Threats To Society From Tentacles Of Corruption

Every now and then news, features and video clips pertaining to bribe or bribery figure prominently in the print, electronic and social media.These negative ‘ breaking’ items attract our attention faster than any health or development related subjects.Those among us who think about society or its well being, not only get upset and discouraged but try to discuss also their manifestation, impact and tentacles with friends and well wishers.

Issue of corruption is perennially, rather hotly debated in seminars, close door meetings, social get- togethers and public discourses.

CORRUPTION : CONCEPT PART OF IT

Corruption would mean a deviation from an established or a desired path. Internationally, a corrupt person is considered dishonest, especially the one resorting to bribery. It is nevertheless, an immoral activity , meaning thereby, what ought to be becomes infructuous vis a vis what it is. Hence it becomes difficult , if not impossuble to detect and pinpoint such an unfair means.

Corruption, per se, may not only refer to the practice of giving and accepting cash for a normal day to day work. It also has a dangerous combination of cash as also kind. In addition, in public life, there are individuals who neither take cash nor allow any perceptible flow of goods into their households but they may ALSO resort to a corrupt means of an invisible nature.

Still there are people, different from the lots described. Such individuals by their “honest” looking deeds .may guarantee inputs in cash and kind to others, thus ensuring for themselves a position or rank not normally possible to achieve through fair means. Besides, they succeed in building a good, enduring and usable image.

Needless to say, a group of individuals who may not be habitually corrupt also sometimes become occasionally corrupt. Thus the task to locate or pinpoint an extremely fair and honest person is NOT EASY.

AVAILABLE ANTI-CORRUPTION MECHANISM

A dedicated, rather focused Vigilance Awareness Fortnight is observed by the Central and State Governments once a year in the month of November. Members of audience are not only sensititized about the malaise of corruption but adequately warned also about the consequences of getting involved in such nefarious practices. The show is supposed to go on afterwards also. But we seem to have taken a vow Not To Mend Our Ways.

In addition, there are offices of Central Vigilance Commissioner, State Vigilance Commissioners, Chief Vigilance Officers in Public Sector Undertakings, C.B.I., E.D., Anti Corruption Bureaus in States etc, but these offices too have not lived upto expectations. They have failed in preforming their duties. They mostly do lip service on fixed verbal instructions, trickling down from top.

Mere talking about corruption should not do. It should be our bounden duty to give a clue or more, highlight such cases and extend all possible help to the investigating authorities, so that guilty are brought to book in shortest possible time. As such, rate of conviction of registered and pursued cases is abysmally poor not only in India but in many countries. If one may say so, in a super developed country like U.S.A. also, problem of corruption exists but it may not affect the lower rungs. For bigger set ups, such as, MNC’c, huge money is usually spent or demanded in the name of cuts and lobbying. No wonder, one often hears of scandals, such as, Bofors.

Removal of Ambiguities Helps

Reinterpretation of the expression “Public Servant” by the Supreme Court in 1997 in Vineet Narain case (popularly known as Jain Hawala Case) was very much called for. Not only it was a relieving one for the honest harassed officers, it could simply be considered a remarkable ruling in public interest.Vineet Narain, by his petition put pressure on the C.B.I. as its prosecutions were collapsing. Thereafter, Supreme Court was pleased to issue directions for supervision of the CBI by the Central Vigilance Commission.

Further, as an important fallout of this PIL, Supreme Court also ordered that the Dirctor of CBI was to be appointed on the recommendation of a Committee headed by the C.V.C. and comprising of Union Home Secretary and Secretary , Ministry of Personnel & Training. Further the committee was also directed to take the opinion of the incumbent Dirctor ,CBI prior to forwarding their recommendation the the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (A.C.C.)

For the first time in Indian history, several Union Cabinet ministers,Chief Ministers, Governors, opposition leaders and bureaucrats were charge sheeted for corruption.

In the “old era” mainly officers and staff had to prove their innocence or otherwise and political masters would “escape and skip” the torturous investigations, judicial custodies and Police remand. Prominent cases of recent past, concerned the Ministry of Coal, Fodder Scam of Bihar, Excise irregularities in Delhi, Telengana, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and scores of others.

EMERGING LATENT INSTANCES OF CORRUPTION

If we, as vigilant citizens bother for public safety and are, therefore, to be cautious, it may be necessary to be aware of following developments. List or instances cited are of immediate past. These are NOT exhaustive but indicative :

• Protect Your Vote : this expression is being talked about malpractices involved in securing entry into electoral roll in a few poll bound states as also in the states that have completed the exercise ,say one or two years ago. Even on the eve of first phase of Bihar Assembly elections (5th November), such apprehensions are being expressed,

• Allotment of Government land in liu of employment in Railway offices. It happened long ago, was noticed after a long gap but what curative step has been taken, it is SADLY for everyone to see,

• Scheme of 5 kg of free rice to people selected at random not only pampers but spoils them as well. As It was linked to Covid era (2020-22), it should have been discontinued long ago,

• In addition, grant of Rs.6000/ per year to farmers under a Central Government scheme is nothing but waste of resources and makes the farmers more lethargic. In poll bound Bihar, there are are 85 lakh such beneficiaries alone. As if this amount was not enough, it is being raised to Rs 9000/. Purpose is obvious, Loud and Clear,

• Any Scheme of giving Cash in the name of poverty has to be phased out, as it harms, rather than help.

Lakhs of Crores of Rupees have already gone down the drain in the name of Integrated rural development. Not more than 10 to 15 % of the beneficiaries may have got the targetted benefits. There are also doubts about creation and survival of durable community assets.

Apart from funds arranged by the Government of India, funds for such purposes are also advanced by Multi- lateral agencies, such as, World Bank, I.M.F., A.D.B.,F.A.O. etc at a very high rate of interest (30 to 40\\%), which has to be repaid by the Government Of India after 30 to 40 years of completion of a scheme or project. One can not Imagine the deterioration of value of Indian Rupee by then vis a vis U.S.Dollar.

• Allocation of dwelling units according to a fixed economic status needs to be discouraged as it is not only leading to misuse but also resale within no time, which defeats the very purpose of the scheme,

• Slogans, such as, free education from K.G. to P.G. are also misleading and harmful as meritorious students depend and excel mostly on limited family income. Any Governmental intervention may boomerang in this domain,

• Talking of students again, support to or ignoring those indulging in Question paper leaks and Recruitment scams are out and out inhuman as these shake the very foundation of our society,

• Flood relief scam can be cited as another instance of blatant corruption.Such relief ordered during flash floods, landslides, cyclones, earth quakes etc.is also misused or often falls in the hands of corrupt lower level officials and crafty Gram Panchayat members,

• Lofty promises of making a place totally “flood free” can be also considered as an exercise in baseless and impractical promise and thus may fall in the category of a corrupt practice,

• Incidence of illegal mining is very much an act of corrupt activity. It is a never ending phenomenon. Apart from severe losses to the public exchequer, it often leads to murderous attacks,

• Creation of quick fix temporary ventures, such as, Fake Yamuna by the side of main polluted Yamuna may also fall in the category of misleading and corrupt acts,

• In Sum and Substance, owing to money factor direction of political wind invariably changes which has a definite bearing on the Poll Arthmetic. Even Election Commission of India and Vigilant Poll Observers or Sincere Media can not make a Dent,

AND

*Close association of a few top industrialists of the country with the Central Government and some State Governments is a forgone conclusion. They have an outreach in a handful foreign countries as well. So many Indians, including a M.P., are enjoying safe havens in European and Central American countries. Deportation and Extradition are meant for ordinary law breakers.
People become further suspicious when close businessmen relatives of the top industrialists are raided or acted against.

Classic Case of K.K.GAUTAM , Former D.S.P. of U.P. Police

All that glitters is not gold . In the same way, all that is reported and highlighted in media may not be true.Yet there is another popular saying that there can not be smoke without fire. So here is a story reported by Usman Saifi of ” Safar Shop” in respect of blatant corruption in U.P. Police.

Having stated so, let us proceed ahead with this case, seen in social media about ten days ago.

Sri K.K.Gautam, Town Inspector, having a good image was heading a “sought after” Police station in a wealthy pocket of Bareilley. One day he was ordered by C.D.Kainth, regional I.G.P. to call on latter. Having learnt about shady nature and past dubious activities of his top most officer, Gautam was extra cautious. He heard the I.G.P. patiently. Subsequently when he was asked to ‘arrange’ a monthly collection of Rs One Lakh from his Police station, he could not believe what was being ordered. He had the audacity to refuse.

He left the residence of I.G.P. without making any promise. He discussed the matter with his immediate superiors- S.S.P. Gupta and the then D. I.G. Both on being shocked with the unreasonable demand of the I.G.P., expressed sympathies with their upright junior colleague.

When things changed from bad to worse, Gautam spoke to I.G.P. and ‘struck a deal’. As per mutual understanding, a ‘follower’ of I.G.P. was to collect ” a sum” from Gautam. Latter took all precautionary measures to collect on the spot evidence in his favour.

When the ‘follower’ entered the quarter of Gautam, he fell in the laid trap and surrendered meekly. The official vehicle of the IGP, used by him, was confiscated and a Warrant of arrest was issued by Gautam against the I.G.P. As it was unprecedented, it caused praise & criticism both and ripples not only all over U.P. but the news spread to many other states also.

Gautam got an opportunity to be heard by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the then Chief Minister and V.P. Kapoor, the DGP who decided to drop down to Bareilley to “save the situation”. H.D.Rao, the then ADGP too gave a patient hearing to Gautam.

Against the promise of ensuring justice to him, one fine morning he was placed under suspension.He was held guilty of misconduct, apart from questions that were put on his integrity. Whole process took one year.

On being advised by his colleagues and a few good intentioned individuals, he approached top opposition politicians and senior Advocates in Delhi. His detailed petition was carefully drafted and subsequently filed before Allahabad High Court. None other than late Ram Jethmalani vetted and settled the draft and late Arun Jaitley argued Gautam’s case effectively and secured success finally.

Gautam was reinstated with full honours and prior to his retirement, was promoted as a D.S.P.

Moral Of The Story

Never give up even if honest and upright superiors do not go beyond a point to protect you. Option of approaching Court is always open. In this case, it appears some cost cutting and assuaging of feelings were ensured due to involvement of a few top opposition politicians and Advocates. It does not happen in normal cases of unwanted prosecution leading to torture of the whole family of the Aggrieved Government Servant.

Needless to say, Courts themselves are being compelled nowadays to hide skeletons inside their cupboards (past case of Justice Ramaswamy, recent case of Justice Varma, lifting Judges out of turn for Apex Court or for that matter, abrupt transfer of Chief Justices of High Courts).

While it should be our bounden duty to help the trapped well intentioned & honest officers, Courts too have to be more proactive in view of Supreme Court’s landmark rulings in the case of Vineet Narain (1997) and many other pronouncements.

TO SUM UP

As sensational cases involving Late V.Puran Kumar, IPS & IGP, Haryana Police and H.S.Bhuller, DIG, Punjab Police have been registered barely a month ago and authentic details are yet to be made available, one has refrained from saying a word or two about these cases.

(This Author’s Word Should Not BeTaken As The LAST WORD. It Is Just A Sincere And Unbiased Viewpoint In The Interest Of Society. And It Has Emerged From Years of Experience. Apart From Nobel Intentions, Nothing Else Is Aimed)

(The author is former Chief Secretary, Sikkim)