CORRUPTION AT THE TOP (Contributed)

The recent `sting operations' conducted over a period of several months by a private organization, has allegedly caught on camera, video and audio as many as eleven members of parliament accepting and demanding bribes from undercover journalists to table questions in Parliament in the interest of imaginary persons. The bribes taken and demanded were for sums from a few thousand to several lakh rupees. After 1951, when a Member who took a bribe of Rs.1,000, and was expelled from parliament on a resolution moved by Jawahar Lal Nehru, this is the first case of its kind. It has, of course been widely known that many MPs and MLAs ask questions for a consideration. Also, that certain business houses have `lobbies', liaison and contact men, etc., amongst MPs and other political fixers to get their interests served by securing favorable decisions at a price. But that is not proof as such and would be treated as hearsay. In the present expose, there is visible and concrete proof of corrupt practice in the highest democratic forum of our polity.

The political parties concerned in the ten cases in Lok Sabha and in the one case of the Rajya Sabha, have all reacted sharply to the disclosures and suspended their members until such inquiries as the two Houses have set up submit their reports. It may be that entrapment is not a desirable process of investigation, but for functionaries who claim absolute privilege from the laws it seems the only way offenders can be exposed and called to account by the Ethics Committee of Parliament. (The Parilament has since expelled all the Eleven MPs). In the all-pervasive atmosphere of corruption that the country faces today, an all-out war without constraints but under the Chief Vigilance Commissioner's directions and control, seems to be the only answer. Sting operations could then be permitted in appropriate cases with his prior permission. There is no room for political intervention in such an operation, nor for political squeamishness either. That may be wishful thinking today, but one may hope that civil society now showing growing activism and receiving wide public support will help cleanse the system. 

If one considers the prevailing rampant corruption in the country, one has to move beyond clichés and conduct a planned and sustained campaign covering the entire machinery of government, beginning from the top in full transparency to assure the people that the government and the Parliament are serious about the campaign. As the Hindustan Times of 14 December, 2005 observed, "Fish rots from the head, and it is the head-the political system-that needs to be urgently taken care of before we go after the others-the bad cops, babus, contractors, inspectors and so on." 

One last word about the large scams, raids and seizures that are flashed frequently in the Press. For the credibility of the government agencies, the progress of investigations and prosecutions may be published from time to time to convince the people that such cases are pursued diligently and not buried for political or other reasons. 

As we go to Press, another major scam by some MPs, this time about demanding or asking for a "Commission" on the amounts sanctioned from the MPs Local Area Development discretionary grant of Rs.2 Crore per annum has been exposed. This time 7 MPs are involved and a great furore has been raised in Parliament. It may be recalled that COMMON CAUSE has been opposing this scheme because firstly, it is not permissible in a democracy for an elected representative to `nurse' his vote bank at the cost of the exchequer; secondly, the power of a MP to make grants, encroaches on the statutory functions of the Panchayats; and finally, control over expenditure and due accountability have been found wanting by the C&AG. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha has recommended the abolition of the scheme. The Government would do well to heed that advice. 

We give below an excerpt from an article written by U.S. Misra, erstwhile Director of the Centre Bureau of Investigation and published in the Indian Express on 28th October, 2005: 

"For me a corruption free state is an irreduciable pre-requiste for empowering India. 

When I look back at my nearly three decades of experience in tackling corruption in public service, three salient archetypal examples come to mind. First, there was this corrupt civil servant who retired with all benefits. He also enjoyed a reputation for efficiency and honesty! He never faced a single vigilance inquiry throughout his fruitful career. 

Second, there was this corrupt bureaucrat who faced a case of disproportionate assets (possessing assets beyond his known/declared sources of income). The case was investigated and chargesheeted in two years. The trial dragged on for nearly two decades. He retired from service and died before the end of trial. The fruits of his corruption accrued to his family. 
Third, a very famous tycoon started his life as an ordinary dealer, but rose up through systematic serial bribery of public servants in almost every sector to become one of the most successful industrialists in about twenty years. 

From these examples, you can draw the following conclusions about corruption : 
• It's a low-risk high-gain activity 
• It's not restricted to a single institution, region, area or country, it is a global pandemic 
• Corruption is extensively prevalent in the private sector as in the public sector, although the latter is better known because there is greater visibility and accountability there 
• Everyone rails against corruption, governments pass laws against corruption, but corruption neither fades nor dies, it remains, although it may change its forms and regions of infestation 
• Most people, are actually opposed to corruption only so long as they do not stand to benefit by it 
• There's negligible social stigma attached to the archetypal upperworld' suit crime' of corruption like `contract-fixing', `policy-fixing', ` legislation-fixing' etc. than to archetypal underworld `street crimes' like `contract-killing, `theft' etc. 
• The network of dishonest and corrupt public servants is more extensive and more formidable than that of the honest public servants 
• Efficiency is valued more than ethics; or, in other words, ends justify the means 
• There are no formulae or quick-fix solutions for curbing corruption, least of all the laws and one may do well to bear in mind the experience of Imperial Rome which had so many laws against corruption but was finally ruined only by corruption 
• It remains the sworn enemy of integrity, which is imperative for the survival of a country in the long term for as that grand patriarch of democracy, Edmund Burke, once wrote, "In a state long corrupt, liberty cannot survive" 
• Investigating and prosecuting corruption is more difficult than being honest in public service 
• It is almost a ineradicable phenomenon that can best be controlled following a cumulative convergence of individual, social and political interests/inclinations." 

January-March 2006