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FIFTH
COLUMN
The
Battle Isn't Lost
Corruption
can be countered. Begin by sacking venal officials
By
Tavleen
Singh
It's hard
to know how exactly to react to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD)
admission before high court judges last week that it could do nothing
about corruption. In the words of the corporation's lawyer, "If we
take action against junior engineers, there will be none left. The officials
take money and that is the ground reality." So how should we react?
Should we be pleased that our officials may be corrupt but at least they
admit it? Or should we weep at the horror of a system of governance that
now accepts corruption as one of its fundamental principles?
 Well,
absurd though this may sound I believe we need to be grateful to the MCD
for making its astounding admission because it gives us something to work
on. So far there almost hasn't been a single corruption case in which
anyone has dared make an admission of this kind. Thousands of crores of
rupees disappeared from the Bihar government treasury in the fodder scam
and Laloo Prasad Yadav continues to assert that he is the victim of "communal
and fascist forces". More than Rs 3 crore was found in Sukh Ram's
Delhi house and he also charged his political foes with tarnishing his
reputation. Then there is the small matter of former prime minister Narasimha
Rao's government having paid more than Rs 130 crore for fertiliser that
never arrived. Rao's relatives were among those charged with fraud but
have not admitted guilt to date.
And so it
has gone on and on ever since Bofors became India's most important symbol
of government corruption. Speaking of which no one has yet admitted to
have taken the crores of rupees paid as commission. Not even Ottavio Quattrocchi,
Sonia Gandhi's ex-best friend, to whose Swiss bank account some of the
money was traced. Whenever he has spoken it is only to say that he has
been implicated to tarnish Rajiv Gandhi's fair name.
So before
we go any further join me in congratulating the MCD for its startling
honesty. Then let us begin to examine what it said in its defence. No
action can be taken, we are told, because the "ground reality"
is that officials take bribes to allow illegal building activities. They
also take it to provide legitimate services as anyone who has tried getting
an electricity meter in Delhi will tell you. This happens not just to
ordinary citizens like you and I but even to privileged, important people
who can pick up a telephone and ring the highest officials in the land.
Listen only to what happened to someone who is now a minister in Atal
Bihari Vajpayee's Government.
In the days
before he became a minister, he bought some land in an expensive south
Delhi residential area to build a house. Plans were passed, construction
began and all went well till he tried to get an electricity meter. He
was told this would not be possible unless he paid Rs 20,000 as a bribe.
He refused, and in righteous indignation rang a high official in the Delhi
Administration to report what had happened.
No Payment,
No Meter: No sooner did he do this, though, than the minister was
presented with an electricity bill for Rs 2 lakh that had allegedly remained
unpaid by those who lived on the land before he bought it. No payment,
he was told, and no meter. He, naturally, rang the high official again
and once more was assured that action would be taken against the errant
blackmailing officials. Next, he was served notices saying that he did
not have the correct permissions to build his house. To cut a long story
short he ended up paying the Rs 20,000 bribe and got his meter. Stories
of this kind can be found in thousands in every city and town in India
and variations come also from the villages. But please let us not believe
that nothing can be done about it. A great deal can and must be done urgently.
We need
to begin by making it possible to sack our officials. Corruption is inevitable
in a system that disallows this. If officials protest en masse let them
all be sacked, we have pandered enough to their needs. There are countries
now that hire government servants on a contract basis. We should consider
doing this; all we have to lose are those armies of unsackable officials
who seem to work only for themselves. We need also to reduce the powers
that our officials enjoy by making our laws simpler and more citizen-friendly.
Corruption
has corroded not just our whole system of governance but the very soul
of India. So the problem is not small. But if somebody with sufficient
political will does not attempt dramatic changes soon not only will we
continue to be counted among the most corrupt countries in the world but
the state will increasingly be seen by our own people as their main enemy.
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