Widening the NEt - Bringing a Corrupt Elite to Book

(Originally appeared in the 1990s in the Times of India, as published in M. D. Nalapat's book "Indutva", Har-Anand Publications, 1999)

India’s miserable performance in athletics reflects the national

tendency to lose steam after a good start. After the initial burst

of enthusiasm and energy, we tend to peter out and the final

result is usually dismal. This situation obtains in corruption

investigations as well. As numerous infructuous enquiry

commissions have shown, an unwillingness to concentrate on

crucial issues and delays in investigation often lead to the

punishment for graft being merely some bad publicity.

Lok Pal Bill

That the political class in India is unwilling to stem the flow of

cash in its own direction has once again become clear from the

draft Lok Pal Bill. Instead of protecting the citizen from venal

politicians, the present draft Bill will serve to gag the media and

enable wrongdoers in government to avoid accountability by

directing enquiries into other more convenient channels. As the

hawula and other scams have shown, unless there is constant

media and judicial scrutiny of cases, these will become

progressively more diffused and finally die out. Public opinion

needs to be mobilised to ensure the framing of laws—and the

creation of institutions—that can lessen, if not destroy, official

corruption.

In this campaign, winning a few battles—such as sending a

Sukh Ram into custody for a few weeks—is not enough to win

the war. Only a system of checks on the political and bureaucratic

elite can do this. The main thrust should be targeting the top

echelon because corruption flows from that level to others. If the

highest level of the administration is seen to be honest, the rest

will follow suit contributing to a better regime. This was evident

in Kerala during the time (1969-77), for example, when C.

Achutha Menon was chief minister. Or, look at a wider all-India

example. Government functioning was far more honest and

transparent during the short period (1964-65) of Lal Bahadu

Shastri than it was subsequently. However, a Menon or a Shastri

are rare. And, after full-fledged "family rule" began in the 1970s,

such people foimd it almost impossible to get anywhere in durbar

politics, where what matters is to catch the eye of the ruler

through sycophancy. Small wonder then that politicians are

resisting the efforts of the Election Commission to democratise

their party structures.

Defining the political and the bureaucratic elite for purposes

of legislation is easy. The "political elite" comprises the presidents

and legislature party leaders of all recognised political formations,

both at the central as well as state level. It also includes all past

and present cabinet ministers, again at both the Centre and the

states as well as all current MPs, and MLA/MLCs. The

"bureaucratic elite" comprises all those whose salaries come

from the state exchequer and which exceeds a total of Rs. 10,000

per month, (all inclusive). This includes public sector officers as

well as those from the administration and the police. Needless

to say, this definition also includes the spouses and the children

of those listed. The judiciary and the armed forces will also need

to develop systems to identify and punish the black sheep within

them. The new legislation would cover all their actions from the

period they enter into its scope.

Apart from a Lok Pal rid of the opacity and toothlessness

patent in the current draft legislation, the CBI needs to be vested

with the same level of autonomy which the Comptroller and

Auditor-General and the Election Commission enjoy at present.

This new CBI should have as its mandate investigations into

charges involving the political and bureaucratic elite. Cases

involving smaller fry should be devolved to other organisations

set up for the purpose. At present, rather than concentrating on

major cases, the CBI has got far too much on its plate. It is no

surprise, therefore, that it has been unable to frame chargesheets

on time in several cases, thus leading to the accused being let free

on bail. Were the CBI to concentrate only on involving those at

the top, or those where the loss to the exchequer is computed at

over Rs. 100 crores, such delays would hopefully not occur.

Special Tribunal

However, investigating agencies by themselves are as useless as

water without irrigation canals to take it to the fields. The

existing criminal justice system—clearly designed for a population

the size of the British Isles—would not be able to take the burden

generated by a campaign against high-level graft. It needs to be

supplemented by a system of special tribunals which will try

such cases. These tribunals could be modelled on, for example,

the land boards set up by the Devaraj Urs government in

Karnataka during the 1970s. These boards had wide powers and

strict limits on appeal procedures. As a result, decisions were

taken and implemented speedily.

The experience gained since the investigations into the Jain

hawala case shows that there is a lack of coordination between the

key investigating agencies, in particular the CBI, the Directorate

of Revenue Intelligence and the Enforcement Directorate. In

order to investigate cases involving the elite, or those where the

loss to the exchequer exceeds Rs. 100 crores, a coordinating

mechanism needs to be set up so that information can be pooled

and duplication of work avoided. Contrary to the intentions of

the framers of the present draft of the Lok Pal Bill (which is to

prevent media scrutiny), there is need for constant monitoring

by the media of the activities of these watchdogs, so that they

themselves do not fall prey to corruption. Given that India is by 

and large a functioning democracy, the best guardian of public

standards is a citizenry kept informed by an alert press.

Two Gifts

While the British enriched themselves during their uninvited

sojourn in India, their crimes were mitigated by two gifts that

they—perhaps unintentionally—left behind. These are the English

language and the system of parliamentary democracy. Both have

resisted the efforts of Indian goons and cultural fascists to banish

them. Thanks to the two legacies, over time a vigilant press and

judiciary have also emerged that have combined to carry forward

the present drive against corruption. In particular, the present

Supreme Court has ensured its place in history by taking the lead

in bringing the mighty who have transcended the law to book.

However, an institutional framework needs to be created to

ensure that this achievement is permanent.

Only sustained public pressure can shame the political class

into setting into place systems and procedures that would deter

a member of the political or the bureaucratic elite from becoming

corrupt. A start has been made by the forced arrest of Sukh Ram

for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of

income. However, the politician from Mandi is not the exception

in his class, but the rule. Those in authority, however, should not

be allowed to escape by making scapegoats of a few like Sukh

Ram. The net needs to widen so that it covers the activities of all

those who have held prominent positions during at least the past

ten years. Narasimha Rao and Sukh Ram are not the only

politicians to have bent the rules. Many of those now leading the

wolf pack against them are no less guilty. At present, the "drive"

against corruption has all the orderliness of a Roman arena

where the crowd screams for the fallen gladiators to be

despatched. Such frenzy needs to be replaced with the putting

into place of new systems designed to identify and punish graft

and misuse of office.