencies being the equals in rank and discipline.

Over the years i.e. three-four decades down the line in the administration of the country the best in the All India Services reach and occupy the very top positions in the government of India at Delhi purely on the basis of CR dossiers cleverly and consciously built up over the years by the careerists while the most deserving and devoted or committed to their conscience and Constitution of India, genuinely interested in selfless service of the people are shunted badly and sidelined on some flimsy, rather fabricated or discriminated ground which goes unnoticed in the public domain. The action and decision of some selfish heads of state governments and their yes men / henchmen is, more often than not, challenged rarely by the regulators or the adjudicating authorities. Who is to check this trend and encourage or ensure the posting of such real and able leaders / individuals to the top positions in Delhi? If such a trend is not achieved in the near future, the third-ratters would certainly continue to rule the roost for a long time.

It is rather strange that only the political executives namely the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Maharashtra Chief Minister Deshmukh and his Home minister R.R.Patil have been sacked while none of the officials from PMO, Union Home Ministry, Defence Ministry nor from State PHQ or Secretariat have been touched or rebuked for their commissions and omissions. No action or less action or late action or no-action at the field has been investigated or commented upon openly till date. Absence of coordination and support from various quarters was pitiably manifested during the crisis period – every responsible official found busy with his evening programmes as usual. It indeed reflects the inherent qualities of the career-oriented individuals rather than those of duty-conscious or motivated personnel to public calls.

The latest and the best example is the way the “the most wanted list” of fugitives residing across the border in Pakistan was made at Delhi by the responsible officials and handed over to the Pakistan officials for expatriation.

Poverty List

The politicians and the economists in India are unable to decide and define the poverty criterion satisfactorily and scientifically so far, although the reason is not at dispute. Probably it is easier to define the richness of an Indian citizen or household than to determine the criterion of poverty. Despite pressure from the Supreme Court on the Planning Commission and the Union Government, the latter is not in a position to answer the question on the poverty line and nature of destitution prevalent in the country at present and the steps taken by the governments to address them. Rather the Union Cabinet on Thursday May 19, 2011 cleared the BPL (Below Poverty Line) census to identify the country’s poor while asking the Ministry of Rural Development to consult National Advisory Council member N.C.Saksena on certain criteria for exclusion of people from the poverty list. It means the cabinet was in a hurry to permit census without laying down the guidelines on poverty definition due to differing views expressed on the subject by the ministers. Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia is practically unprepared and helpless in this regard. That means the UPA’s cabinet supposed to be committed for ‘aam admi’ (common man) and headed by Dr Manmohan Singh has not been in a position to clearly define BPL for the last 6-7 years. But several thousand crores of rupees have been doled out in the name of the poor under various schemes so far.

One is not aware as to how much of a sum would be spent on BPL census both in urban and rural areas. We are just through a decennial comprehensive population census at a colossal sum of money. Now again another census! Another announcement is still more damaging i.e the census be used to enumerate castes to collect figure of OBCs for the first time which they probably failed to do in population census. OBC’s leaders have welcomed this decision but generally speaking it is a regressive step in the country’s development because we are supposed to move away from a caste-ridden society to a progressive caste-less society. Unfortunately in the name of castes we are dividing the Indian society further and more, even after 64 years of independence, to create tension and misunderstanding between the people. The best course would be to select the economically backward sections or individuals and help them in several ways.

Long Wait for Govt. Jobs?

The number of the applicants who registered their names and kept alive on the live register in the state of Tamil Nadu as on March 31, 2011 are about 67 lakhs including 36 lakhs women. The number of post-graduates stood at 3 lakhs. In the last quarter (October-December) of the year 2010 only 7096 persons could be placed as against the fresh registration of 92,959 during the same period. A random enquiry from the applicants reveals that almost 40-50 per cent of them are already employed in the private sector but the reason for the renewal of their registration for years is to get a government job – may be due to the attraction of security of the job and the surety of the full and fair pay.

But then what is the big use of keeping an entire machinery of National Employment Service? - just meant to register only the aspirants and being unable to serve as the sole source of employment to govt. jobs both in the central and state governments as well as the public undertakings except of course for recruitment to All India Services through U.P.S,C and class One services for state governments through State P.S.Cs.

The Directorate General of Employment and Training, New Delhi had directed the employment exchanges in the country to sponsor candidates @ 5:1 to the vacancies notified by the employers till the year 1983 but due to the initiative taken by the Directorate of Employment and Training, Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh headed by the undersigned, the DGE&T revised the formula and enabled the agency to sponsor as many as 20 candidates to every one vacancy reported by the employers. But the heavy load of aspirants is ever on the increase due to the old policy being followed by Tamil Nadu Government for the state government offices and their establishments.

It at all this employment service is to serve as not only a registering authority but also a recruiting agency, it should be made compulsory for all the employers both in the private and public sector to notify their vacancy to the exchanges first and utilize the service for obtaining the lists @ 20:1 before advertising in the media. The names of those applicants who got two chances of sponsoring to two different employers could be deleted from the live register so that the balance list could be a manageable one.  Only a few exceptions could however be granted from such compulsory notification by the Governments as and when necessary. Or else the government can wind up this net-work service and entrust the work of registration to some other wing of government already under-utilised.

B.P.L and the Planning Commission

As is true of many other aspects in Indian administration, the definition of the people living below the poverty line (BPL) is still elusive and unrealistic. No wonder the Supreme Court of India has expressed its displeasure over the Planning Commission for its inability to guage and define the real and practical definition of BPL families in the country. Many welfare schemes of the Government of India and state governemnts have been formulated and taken up for execution by the authorities on the basis of such a definition given by the Commission. Unfortunately a near total chaos prevails all over and the planning apparatus has no time to do the needful on its own without an order from the Apex`Court.

For instance the Public Distribution System of cereals and other foodstuff through the Fair Price Shops is based on such a definition. Lack of proper definition has led to all sorts of malpractices like black-marketing, hoarding and smuggling. The present definition of BPL namely Rs 20 per head in urban areas and Rs 15 per head in rural areas (2100 calories and 2400 calories per capita per day in urban and rural areas respectively) is nowhere comparable to the real situation in the present day context. Hence the announcement by the central government on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 to release some Five Million tonnes of wheat in two weeks from government godowns to prevent starvation deaths and malnutrition.  

Lokpal Bill

After hanging fire in the air for the last 40 years, the so called Lokpal bill is likely to see the light of the day and thankfully going to be implemented due to the initiative and leadership provided by Sri Anna Hazare, a Gandhian from Maharashtra in the form of a hunger strike unto death. Sri Anna Hazare otherwise known for his crusade against corruption in the State of Maharashtra seized the right moment to fight against corruption in the form of a demand to introduce and pass the Lokpal Bill as defined and expected by the Civil society headed by him. The country is badly shaken up and the conscience of the well wishers of Indian democracy has been hurt by a series of scandals and scams unearthed by the Supreme Court of India through C.B.I. It had also created an opportune moment for Hazare and others to take the lead at this juncture.

Although the Government of India has inducted 5 Central Ministers as members of the newly formed Joint Committee entrusted with the framing of the Lokpal Bill, the other 5 members of the joint committee from civil society viz., father-son duo of Bhushans, Santhosh Hegde (Lokayukta of Karnataka State), Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare himself are facing criticism on their past behaviour/deeds in their respective fields. Well, one can dent holes in others' integrity and conduct in some way or other. One shouldn't deviate attention from the main goal of appointing a decent but powerful Lokpal to instil fear in the minds of both political executives and permanent executives at higher levels and ensure punitive action of the highest order in the shortest possible time.

Bold Action for Protection of Environment

Thanks to the officials of District Administration and T.N. Pollution Control Board – 32 dyeing units were demolished after removing the Machinery and Equipment because even after sealing these unlicensed units by the orders of Judicial authority, the units were playing hide and seek and befooling everyone in the process. The farmers in and around these factories were all the time complaining to the District Collector Sri Kamaraj that owners of these dyeing units were stealthily operating these units without any fear. It is heartening to note that Erode District Administtration took the initiative, followed it up with the decision of a Judicial authority and demolished those defaulting dyeing units to give permanent relief to the farmers and other villagers in the vicinity. The citizens of Erode District and Environmental Lobbyists should ensure that the District Administration's hands are strengthened and allowed to function freely and effectively like this in the days to come. One should appreciate such an initiative and timely action because very rarely we come across such activity on the part of executives these days. Air and water pollution is rampant without any fear throughout the country (Friday, April 22, 2011).