Corrupt bureaucrats are like sleeper cells, dangerous

Pakistan has been ruined by the army and India by the bureaucracy”. So wrote a letter writer while responding to a 2009 Asian survey that ranked Singapore as the country with the best bureaucracy and India, the worst. Have corrupt bureaucrats done more harm to our nation than corrupt politicians?

The various governments that have ruled India have been punished, tolerated or rewarded by the people through the ballot box. Such is the power of the vote that even the most powerful of politicians can be punished, as happened with none less than Indira Gandhi and Rajiv.

Chastened in defeat, top politicians characteristically speak of “accepting the people’s verdict”. They resolve to introspect, rebuild and reconstruct. Have you seen this happen with IAS bureaucrats and their associations?

The lobby of corrupt bureaucrats lies virtually untouched; like a computer virus deeply embedded in the system, which we know is infected but cannot be repaired.

The Bombay high court raised this very point last week while hearing a petition on the Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society scam in Mumbai. Pointing out that the bureaucrats who cleared key files in the revenue and urban development departments were gifted flats in Adarsh Society; the court asked why no action was being taken against these officers.

Using precise words, the court described the scam “as a clear-cut case of manipulation” by the bureaucrats. Precisely, manipulation of the laws, rules and regulations by the faceless bureaucrat is what is at the root of some of the biggest corrupt deals in India.

Thus, whether it is the Rs1.76 lakh crore 2G spectrum scam, the Commonwealth Games or any of the land-related frauds that have plagued the country decade after decade, it  is often the corrupt bureaucrat from the celebrated IAS cadre who has facilitated the corruption.

Bureaucrats who try to clean up the system at their level and stand up to the politicians are cannibalised by their own cadre, as happened with Arun Bhatia who was transferred 26 times in his career of 30 years. After one such transfer from the Pune Municipal Corporation in 1999, which was effectively challenged through a writ petition in the Bombay high court, the chief justice described the transfer as “outrageous”. He said, “We wish to emphasise that during the present days when, unfortunately, corruption and dishonesty are at their peak, honesty and action as per law deserve a pat, rather than punishment. The transfer of Bhatia, in our view, is in the nature of punishment”.

We curse the Indian bureaucracy because of the gross inefficiencies at the grassroots. Our attack is misplaced because we need to focus on the corrupt in the IAS, to start with. Deal firmly with the top and the rest will clean up itself.

The politician is afraid of the masses because they can destroy him through their votes. The corrupt bureaucrat is virtually fearless because he stands protected by his political masters and peers.

He is the bigger traitor of the two and India needs effective mechanisms to bring him to book.

If one were to give a harsh analogy between corruption and terrorism, the corrupt politician is the terrorist who is the face of the act and the corrupt bureaucrats are the sleeper cells who provide him the support. They are the more insidious of the two because they are cowardly, lie undetected and having once tasted blood, are ready for the next operation.