Menace of corruption in India

Menace of corruption: Causes and its cure

Introduction

IPL and cricket scandals has again boiled our blood  and started debate that the evil of corruption and its auto narcotic effect pose great threat to the welfare of society and continue to grow in menacing proportion..[2]  We may have two perspective regarding it. The first perspective is that there is corruption in every alleyway in India, so wise up , why should cricket be exception. The second perspective is that corruption is increasing the world over.  Why corruption become so pervasive all over . we know about Indian and their greasy fingers, but the glass is no cleaner on the other table . corruption in China is nearly as monumental as its Great wall. France’s ex President , Nicolas Sarkozy, faces charges for taking cash from a L’Oreal heiress. In Russia, the mafia is close to being state-run. Britain was recently shaken by parliamentary expenses scandal. In America from the ex- governor of illionois to Jesse Jackson Jr,  the civil rights leader, the rich, the powerful and holy are stained.[3]                                           

Corruption in a civilized society is like cancer, which if not detected in time, sure to mailings the polity of country leading to disastrous consequences. It is like plague which is not only contiguous but if uncontrolled like fire in jungle.[4] That no region or country in the world is immune from corruption and out of 183 countries assessed  scored below 5% (0 being highly corrupt and 10 very clean.[5]

Corruption in India

Government officials in India are well known for their rampant corruption which has been further fortified from report of the  transparency International report 2012. Departments that manage to spent money budgeted and allocated are considered efficient and so in the mad rush to show utilization of funds, false receipt vouchers  and muster rolls are churned out on large scale. Thousands of school, hospital, road, check dams, community centers and residential quarters are shown completed on papers. The general perception of public that public ex-chequer is being managed and that the funds for development is going in pockets of rich and powerful.[6] Large dams and mega irrigation projects in India are good example of this. The major reason for promoting these projects is because of the scope they offer for large centralized kickbacks.

Corruption is an age old Phenomenon throughout the world. It is through Corrupt Practices of our citizens that, India has been ruled by so many Tribes and cultures i.e. British, Mongols, Mughals, Portugese,  Dutch etc. Today, we cannot think of a Single Department which is not corrupt. We often criticize the Politicians for corruptions, but however forget the Bureaucrats working behind the curtains. Actually it is the Bureaucrats who run the Government. Corruption in judiciary is also known to all. In 2004 , transparency international and Delhi based centre for media studies , a research firm undertook the India corruption study, in which it revealed that  59% of respondents aid bribes to lawyers, 5% to judges, and 30% to court officials.[7]  There is a very powerful lobby and know well how to play with law and get away from such allegations. We will see soon the newspapers not printing about it any further and soon people will also forget about such a serious issue. Well, people have very short memories, out of site is out of mind.

Rajiv Gandhi , former Prime Minister of India  had estimated that 85% of public funds leak away due to corruption . Even the funds that are actually spent on public works and developments are often spent in projects which are not in public interest and have been selected to maximize the possibility and scale of kickbacks. The illegitimate money made by corrupt public servants and the power that its gives them is than used  by them to  perpetuate in office. This corrupt money is one of the main factors responsible for continued re election of such politicians. They become masters of the people to whom they are supposed to serve[8]

Independent India’s first scam was of 1948 Jeep Scandal. The Cycle Import Scam was reported in 1951. the Defense Scam starting from Bofors scam[9] 1990’s witnessed innumerable scam involving crores of rupees such as  Medical Equipment Scam (5000 crores). Waqf Scam (1600 crores) Fodder Scam (1000 crores) Sukhram Telecom scandle (1500 crores)[10] 21St century corruption scams made India to feel ashamed due to various mega scam including the recent 2 G spectrum scam and coal scam  .  In recent reports of Transparency International, India’s image on tackling corruption has not improved with Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) placing it at 94th rank out of 176 nations this year. Though India was ranked at 95th position last year, the international watchdog said it has started evaluating the positions through a different formula beginning this year and hence this cannot be compared to last year's ranking.[11]

India may be witnessing popular agitations against graft but there is no respite for the common man from the menace with over 60 per cent of slum dwellers in major cities feeling that corruption has indeed increased in the past one year, the slum dwellers surveyed felt that corruption in public services has grown in the last 12 months, the season of protests against graft and scandals that rocked the country .The study conducted by the Centre for Media Studies in the slums of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Goa, Kolkata and Mumbai also said slum dwellers in all these cities perceived an increase in corruption especially police services.

"More than half of the slum dwellers from nine major cities in the 2012 survey felt that corruption in general has increased in public services in the last 12 months while around 29 per cent opined that corruption in public services continues to remain the same," the study released today says.88 per cent of the people said they faced corruption from police service in the last one year and least in water supply services (78 per cent).[12]

The study threw up several interesting features like 'most often paid' amount among services was highest in police which is Rs 500 and the highest amount paid by a single slum household in Delhi to get a housing plot is Rs 7000.The Income Tax authorities have slapped a demand notice on P.V. Sreenijin and his wife K.B. Sony, son-in-law and daughter of the former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, asking them to cough up a tax due of Rs. 2.2 crore for the period between 2007-08 and 2009-10.The demand was raised last month after an enquiry into the alleged undisclosed income of the couple was conducted by the department’s investigation wing based on a whistle-blower complaint in December, 2010. [13]  Looking to magnitude and extent of corruption in coal, Rail and Khel[14] in India , Apex court has rightly equated the evil with disease like cancer and virus like HIV leading to incurable disease likes AIDS.[15]

Indians today carry a photocopy of the American dream in their heads. It did not seems that way in 1947 when  Pandit Jawahar lal Nehru, first Prime Minister of India, delivered his famous “ Tryst with destiny” speech which was all about peace, democracy and freedom and not about getting rich .it is now all about global economic supremacy and releasing the “animal sprit”.[16] This did Indian well for a while but its feeble democratic institutions helped corruption grow to new heights. When we make our own Indian dream, there is one lesson we should not forget, Getting rich is good  but doing it by our ethical value is better.

 Causes of corruption

The causes of corruption are many and complex. Following are some of the causes of corruption.

1.  Emergence of political elite who believe in interest-oriented rather than nation-oriented programmers and policies.

2. Artificial scarcity created by the people with malevolent intentions wrecks the fabric of the economy.

3.  Corruption is caused as well as increased because of the change in the value system and ethical qualities of men who administer. The old ideals of morality, service and honesty are regarded as an achromatic.

4. Tolerance of people towards corruption, complete lack of intense public outcry against corruption and the absence of strong public forum to oppose corruption allow corruption to reign over people.

5.Vast size of population coupled with widespread illiteracy and the poor economic infrastructure lead to endemic corruption in public life.

6. In a highly inflationary economy, low salaries of government officials compel them to resort to the road of corruption. Graduates from IIMs with no experience draw a far handsome salary than what government secretaries draw.

7.  Complex laws and procedures alienate common people to ask for any help from government.

8.  Election time is a time when corruption is at its peak level. Big industrialist fund politicians to meet high cost of election and ultimately to seek personal favour. Bribery to politicians buys influence, and bribery by politicians buys votes. In order to get elected, politicians bribe poor illiterate people, who are slogging for two times’ meal.

Consequences of corruption

Corrupt society are unable to support their citizens, they starve their children not only for food, for education , health care . They   are ongoing nightmares.[17] Corruption devalues human rights, chock development and undermine justice, liberty, equality, fraternity which are core values in our constitution preamble[18]. The consequence of this evil  are countless but  few among them may be- When society is corrupted its member become cynical and contemptuous of social and moral values. In such a society sane voices of wise man and social reforms will remain unheard and unattended. Now I feel that majority of Indians have become  cynical and helpless about this exist.

Economists provide realistic evidence to prove that corruption has an influence on economic growth. Competitive markets and openness to trade reduce corruption by decreasing the collection of rents available to be captured by giving and taking bribes. Many studies have shown that corruption has pernicious effect on investment and growth. Some of the ways in which corruption  weakens the economic growth and investment are- misallocating talent and under utilization of key segment of society (b)  lower domestic and foreign investment (c) distorted enterprise development and growth of unofficial economy  (d) distorted public expenditure and public investment (e) lower public revenue and less provision of rule of law as public good. [19]  

Corruption also undermines the stability of the government. We have examples where corrupt Ministers, M P ‘s were unseated and chief ministers of states were compelled to resign their posts on corruption charges.  Some ministers remain behind bars . this pose a threat to stability of government, because now polities has become number game and these corrupt politicians has some representatives and followers in their support.[20]   On account of corruption charges Pawan Bansal, Railway minister  has to reign.[21] And Law minister has also to lose his cabinet berth .  These unprecedented and large scale corruptionraised serious concern about the functioning of Indian democracy.   Corruption also decomposes democracy and deflating the most fundamental principles of democracy governance. Corrupt practices remove government decision s from public realm to private, diminishing openness and accountability. Corruption is major obstacle to democracy and rule of law. In democratic system, offices and institutions lose their credibility and legitimacy when they are misused for private advantage. Corruption is inherently contradictory and irreconcilable with democracy.[22]         

REMEDIES OF CORRUPTION 

Corruption is a cancer, which every Indian must strive to cure. Many new leaders when come into power declare their determination to eradicate corruption but soon they themselves become corrupt and start amassing huge wealth.Many People become materialistic and money oriented, there is no important of ethics and morals in business dealings. This is because these kinds of people have no moral accountability to anybody; and these kind have people have full trust on money, they strongly believing that money can hold big role in their life, they believing that money can solve their current and future problems, they believing that money can give them life without problems.

Tentacles of corruption have started grappling even the institutions created for protection of republic, unless these tentacles are intercepted and impeded from gripping the normal functioning of legislative, executive and judiciary , so to my mind civil society , legislature , judiciary and investigating agencies  may play major role in combating corruption.

(1) Role of civil society

 Right to information campaign by civil society, we have seen that transparency in all aspect of government functioning is by far the most important measure to deter corruption, particularly in an organized and vigilant civil society. The experience with public hearing has shown that open public exposure of corruption is in most case sufficient to bring corrupt official to book. Technology progress has made it feasible to videotape  and camera surveillance of public offices throughout working hours and maintains electronic record for public access. Such total transparency may not completely eliminate corruption but certainly close many avenues for corruption.[23]

Corruption in India is a consequence of the nexus between Bureaucracy, politics and criminals. One part of the remedy is to limit the role of ministers to evolve policies and leave the application of policies to individual cases in the hands of an independent commission/authority in each such area of public interest. Each such commission/authority may be a statutory body whose members are 'appointed by the cabinet on the basis of their professional credentials for a fixed tenure. Conditions of service similar to those for judges and other constitutional officers may be evolved to ensure independence

If political corruption is at the heart of our corrupt system, then funding of elections is at the core of political corruption. Electoral reforms are crucial in this regard. Several reforms have been suggested -state funding of election expenses for candidates; strict enforcement of statutory requirements like holding in-party elections, making political parties get their accounts audited regularly and filling income tax returns. Denying persons with criminal records a chance to contest elections; reducing number of days of campaigning and providing airtime on Doordarshan and AIR to campaign; treating as electoral malpractice the violation of the Model Code of conduct prepared by the Election Commission. These reforms need to be evaluated and the meritorious ones implemented immediately.

Responsiveness, accountability and transparency are a must for a clean system. The bureaucracy must be made sensitive to the needs of the citizens and be purged of its 'Ruler syndrome'. In addition to it, there should be  machinery independent of the government which can provide speedy justice to the citizen with a genuine grievance against the state. To make an anti-corruption movement credible, it is necessary to punish some major corrupt figures. Punitive action is necessary to jolt the system out of the corruption trap.

(2) Role of Legislature  and judiciary

In order to eradicate the rampant vice of corruption, the prevention of corruption Act was enacted in 1947 and subsequently it was amended in 1964, 1966 and 1967  and the Act was finally replaced by prevention of corruption Act,1988  as the corruption cases increased tremendously. The prevention of corruption Act ,1988 however , not consolidated the all amended brought in Act of 1947 so again in 2008 amendment  bill was introduced  but that was not passed till now and further the Union Cabinet has recently approved  amendments in the Prevention of Corruption Act, providing a safeguard to retired government officials from unnecessary prosecution for any bona-fide mistake and also broadening the definition of bribery to make a commercial entity liable for failing to prevent bribery of an official. The proposed changes” Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 also provide for allowing confiscation of property acquired by government officials through ill-gotten means.Besides, the change in definition of bribery will, for the first time, cover intermediaries or middlemen under the anti-corruption law, which currently covers only government officials.[24]

 Judiciary has interpreted the above law as social welfare legislation to remove menace of corruption from public life in a country and Cases relating to corruption are to be dealt with swiftly, promptly and without delay. [25] Parliament   grave concern is impelled to chalk out measures to curb procrastinating procedural clues.  Section 22 0f Act is one of the measure evolved to curtail the delay in corruption cases. So the construction of section 243(1) of Cr.P.C. as telescoped by section 22 of P C Act,1988 , must be consistent with the aforesaid legislative intent.[26]  Similarly section 19 of the Act provides for no stay of such case on any ground . It has been brought to our notice that in large number of cases stays have been granted by high courts in the matter of prevention of corruption Act , even though there is specific ban against the grant of any stay. J. Thomas further directed all Registrar of High courts  to list all cases in which such stay is granted  before the court concerned  so that appropriate action may be taken  by that court in the light of this decision [27]. Therefore,  that duty of court is that  any ant-corruption laws  has to be interpreted and worked out in such a fashion  as to strengthen the fight against corruption  but in practice  these judgment are not followed by High courts and subordinate courts although they have binding effect under Art. 141 of constitution, I have specific  instances that  Rajasthan High court ignoring the direction  of honorable supreme court  granted stays in  52 cases of AC B in the year 2011.  I as a prosecutor personally brought the fact to notice of the than Registrar- General  of Rajasthan High court  and as a Deputy Director prosecution in ACB during 2010-2011  the matter was again brought to the notice of High court  though  Advocate General   of the state but of no use. Thus we can see two  stream in the judiciary, one is interpreting law to erode corruption from country and other not following the binding verdicts of Supreme court for one and other reasons and thus helping the corrupts. 

 (3) Role of Investigation and prosecution

Role of investigating agency  in detection of crime is vary crucial and there is general impression in public that C B I  and state agencies work under pressure of party in power and this has been reinforced by the Apex court  while hearing  into the coal allocation case  expressing his concern  that ‘CBI is a caged parrot speaking in its master’s voice. It’s a sordid saga of many masters & one parrot’ to which the director CBI also agreed.[28] Therefore, there is strong need to give autonomy to agency that may be done by statutory recognition or constitutional status like Election commission/ C A G  by constitutional amendment. In Vineet narain case also supreme court issued direction in this regard but of no use , now again court has asked government to file reply in this regard  and we believe that this time govt. will do some thin for autonomy to C B I.

Besides autonomy there are other concern within CBI to bring efficiency in investigation and strengthen prosecution  within organization .As I remain associated with CBI and state ACB  as prosecutor for a quite long period . I feel that CBI investigating offices are not well-worse with law of evidence and thereby there investigation is very lengthy and voluminous ,which is the main reason of delayed disposal of cases.  CBI investigating officers are like HANUMAN of Ramayan who is vary strong/ powerful but lack of legal  knowledge . When he was asked to bring Sanjeevani herb for the treatment of lord Laxman from Samuru Mountain , as he was not identifying the Sanjeevani herb  so he brought whole Mountain and produced before  Vaida  who was treating the Lord Laxman ,similar is the case  with  investigating officers of CBI as they do not know what  kind of evidence is relevant for purpose of charge against accused and there by collects  all available record and put it before the court to segregate the evidence which is relevant to charge in question and it is Herculean task for prosecutor  to segregate and present the relevant evidence before court.  Prosecutor being under administrative control  of CBI  authority, fear to  take decision independently as to what evidence he should present and what he should drop. Therefore,  there is need to separate  and make independent prosecution in CBI  in  light of section 25A of criminal procedure code. In this connection, I will like to share case study of R C /AC 111/2/10 , CB I Delhi  under section 8 of PC Act, 1988. There are 52 witness cited by I O  in  this case  where as only 7 witnesses are sufficient to prove the charge  but no one in CBI is ready to  hear on this aspect. speedy and effective trial is not possible  by large number of witness but only the relevant evidence and proper presentation of evidence in a cases  during trial which will benefit in securing success of case and early disposal and  by this  we can  save  precious time of justice delivery system and moreover human resource which is most precious. Therefore ,CB I officers should be imparted training to collect the only relevant evidence as per law and not put all the seized material before court of law which have no relevancy.  It will help the administration of justice in quick dispensing of justice which is main concern of all.  Agency should also change  its faulty traditional method of   presentation of case to court, when investigation is over and decision is taken to launch prosecution, it is necessary to produce only evidence   which is necessary to prove the allegation sought to be proved and not all material collected during investigation. Generally  on some allegation / against some persons decision to prosecute has not been taken  but traditionally investigating officers  do not segregate the  evidence necessary for proving the allegation / suspect for which prosecution is launched and presently large number are cited and examined by prosecutor  which are not related to charge in question or relating to accused facing trial and thus total wastage of time of justice delivery system and  human resources .

Besides above major suggestion  few more remedies may be as under:

(A) It can be only possible if people can understand and start to believe the values of ethics and morality in their life. People will start to believe that their life is accountable if they really start to believe in GOD, in oneness of GOD and if they really start to live life on the way which GOD has chosen for mankind.

GOD has given the wisdom to each and every human being, heart of everyone telling him/her that the way he/she following to get money is good/bad. The most important thing is person should listen and follow the inner voice.

(b)Foolproof laws should be made so that there is no room for discretion for politicians and bureaucrats. The role of the politician should be minimized.

(c) Cooperation of the people has to be obtained for successfully eradicating corruption. People should have a right to recall the elected representatives if they see them becoming indifferent to the electorate.

(d) Funding of elections is at the core of political corruption. Electoral reforms are crucial in this regard. Several reforms like: State funding of election expenses for candidates; strict enforcement of statutory requirements like holding in-party elections, making political parties get their accounts audited regularly and filing income-tax returns; denying persons with criminal records a chance to contest elections, should be brought in.

(e) Responsiveness, accountability and transparency are a must for a clean system. Bureaucracy, the backbone of good governance, should be made more citizen friendly, accountable, ethical and transparent.

(f) Local bodies, Independent of the government, like Lokpals, Lok adalats, CVCs and Vigilance Commissions should be formed to provide speedy justice with low expenses.

Conclusion

Today, corruption in our country not only pose a grave danger to the concept of constitutional governance , it also threatens the vary foundation of Indian democracy and rule of law. The magnitude of corruption in our public life is incompatible with the concept of socialist, secular democratic republic. It can not be disputed that where corruption begins all rights end. Corruption devalues human rights, chock development and undermine justice, liberty, equality, fraternity which are core values in our constitution preamble.[29]

Therefore, the canker of  venality, if not fought against all fronts and at all levels, checked and eradicated, will destabilized and debilitate the  vary foundation of democracy; wear away the rule of law through moral decay and make the entire administration ineffective and dysfunctional.[30]Mere rhetorical preaching of apostolic sermons listing out the evils of corruption and raising slogans with watch words are no use in absence of practical and effective steps to eradicate them; as EVIL TOLERATED IS EVIL PROPORGATED

J S Rajawat

Spl.Public Prosecutor