It was Mahatma Gandhi who described the seven sins as politics without principles, wealth without work, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity and worship without sacrifice. On corruption he said that it will be eradicated when the large number of people given to the practice, realize that nation does not exist for them but they exist for the nation. It will require a high level of moral and extreme vigilance and people who achieve it should influence others including corrupt officers. Indifference to such matters is criminal.

Singapore has been highly effective in removing the scourge of corruption. This has been brought about by the commitment of the political leaders to fight against it. Stringent Anti Corruption laws facilitated the civil society members and senior public servants in implementing anti corruption strategies. According to the UNDP, corruption is anti economic development, anti poor and anti national. It is like the AIDS of society brought about by uncontrolled financial behaviour. It is responsible for the low morale of people across all walks of life and gives justification to extremist behaviour like the naxalite movement.

Corruption is the biggest challenge facing India. It arises from the collusion between the bribe giver and the bribe taker and ultimately the society as a whole is the victim. The Panchayat head of a village in Coimbatore district, who is credited for eighty five percent development of his village in his nine years of tenure though it had a Panchayati government since 1961, said that the money allotted within the various plans for village development, if properly utilised, was adequate to finance the various needs of the people. He attributed the dismal state of development in rural India to corruption on part of the people's representatives along with the government officials.

In the public perception, efforts to combat corruption are as cumbersome and fruitless as the efforts by various government agencies to check population growth. The honest public servants are at the receiving end due to the negative perception of the people that all government servants are corrupt. Corruption has largely been considered to be a bigger bane than terrorism. It is a process of self destruction which arises from the greed of the unscrupulous few and the ineffectiveness of the system as a whole.

The members of the panel gathered here are at the forefront of the battle against corruption. RH Tahiliani, Former Chairman of Chief of Staffs Committee, P Shankar, the present Chief Vigilance Commissioner of India, Kuldip Nayyar, an eminent journalist and the eminent lawyer KTS Tulsi are welcomed for taking part in the panel discussion.

There was a 'Corruption Perception Studies' conducted by the Transparency International, India, some months back. An effort is made to make various institutes pass an 'Integrity Act'. Corruption can be defined as 'misuse of public office for private gain'. The instance of cricketers getting into match fixing led to a redefinition that it is a 'misuse of empowered office for private gain'. When Transparency International was founded, corruption was perceived in context of money given in mega deals to poor countries by International Financial Organisations like the IMF. Much of this money landed into the private accounts of the dictators and did not reach their people. The organisation was not thinking of the other kind of petty corruption which people in the developing world constantly face.

India figures poorly for its rampant corruption in the Corruption Perception index published by the Transparency International. International business was basically its focus. They do not take cognisance of the day to day corruption. Hence in 2002 in India, a corruption perception studies was done on a regional basis. Ten departments were selected where citizens have to interact directly with the service providers. Around twenty six thousand crores of rupees were estimated on basis of statistical analysis to be spent by ordinary citizens in 2002 in way of bribes. The United Nations was given an estimate by the World Bank of the rampant corruption in the world. It was 1.5 trillion dollars or five percent of the world's GDP.

High levels of corruption are responsible for deepening poverty in many areas in India. The 'Global Corruption Barometer' done by the International Gallup Poll gives the opinion of people about various government departments in their countries. Indian political system gets 4.6 grading out of a grade of five. Other reports such as the Human Development Index of the UNDP and World Economic Forum's Competitiveness Report show India in quite a poor light. International Finance Corporation doing business in 2006 rates India one hundred and sixteen out of one hundred and fifty five countries. Bangladesh is rated sixty five, Sri Lanka is numbered seventy five and China has been put at ninety one.

The reason for India's condition is universally known. In the seventies, the Indian Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi explained corruption as an international phenomenon which was apparently imposed on India by an external agency. There has been a lack of political will in India to combat it head on. Dr. Manmohan Singh is the first Indian Prime Minister who admitted to an international forum about two months ago that four problems inhibited foreign direct investment in India. These were lack of infrastructure, corruption, bureaucracy and the taxation system. The Lok Pal Bill has been tabled unsuccessfully in the Indian Parliament a number of times.

The Corruption Perception Studies did another study which was released on 30th June, 2005. It graded the states on basis of corruption levels with Kerala being the least corrupt and Bihar the most corrupt followed by the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It has stirred quite a lot of people. The survey was done in a scientific manner. House surveys were conducted, people coming out of offices after paying bribes were interviewed and service providers were questioned to understand the kind of problems they faced. A two day anti corruption seminar was held in New Delhi which received a good response. A report called 'Good Initiative' has been tabulated which records the innovative initiatives taken by government departments in various states. In Madhya Pradesh which ranks next to Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir in corruption ratings, good work has been done in case of public hospitals under the name 'Rogi Kalyan Samiti'.

Wherever the citizens have worked along with the service providers the results have been good. The report by Transparency International India has received a good response and this will be its selling point to generate more funds to carry out more of such initiatives. Such an exercise can be repeated every two years as it provides a mechanism for tracking people involved in corruption practices. There are other organisations too like the MKSS in Rajasthan; Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore and Parivartan in New Delhi which are looking at individual levels into the problem but Transparency International India is looking at the problem in totality. At presently it has concentrated at twenty major states but eventually it will take up other states.

The Supreme Court had rejected a standing rule i.e. a single directive that all officers above Joint Secretary Level can not be investigated for their activities without the permission from the Centre or State government. This had been rejected in the Hawala case. However the Select Committee, which played a part in the creation of the Central Vigilance Commission, restored this directive. This has become a law. Another example which should be known by the general public is about the law which prescribes how a member of the Rajya Sabha has to be elected. Before it was passed a person contesting had to belong to a state or be ordinarily a residence of that state. It is now changed to read as ordinarily resident in India. It means a person from any part of India can be nominated. Secondly the election to Rajya Sabha is through open ballot.

The problem here is that technically all of the two hundred and fifty members can be elected from one area. A seat in the Rajya Sabha can be obtained by paying big money to a politician. There was a debate on introducing some level of qualifications for the legislators during Jawaharlal Nehru's time. Yet this has not seen much progress. The point here is that if there is no cleansing of politics then there can be no action taken against corruption.

Politicians are more interested in power politics than cleansing it. It is a fact that there are at least one hundred and twenty four tainted politicians in the Indian Parliament with some criminal proceeding pending against them. It is good that now parliamentarians have to declare their assets. Bureaucracy can be taken care of. As power lies in the Parliament, it is more important to concentrate on it. Contesting the Lok Sabha elections requires minimum ten crores of rupees. Such amount is mobilised through black money. The Parliament has no meaning if its members will be elected like that. It will bring in the moneyed men, the black marketers and criminals. It is imperative that people committed towards ending corruption should set up people's forum and other such bodies to ensure that their own people are elected as members. People's Political Alliance is one such example.

The people have to rise to break the vicious circle of various considerations of caste, and money, to combat corruption in politics. It has to be ensured that the real representatives of people are returned. Power lies not in the barrel of the gun but in the Parliament through the ballot box. Commitment and dignity is the need of the hour to take on the problem at hand.

The issue of this speech is the issue of governance. It means that there is a rule of law and the primary responsibility of the government of the land is to punish the guilty. Where is governance if the state has succeeded in performing this responsibility to the extent of 1.4 percent only? Judiciary itself will be held accountable for this decline as there is nothing wrong with the laws. It is the way in which the Article twenty one of the Constitution has been expanded which makes convictions more and more difficult. Lack of trust between the judiciary and the police has resulted in the judiciary not caring and mistrusting the prosecution and in the process becoming insensitive to its consequence for the civil society. Importance is not attached to criminal justice in India and that is the root cause of corruption.

Corruption is a low risk and high profit business. If morality could control crime then there would be no need for law. Corruption is not an issue for the rural and uneducated people alone. When a sector wise survey was done it was found that the highest rate of corruption was in the health sector which has some of the best brains followed by the education, construction department i.e. the PWD and judiciary. Not many members of the judiciary get arrested. In 1962, Defence of India Rules was made. It said that a person who will commit some of the identified crimes will not get bail. The Essential Commodity Act followed the same mechanism. Same formulas were followed in case of smuggling, Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and Prevention of Corruption Act. The legislators are not interested in streamlining the criminal justice system as it would lead to convictions and the disqualification of many. Judiciary will definitely be kept under a handicap.

The state of judiciary has to be judged by the state of lower courts and not the highest court as corruption has to be tackled there. Few cases reach the highest court. It is needed to be understood that the more educated are more devious. Universal Adult Franchise is not the problem but the putting of the self before the system. Mahatma Gandhi observed that the rural areas suffered from lower levels of corruption as compared to urban areas. If the country has to move forward the public opinion has to be mobilised for the reform of the criminal court. Till the guilty cannot be punished, corruption cannot be tackled. The courts need reorientation as they cannot solve the problems of a supersonic age with old facilities and mechanisms. The entire system is responsible for creating obstruction for the judiciary in rendering justice. Corruption is the root cause of the problem and judiciary has become a part of the root cause. In a society which is generally corrupt, liberty will not survive. It is a threat to the spirit of democracy and the nation.

P Shankar, Chief Vigilance Commissioner

What will such discussions on corruption achieve is a central issue. In 1964 the Santhanam Committee gave a report and the Central Vigilance Commission was formed at the centre as well as state levels. The commission has been giving advice primarily. Yet its implementation is not happening. There is low consciousness of the work of the commission. Structurally the commissions are not equipped to deal with the problem.

The Kendriya Bhandar was set up initially to provide basic commodities like soaps, tooth paste, stationary etc. Today things like aircrafts, missiles can be bought within its budget. There are no audits and quotations done and this goes unchecked. The Taj corridor case is another example of the kind of money being siphoned. Such scandals need to be exposed. People need to get together and work on these issues as media is hardly concerned about bringing them to the public front. Eradication is not easy and therefore it is necessary to fight it collectively.

Questions and Answers

Question: Sixty percent of corruption happens where public has to interact with the government officials at lower levels e.g. land records etc. Computerisation has reduced this to a large extent in states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu but is not being implemented in the more corrupt states like the northern states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

Answer: The legislators do not want this. Otherwise there is not lack of funds as such. Overall the southern states are the least corrupt.

Question: A minimum level of qualification should be needed for the electorate too. This has ensured less corruption in the Southern states. Secondly the rule of technology should be made compulsory for all departments.

Answer: The second point is agreeable. On the question of universal adult franchise, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru had said that the teeming millions of poor, uneducated people had joined the national movement when the educated were siding with the Britishers. How can they be denied the right to vote and participate in the government.

Question: What is your viewon the media's role?

Answer: In media there are very few real journalists left. The newspapers are not reflecting the reality. Some stories are kept away from the public for gains.

Question: What is the speakers view on the feasibility of the Presidential form of government?

Answer: Presidential form of government needs to be considered in the present times. But it has to be made sure that it does not lead to a totalitarian form of government.

Question: The resources provided to the MLAs and the MPs as local area development fund is not used for the people but goes into their pockets. There is a collusion of private bodies and the service providers which leads to the essential services not being available to the people. Is there any way to stop this and can action be taken through public interest litigation?

Answer: Transparency International and other organisations have already gone to the Supreme Court asking for it to be abolished. In fact it is now termed as the 'twenty percent fund'. In fact when bureaucrats have tried doing something about it, they are shifted to a punishment posting.

Question: Have the political parties been rated for corruption?

Answer: The political parties have not been rated. Except for the communists, none of the political parties have been forthcoming on this matter. This is despite the fact that the Supreme Court has passed the directive for them to disclose it. It is important that the civil society gets involved in this matter, for the system to change this is imperative.

Observations:

" The media has lost its bonafides due to its crave for sensationalism. It is therefore for the members of civil society to take up the cudgels.

" On the issue of victimisation of officers, it has been observed that many of them get implicated due to false and motivated complaints and a lot of injustice happens due to this. If the rule of law could be strengthened it would solve lot of problems.