CITY LIGHTS
Graft Solution
Recently, a select gathering at the Asiatic Society had the pleasure of hearing one of the country’s leading legal minds, Solicitor General of India Goolam Vahanvati, talk on the vexing issue of corruption in society. The occasion was the eighteenth Bansari Sheth Endowment Lecture, instituted in memory of the Society’s first lady secretary.
The solicitor general kicked off with an anecdote to show that corruption had deadened society so much that most people were no longer even ashamed of it. However, he stressed, all was not lost. “Hong Kong in the 1960s was so deeply corrupt that nurses had to be bribed to get a bedpan,’’ he said. “That situation has been radically altered thanks mainly to an independent commission against corruption (ICAC) set up by a British governor.’’ Initial jokes that ICAC stood for I Can Accept Cash died away when the twin strategies of prosecution and education began to kick in. The officials in the ICAC were very well paid, thus making bribes much less tempting.
Stressing that India had the RTI Act and the Central Vigilance Commission which was doing excellent work, Vahanvati then said that there was one simple weapon that everyone could use—social boycott. “Just organise a candlelight vigil outside the house of a corrupt official,’’ he declared. “Do it every week. Let’s see how he moves around in society.’’
An excellent suggestion—only, given that we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to corrupt officials, who do we start with?
The solicitor general kicked off with an anecdote to show that corruption had deadened society so much that most people were no longer even ashamed of it. However, he stressed, all was not lost. “Hong Kong in the 1960s was so deeply corrupt that nurses had to be bribed to get a bedpan,’’ he said. “That situation has been radically altered thanks mainly to an independent commission against corruption (ICAC) set up by a British governor.’’ Initial jokes that ICAC stood for I Can Accept Cash died away when the twin strategies of prosecution and education began to kick in. The officials in the ICAC were very well paid, thus making bribes much less tempting.
Stressing that India had the RTI Act and the Central Vigilance Commission which was doing excellent work, Vahanvati then said that there was one simple weapon that everyone could use—social boycott. “Just organise a candlelight vigil outside the house of a corrupt official,’’ he declared. “Do it every week. Let’s see how he moves around in society.’’
An excellent suggestion—only, given that we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to corrupt officials, who do we start with?