Rotten to the crore?

The above headline is taken from an article published in the November 27 issue of the Economist about rampant corruption in India. The headline is bound to shock every patriotic Indian as it touches the core of our heart when used for India. The Economist, known for its fair assessment of India’s economic progress, has projected

India as growing to become one of the strongest economic powers in a very short period. So when such a newspaper writes that besides “shifting a few high-profile figures, India is ready to do little more than shrug”, we cannot ignore it. Most citizens — who are familiar with the scale of corruption in India — will agree with this assessment and take it as the expression of genuine concern by a well-wisher at India’s lethargy in fighting corruption.
The Economist quotes American think-tank Global Financial Integrity, whose report in November 2010 suggested that “since 1948, India had lost over $460 billion in illicit financial flows, much of it through corruption”.
If India could emerge as an economic power despite rampant corruption, one wonders how much progress it could have made if it had a strong and comprehensive programme for controlling corruption. The question then arises, we will try to do something more than shrugging our shoulders to deal with this malady or not.
Various measures to deal with corruption in elections, police department, revenue department, public works etc have been suggested by experts, but most have been grossly ineffective as we have failed to create conditions favouring the success of such measures.
Instead of referring to some of these measures I will venture to indicate a few priority areas which, if attended to seriously, might help in curtailing the scale of corruption.
The first step is to increase awareness among people about their rights as citizens. The main reason for the low scale of corruption in advanced democracies is the high level of consciousness among citizens about their rights and duties. Unfortunately, in India, people show zeal for rights only in defence of their property, freedom of speech, association or worship, as guaranteed by the Constitution.
With Independence, it was expected that government employees would consider themselves as servants of the public which, in turn, will assert its privileges and rights. Unfortunately, this change has not taken place. It is, therefore, necessary that the first attempt to fight the evil of taking and giving bribes is by helping the development of citizens’ rights.
The importance of education as a tool for development of consciousness about citizens’ rights and duties has not been even theoretically recognised in the curriculum prescribed in our schools and colleges. A serious attempt to do this should begin with entrusting the main share of responsibility to our educational institutions — they must not just teach children “rights and duties”, but also prescribe that students show adequate understanding and acceptance of ethics and morals before being allowed to sit for final examinations.
In addition to spreading the message of cleanliness in public life through the educational system, there should be an earnest drive to change our current value system regarding acquisition of wealth. We do not bother to know how the rich have made money — for them to gain respect and importance in the society it is enough that they have sufficient money. A person might have earned money through blackmarketing, bribery, cheating or smuggling, but what we look at is whether s/he has enough money.
Another important change required is in our attitude to corruption that involves small amounts, often described as “mamool”, or payments traditionally made. In fact, it is this tolerance for corruption that has led to the distortion of our value system and made our society insensitive to corruption. People should begin to realise that a bribe is a bribe — a petty amount offered to a petty official is a criminal offence.
Another cause for widespread corruption is the manner in which politicians shield corrupt people. The usual defence is to cite examples of those involved in corruption from rival parties and then attack them. Unfortunately, this attack and counter-attack has encouraged political leaders to indulge in more corrupt acts with impunity.
An equally important cause of corruption is the ease with which the corrupt can get away without punishments commensurate with their offence. A typical example is the provision in the Central Vigilance Commission Act that was passed by Parliament in 2003. Great hopes were roused when the bill was under consideration, but when it was finally approved it was with the caveat that in the case of employees of the level of joint secretary and above, no enquiry or investigation into any offence alleged to have been committed under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 could be done without prior approval of the Central government.
When the government reserves the power to approve or deny even investigation into offences alleged to have been committed by senior officers, the officers concerned remain at the mercy of their ministers and this leads to the evil nexus between the minister and the official to indulge in corruption.
Ultimately, the success or failure of eradicating corruption will depend upon the strength of will of the politicians. During elections each and every political party makes promises of launching an effective drive against corruption, but almost every party violates this promise even at the stage of selection of its candidates for election — several corrupt men are preferred on the criterion of “winnability”.
There has to be genuine will and commitment on the part of the leaders of our political parties if India is to extricate itself from the stranglehold of corruption and never again be named as “rotten to the crore”.

P.C. Alexander is a former governor of Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra