India Today I K Gujral: Tilting at Sleaze

September 1, 1997

I K GUJRAL
Tilting at Sleaze

Taunted as a leader without a mass base, the PM launches an assault on corruption to seize the initiative.

By Harinder Baweja and Javed M Ansari with Shefali Rekhi

The recurrent theme of Inder Kumar Gujral's political career is never consistency but a steady drift from correctness to correctness. "I do not have a magic wand to end corruption, even though I say with great regret and pain that it has seeped into the veins of this nation," he said on television last month, much to the delight of his political adversaries. Then, as the 50th Independence anniversary celebrations overwhelmed him, he discarded his "helpless gentleman" persona. "The corrupt have become so defiant," he told the nation from the ramparts of Red Fort, "they have come to regard corruption as a birthright, but I will do something and this is my first duty and a promise to the nation."

He followed up the promise to launch a satyagraha the next day by announcing the formation of a special cell in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) to play the role of a watchdog over the investigating agencies. Last Thursday, just as the sceptics were beginning to delight over yet another still-born proclamation of intent, Gujral announced that Principal Secretary N.N. Vohra -- author of a report on the criminalisation of politics -- would be coordinating the cell. He also issued instructions to Vohra and Cabinet Secretary T.S.R. Subramaniam to meet daily to review action on pending corruption cases.

Subramaniam has already met 25 secretaries from departments in which there are nearly 300 requests for sanction of prosecution. Furthermore, CBI Director R.C. Sharma has been holding meetings with DIGs on follow-up measures. Sharma will also be meeting chief vigilance officers from the states to instil a sense of urgency in inquiries into charges of corruption. The prime minister has indicated his wish to reduce the time between the filing of an FIR and the filing of charges. Gujral will also be meeting the Chief Justice to impress upon him the need to avoid protracted judicial delays.

For the first time in his four-month stint, Gujral is conveying the image of being the old man in a hurry. Vohra is already busy evolving a system that cuts the red tape surrounding the stipulation which makes it mandatory for the Government to grant permission to prosecute in all cases under section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code and section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Some 149 such cases already cleared by the CBI are pending government sanction.

CHARTER OF HONESTY

The extraordinary levels of corruption stem from the overweening state control. So awesome is the problem that even the most dedicated crusader is prone to throwing up his arms in despair. Yet, 10 decisive steps can sharply reduce the levels of graft.

Simplify procedures. It requires 47 different approvals to construct a building in Mumbai; a small-scale entrepreneur has to handle 36 inspectors each month; and 46 separate documents have to be submitted for each export consignment. Introduce definite time-frames for clearances, after which approvals become automatic. Reduce government departments drastically.
Reform the tendering system. The World Bank has criticised the system of negotiating after tenders have been received. It advocates assessing by technical criterion and then accepting the lowest bid.
Tax reforms. Income tax has been rationalised but local taxes are cumbersome and prone to leakages. A single Value Added Tax is more sensible.
Deregulate monopolies. The biggest source of harassment for citizens is dealing with public utility monopolies covering telephone, electricity and gas. Deregulation promotes competition, efficiency and lessens corruption.
Rupee convertibility. A freely convertible rupee coupled with tax on global income will check hawala and money laundering.
Freedom of information. The Government is absurdly secretive. There should be laws providing statutory remedies for those denied access to non-security related public information.
Government accountability. The money spent by the Government is contributed by taxpayers. Expenditure has to be audited and the Comptroller and Auditor General given powers to refer cases of misuse and misappropriation to the prosecuting authorities. Political sanction should not be mandatory.
Strengthen investigative bodies. In the mid '80s the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau was created as the apex anti-corruption body. Today there is a multiplicity of agencies. Streamline the process and provide autonomy and more teeth.
Judicial urgency. Even when prosecution is sanctioned, judicial delays rule out prompt punishment. Set guidelines for quick disposal of cases relating to corruption by public servants.
More salary, less perks. Raise salaries of ministers to realistic levels and make declaration and verification of assets mandatory.

These include cases against former Congress ministers Sheila Kaul, Sukh Ram, Satish Sharma and P.K. Thungon, awaiting decision since H.D. Deve Gowda's time. If Gujral pursues his course, it will become binding for the Government to take a decision within a maximum of 45 days. In cases where permission is refused, a committee comprising Vohra, the cabinet secretary, the CBI director, personnel secretary and the secretary of the concerned departments will undertake a review.

Initially Gujral sought to project the anti-corruption cell as merely a forwarding agency. "The idea is to send the right message. Once the people know that the pmo is directly monitoring complaints, they have to be acted upon," said Gujral confidant and Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy. However, after some newspapers began projecting it as a damp squib following his refusal to appoint high-profile officers to the cell -- apparently following objections from the Congress -- the prime minister decided to retaliate by conveying an image of purposefulness.

In a sense, Gujral's decision to don the mantle of an anti-corruption crusader was partly an impulsive response to taunts of being a weak prime minister who blindly followed Congress President Sitaram Kesri's agenda by removing Joginder Singh as cbi director and replacing him with Sharma, an officer with a reputation for putting sensitive cases into permanent cold storage. Certainly, Sharma didn't do Gujral's image any good by suggesting that from now on arrests would be the exception rather than the norm. Soon, Gujral's image as a "helpless" prime minister preceded him with his own party colleagues and coalition partners adding salt to the wounds by shouting him down with alarming frequency. Disturbed by these attacks, Gujral -- according to his family and close friends who act as an informal kitchen cabinet -- chose to use the Red Fort speech to pursue an anti-corruption agenda. "We told him that his whole speech would seem a hogwash if he did not focus on corruption. The decision to set up the cell in the PMO was born out of a discussion he had with his family," said a close friend of the prime minister.

Of course, it was not all that knee-jerk a response. Much before the Red Fort speech, Gujral conducted a highly confidential survey of the extent of corruption in the Government using top industrialists, business associations and retired civil servants as respondents. The results were quite revealing. All of them named the same six ministers as being corrupt and further identified another 20 per cent of the secretaries as being on the take. Now, Gujral is digging into the deals sanctioned by these ministers and officers to identify which particular individuals were favoured.

There is also a definite political dimension to Gujral's initiative as well. There is a suspicion that the anti-corruption drive will be used by him to settle scores with his detractors both within the ruling United Front (UF) and the Opposition. Heading the list of potential targets is Sharad Yadav. PMO insiders reveal that Sharad approached Gujral recently saying it was time to start thinking about party funds. The prime minister rebuffed him angrily by saying that he was the wrong person to help with the Janata Dal's funding problems. Having been repeatedly reminded that he is a prime minister without a party and a mass base, Gujral has decided to turn this to his advantage by being publicly seen to be leading an assault on corruption.

There are, however, few takers for his ability to endure this initiative. "If such announcements can remove corruption, they are most welcome," says former prime minister Deve Gowda with a hint of sarcasm, "but under what provision can the prime minister order a probe?" Equally sceptical is the CPI(M)'s Harkishen Singh Surjeet who has been masterminding the harassment of Gujral in the uf Steering Committee. "It's a welcome step but the real test lies in its implementation".

What Surjeet and other uf leaders leave unsaid is the question mark that hangs over the prime minister's ability to tackle sensitive issues like the never-ending Bofors saga, the controversy surrounding foreign contributions to the Congress and the charges against Kesri. The clean chit issued by the Government law officer to the Congress and the ridiculous figure given for the Congress president's monthly expenditure have already made Gujral's motives suspect. "If he is serious about punishing the corrupt", asks BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan, "then why order a probe against the officers who are investigating the Ashok Jain case?" In addition, there is the danger of an interventionist Supreme Court taking the investigating agencies outside the purview of executive control.

The real danger for Gujral lies in his potential inability to control a process he has set in motion. If he pursues his agenda doggedly, he cannot but incur the displeasure of the Congress on whose mercy he survives. If he is selective in his choice of targets, he will invite charges of being politically vindictive and that could formalise the divisions within the uf. On the other hand, if discretion prevails over valour, Gujral will expose his vulnerability further and could end up as a permanent lame-duck prime minister. Of course, he could skirt the political minefields by confining himself to a clean-up of the bureaucracy by the bureaucracy. But lacking strong political foundations, he could find himself faced with non-cooperation by those who actually wield power. If all else fails, he could effortlessly drift into yet another bout of correctness.

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