Opinion Send ’em all to Tihar

If Dr Singh as Finance Minister spoke with conviction about corruption,he,as Prime Minister of India,demonstrated the total lack of it when he interacted with a group of editors on Wednesday. Like most Indians who watched him on that day,I was not only saddened but also shocked to see that he saw nothing wrong in the actions of his previous telecom minister A Raja,whose address has changed from a Lutyen’s bungalow to Tihar Jail,thanks to his role in the 2G corruption scandal. He did not summon the courage to admit that Raja was wrong. Worse still,he almost reiterated the ludicrous “zero-loss” claim made by Kapil Sibal,the incumbent telecom minister,by drawing a bizarre comparison between the pro-poor subsidies on food and kerosene,and the auction-less gifting away of pricey spectrum,worth tens of thousands of crores of rupees,to a few favourite telcos. His unpersuasive answers on coalition governance—including the threat of elections taking place “every six months”—sounded as if he was telling his countrymen to learn to live with corruption scandals in high places.

All this was clearly proof of the Prime Minister’s own weakened moral fibre. However,I believe that he is still capable of making amends,and,using the enormous power vested in the high office he occupies,he can still,if he wants to,deliver on his promise of bringing to book “all wrongdoers however high and mighty they are”. For this,he needs to act firmly,and act fast. He and his colleagues—and also Opposition leaders who think that the next government will be theirs—are probably unaware of the angry mood of the nation. Ordinary people are losing faith in political parties,knowing that most elected representatives have amassed illicit wealth by misusing their power. Irrespective of which party is in power at the Centre,the common man has to pay bribes to get anything done in the governmental system.

And they know all too well that the disease of micro-level corruption is spreading because mega-size corruption is tolerated at the top. Therefore,they want to see all high-level scamsters —not only in the 2G scam but also in all other big scandals in which public resources worth billions of rupees have been looted—sent to Tihar jail. For their faith in the system to be restored,people must see that guilty ministers,chief ministers,big businessmen,senior bureaucrats,former justices and chief justices of high courts and the Supreme Court,and also close relatives of the chiefs of political parties are put behind bars. Dr Singh may lose his office in a sincere attempt to make good his promise of bringing “all wrongdoers” to justice,but he will have rendered greater service to the nation as Prime Minister than he did as Finance Minister.

Another thought. Let not Opposition leaders,especially those in the BJP,gloat over Dr Singh’s mounting worries. So far,they have not come out with a single major political or governance reform aimed at reducing systemic corruption. What the BJP has done to cover up its government’s corruption scandals in Karnataka is indeed shameful. L K Advani as party president had launched a scheme called the ‘Aajivan Sahyogi Yojana’ in the 1990s as a clean way of collecting party funds. However,even he will admit that it has not stopped the BJP,like all other political parties,from collecting black money for fighting elections and also for routine party activities. Unless thoroughgoing reforms are introduced to eliminate black money from the political system,and unless transparency,accountability,elimination of corruption-breeding processes and procedures,and citizens’ empowerment are ensured at every level of government,neither the PM’s assurance to punish the scamsters nor the opposition’s anti-corruption campaign will have any meaning.

Hence the question: Will India’s Parliament debate and decide upon these larger political,governance and electoral reforms to cure our democracy of the spreading cancer of corruption? Or will we see more of the same—boycotts,walkouts,slogan-shouting,endless adjournments and more assaults on people’s faith in the system? If this continues,the Supreme Court must hit the political system on its head much harder than it has done so far.

sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com