This is just the beginning

Without belittling the magnificent achievement of the Anna Hazare-led civil society movement to stymie the UPA government’s cunning manoeuvre to steamroll the creation of an anaemic Lokpal, one must caution against premature victory celebrations about exorcising the demon of corruption. Certainly, a little bit of euphoria is justified after the government’s climb-down and agreeing to the constitution of a new committee, which will include representatives of civil society in equal measure, to draft a new and much stronger Lokpal bill. But this is only the first small step in exorcising the demons of corruption that have emasculated Indian society.

What has, perhaps, thrilled the public in general about this little victory is that it is perceived as a big blow to the corrupt at the top who have escaped unscathed all these years due to the absence of an adequately powerful enforcement authority. It would, no doubt, delight the public to see a scam-tainted political heavyweight rot in prison while his ill-gained assets are expropriated by the state.

Whether the creation of a He-Man type Lokpal will do the trick remains to be seen. In many cases in the past, it has been noticed that it is not the institution per se but the person leading it that makes the difference. Prior to TN Seshan donning the mantle of chief election commissioner, the casting of the ballot in India was riddled with inequities, criminality, and outright fraud. Seshan managed to clean the Augean stables of Indian elections, not by asking for extra legislative powers but by fearlessly exercising the authority and powers that he already had as CEC. Thanks to him and the precedent he set for the commissioners following him, polls in India are as free and fair as in any developed democracy.

Similarly, the institution of the Lok Ayukta has been long with us but it took a dogged and active person like Justice Santosh Hegde as Lokayukta, Karnataka, to strike terror among the corrupt bureaucracy in the state. Therefore, the effectiveness of the Lokpal will not just depend on the “What” of the institution but also the “Who”.

While a strong Lokpal can cause discomfort to the corrupt elite, it must be realised that corruption in this country is a web of webs woven by multiple spiders, big and small, in all walks of life in this nation. The initial impetus to the creation of this web was the unfortunate permit-licence raj, flourishing under the pretensions of socialism during the first four decades of our republic, which unduly empowered the minions of the state over almost all the needs of the public. It was during this period and with this empowerment that the DNA of corruption was created and entrenched in the body public.

So strong and widespread was this contagion that even the panacea of economic liberalisation could not weaken it. On the contrary, it has taken advantage of several new discretionary powers such as environmental regulations or social security programmes to mutate and become all the more malignant. In the light of this, to expect the single antibiotic of the Lokpal to counteract the all-encompassing cancer of corruption is wishful thinking.

This does not imply that the knights combating corruption should acknowledge defeat. The fight against corruption is not just a single skirmish but a prolonged war in which there are many fronts. However, the battles are broadly along two dimensions, namely, denial of opportunities for corruption and snagging the corrupt.

The former can be tackled by many methods such as removal of discretionary powers (eg, why should a chief minister have discretionary powers for allotting government land?); open auctions of scarce resources; use of computerised information technology for government-related work such as issuing passports, birth/death certificates, driving licences, building permits etc; imposing penalties for delays from the government side; use of the UID number system to streamline government social delivery programmes like NREGA and PDS, etc.
With regard to hunting down the perpetrators of corruption, a primary strategy is to give more teeth to investigative institutions like the Lokayukta, CVC, and CBI. The latter has to be rescued from the clutches of the home ministry and given full operational autonomy, while reporting to the Supreme Court.

Talking about the judiciary, one of the main reasons why politicians remain complacent about corruption cases against them is the inordinate delay in the judicial proceedings brought about by a tremendous shortage of judges. Perhaps the next major cause that should be taken up by Anna Hazare is plugging this major loophole.

The writer is a commentator on public affairs