Institutionalisation of corruption…C P BHAMBHRI
In a democracy, political leaders lose their credibility, even legitimacy, if voters develop a perception that their elected representatives are abusing and misusing power for self-enrichment and engage in crass favouritism. Verily, even democracy will gain a bad name in the process. People were stunned when Ratan Tata said recently that a minister of aviation had asked him for a bribe for a routine permission to expand Tata’s project of airlines in collaboration with a Singapore company. Then came the 2G scam and the mindboggling amount of money involved in it. Clearly, the erstwhile minister of telecommunication, A Raja, had flouted every rule, regulation and procedure by distributing telecom licences to companies and individuals on the first-come-first-served basis, instead of auctioning them in the open market through fair bidding.
Ironically, the decision to appoint Raja as telecommunications minister was taken by DMK supremo M Karunanidhi, not the Prime Minister. Hence, every leader of every party in a coalition government is a party to the malfunctioning and malgovernance at the Centre. Corruption in one party-led government is appropriated by a single source of power but in a coalition system, every partner claims a share in the spoils of office. Is it fatalistically determined that corruption in public life will increase in the age of coalition governments?
Similarly, Karnataka chief minster B S Yeddyurappa has been playing a cat-andmouse game after it has been established that he misused his authority for land-grabbing . Yet, the BJP can’t remove him from office because of votebank considerations. Post-Nehru governments in India have not been able to punish the guilty ministers or chief ministers because resignation is not a punishment enough to prevent the gross abuse of power. The acts of corruption by public functionaries take place quite regularly because there is no effective deterrence to nail the culprits. Raja or Ashok Chavan or even Yeddyurappa will continue to pollute public life because even after their exit, they enjoy the protective umbrella and patronage of their respective parties and leaders.
Veerappa Moily has publicly stated that the mounting electioneering expenditures are responsible for the rising level of corruption . L K Advani, on the other hand, has consistently pleaded for the public funding of elections to cleanse the body politic of corruption . What is conveniently forgotten in the debate is the point that politicians have themselves converted the electoral process into an ugly competition of money power.
Further, it has been suggested that the quantum of corruption has increased by leaps and bounds because every partner in a coalition government operates as an ‘empire within an empire’ and every political group separately accumulates funds by exercising power. Is it any wonder then that that every partner in a coalition government stakes claims to the ministries where more money can be milked through kickbacks?
Every chief election commissioner has attracted public attention to the pernicious role that ‘money power’ plays during elections . However, every party has seen to it that autonomous institutions like Lok Pal and Lok Ayukta that could expose and curb corruption in public life have been reduced to the status of paper tigers. Every major political party, national or regional, is dominated and controlled by a family or extra-constitutional authority like the RSS. The supreme or real controllers of a party machine also need immense financial resources to distribute favours to their political favourites in these private political shops. The loyal party men know it quite well that their leaders would take care of their financial needs during their political career.
As a consequence of this, corruption spreads like a tornado in public life, smashing the normal procedure-based system of governance in democracy. India cannot remain an exception to this rule. The credibility of the CBI or the Central Vigilance Commission as autonomous watchdogs has been eroded because politicians cannot allow these agencies to bring out the skeletons in their cupboards. In fact, there are more incentives in our system to shield corruption: why should a civil servant oblige a minister without getting a share of public funds for his own private family purposes?
Corruption in pubic life can be uprooted only if the guilty are punished and the fear of the rule of law acts as a deterrent among politicians and bureaucrats. For this to happen, we need speedy trial and justice dispensed by agencies autonomous in letter and spirit — agencies that operate without any fear or favour of the politicians. During his time as the PM, Jawaharlal Nehru had showed us the way by removing every minister who had been tainted with the charge of corruption. We have to follow this route of inflicting heavy punishments on public functionaries involved in loot and plunder and confiscate their property and freeze their bank accounts.