Open Forum
New Delhi, 7 October 2011
Anatomy of
Corruption
TIME FOR ZERO
TOLERANCE
By Dharmendra Nath
“Nothing doth hurt me more in state than that cunning men
pass for wise”, said Francis Bacon a long time ago. Few will dispute the
universality of this statement. These wise men in the government are many times
pitted against simple folk who normally leave governance to those whose
business it is to govern. Such exceptional situations demand notice. It is essentially
a clash between the principals and their agents. The US Supreme Court Justice Felix
Frankfurter says ‘In a democracy the highest office is the office of the
citizen.’ Citizens are the principals, the others are only agents.
Corruption exists all around us like the elements, earth,
air and water. Governments have noticed it only to condemn it and have done
precious little by way of performance. Sixty four years of our Independence have led us almost nowhere. If
any thing, the problem has only grown. Marj
badhata hi gaya
jyon jyon dava ki (disease increased whenever
medicine was taken). Can we then blame the citizens (the civil
society) or a section of them if they express their anguish over the matter and
demand from their rulers who are in fact their agents and representatives that
they do something about it quick?
If every one were to come to the table with clean hands then
there is no problem. Unfortunately, that is not the case. There is a lot of quibbling,
standing on prestige and reluctance to concede any little bit of territory. If
the government has a record to show then it should be sharing it with the civil
society. On its part the civil society is entitled to know what corruption cases
are under the government’s consideration and for how long. What protection is
available to the whistle-blower? Are those currently accused taking advantage
of any loopholes?
Trust and mutual respect between the government and the
civil society are a sin qua non if we are to move out of this log jam. Why is
the trust missing? Why we are unable to speak with one voice? Why there is so
little synergy? These questions cannot be wished away.
Our society is dissatisfied with the current laissez faire
attitude towards corruption. Our airwaves are thick with observations like ‘sab kuch chalata hai’, (everything is
permissible) ‘le-de ke nipate’. (sort
out by given and take) People know that bribery is informal taxation on top of
formal taxation and that it is rewarding unscrupulous elements. They also know
that corruption heightens societal contrasts and makes growth with social
justice and environmental protection impossible. It widens the gap between the
few and the many as is so apparent in our society. Equally apparent is our environmental
degradation.
No token words of sympathy or the gesture of breaking bread
with the deprived for a day are going to relieve that situation. What is
urgently needed is a principled stand against corruption. Somehow there is very
little talk of zero tolerance of corruption from responsible quarters. There is
no open acceptance of the fact that the existence of corruption is a sign of
poor governance. On the other hand there is only regret over the lack of a
magic wand.
Corruption goes undetected largely because people want to
get on with their lives rather than getting involved with corruption-related
hassles. In addition in its more insidious form of collaborative corruption there
is a conspiracy of silence which is difficult to break. It is therefore partly
like detecting a roof-leakage. From where is it leaking? On the surface every
thing is OK. To put it in Chanakya’s words, corruption is as difficult as it is
to detect when fish in water are drinking it.
Time was when we had corruption in lesser, more suave and
milder forms. Someone neatly categorized its various forms as Nazarana, Shukrana and Jabarana. a
gift was more often in kind than in cash. Nazarana
i.e good-will creation and Shukrana
i.e. thanks giving were purely voluntary. It was only Jabarana i.e. extortion that was looked down upon.
From there we have moved to a full-blown commercialized system
of exploitation which is nothing short of monetization of State power. It is
extortionist. As widely observed it takes two major forms, transactional and
conspiratorial. For every transaction one pays extra. It is mostly found at the
lower end of the government.
Permits and licences are a class apart. They are the big
game of the Corruption
Park. There is a quid pro
quo. The authority overlooks and the beneficiary returns the favour. This form of
corruption is mostly found at the higher end of the government.
These deals are in mega bucks with a potential to shake up
the country. So little detected and yet so widely perceived, this form of
corruption has made the expression honest politician a contradiction in terms
for large numbers of people.
When detected such deals make newspaper headlines. Variously
described as sweetheart deals and kickbacks these represent the most damaging and
insidious form of corruption. They involve not just unjust enrichment and
tax-evasion (loss of State revenue which could have been spent on some social
good) but also bar the most deserving. The society has to make do with less
than the best available choice. Their true extent of damage is difficult to
quantify. They make a corrupt State a hollow State and a predatory State
robbing and impoverishing its citizens in various ways.
Therefore, it is in our collective interest that nothing
stands between the accused and his trial except the due process of law
supervised by the judiciary and overseen by the legislature. Any political
clearance, any scrutiny by any agent outside the detection, investigation and
prosecution mechanism is an anathema.
Secondly, since the conspiratorial form of corruption is the
trickiest, the most damaging and the most difficult to detect, investigate and
prosecute and involves willing cooperation of an agent of the State (and who
knows how far his reach goes!) we would be well advised to consider seriously
Shri Kaushik Basu’s suggestion that the bribe-giver, if he comes forward, may
be treated as a whistle-blower and may even be considered for an approver
before the courts.
Let no one mock our anxiety or our efforts. Let no one hide
behind the pretext of the lack of a magic wand. In fact, we should not be
looking for one. Small steps taken by all of us in the right direction can add
up to a lot. As Robert Kennedy said in his address to the University of Capetown
a long time ago: “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each
of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all
these acts will be written the history of this generation”. Instead of working
at cross purposes let us do precisely that.--- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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