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Journalism of Courage
NEW DELHI, January 27: It was a sobering evening for the irrepressible Khushwant Singh. Peppering his prologue to a discussion on a new book on corruption with his risque humour, he sought to derail the announced agenda and provoke Home Minister L.K. Advani, one of the panelists, by dwelling on his Rath Yatra, only to submit a veiled apology before the gathering broke up.
To the obvious horror of journalist Chandan Mitra, moderator and author of A Corrupt Society, Singh, while ruling out the possibility of any shadow of corruption falling on the senior BJP leader, asked Advani: “How would you like to be judged by history, what role would you assign yourself?” He was referring to the Rath Yathra which led to violence and deaths in many parts of the country.
The home minister argued that the challenge lies in tackling ingrained cynicism that nothing will change — irrespective of changes in government, lofty manifestoes, legislative amendments, impassioned seminars and speeches. Referring to rampant electoral corruption in 18th and 19th century Britain and the subsequent consensus among politicians that the rot had to be checked in order to deliver meaningful democracy, he noted that only a similar outrage that “this is just not done” would help India escape the ignominy of being listed as one of the 10 most corrupt nations.
Pointing out that “when there is degeneration in society, it is all-round, some shows more, some less”, he said a major challenge is breaking the legislator-big money nexus. “This will snap when we unreservedly accept public funding of elections,” he declared.
Hailing this recommendation, Singh said it would go a long way in enabling honest politicians to remain untainted. He too called for a consensus transcending party lines “instead of pointing fingers at each other and fighting other’s corruption”.
Other suggestions offered by Singh were a change in the Official Secrets Act to ensure greater transparency and a relook at the tax structure. Besides, he argued, there is a need to examine the reasons behind the Robinhood syndrome whereby a criminal manages to get elected by patronising his caste brethren.
