The Indian Congress and corruption

The response of democratic governments should be different from non-democratic ones.

Although a democratic polity with all the outlets, India has been seeking to be heard on corruption. There have been so many scams running into thousands of crores of rupees in the last past few months that the average person has come to believe that the entire system is reeking of corrupt practices. Therefore, when a Gandhian comes forward — Mahatma Gandhi is the only person who evokes respect all over the country — to voice his objection against the sham of the Lokpal (ombudsman) bill the Manmohan Singh government has brought to fight against corruption, people rally around the Gandhian, Anna Hazare, because they find he is correct in pointing out that the measure was fake. His fast unto death that began on April 5, at New Delhi, shook the nation. There were 200-odd rallies in his support in different parts of India. The government compromised because in Hazare’s movement it saw the defiance of civil society, the backbone of the system itself. He broke his fast on April 9 when he had his way.

Hazare’s step was, no doubt, extreme. But nothing else had worked. He met the prime minister one month ago to inform him that the anti-corruption bill the government was piloting was too weak. Hazare also wrote letters to the prime minister and the Congress president to beseech them to give teeth to the bill. Both Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi did not even acknowledge his letters. When the nation demonstrated its anger, the ruling Congress spokesman said that they were willing to discuss all amendments to the bill, provided the gun was not pointed at the ruling party. He meant the fast unto death. Who is to blame? Hazare gave the government ample notice.

The bill provides for the establishment of the Lokpal institution which will be headed by the current or former chief justice of India, with two former chief justices of state high courts or Supreme Court judges. The Lokpal is authorised “to inquire into allegations of corruption against public functionaries”. But the effort comes to naught when complaints to the Lokpal have to be routed through the Lok Sabha speaker or the Rajya Sabha chairperson from the ruling party. Lokpal cannot initiate any action on its own. If it cannot do so, what is the purpose of having such a body?

Obviously, the government wants the person in which it is interested to go scot-free at the time of sifting complaints. Even the New Delhi-controlled Central Bureau of Investigation has powers to go into all cases where public money is involved. But the topmost anti-corruption body, Lokpal, will have no such authority. If the institution comes into being, as laid down in the bill, it will have the topmost judges dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s. As for jurisdiction, the Lokpal has no authority to look into the “charges of corruption against the prime minister in matters of national security, maintenance of public order, national defence and foreign relations”. Practically, all other top positions in parliament and government-appointed commissions have been kept out of the purview of the Lokpal. Since ‘public functionary’ is defined as a person who is holding political office or who held it at one time, all bureaucrats are excluded from the Lokpal’s authority. The Manmohan Singh government has once again underlined the fact that the nexus between the rulers and the bureaucrats cannot be even questioned, much less touched.

Ironically, the bill has been brought after 42 years and still it falls short of what is required. It is a tragedy that the Manmohan Singh government has not learnt, even after ruling for eight years, that the Indian people have changed. They want action. When it is not forthcoming, they are not going to sit idle. A joint committee of ministers and civil society activists will meet to draft a new bill and present it to parliament. The government should read the writing on the wall. Some authoritarian rulers in the Arab world did not listen to the outcry of the people and have been consigned to the dustbin of history. The response of democratic governments should be different.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2011.