By Nantoo Banerjee
Few in the government or public life in India took note of the International Anti-Corruption Day, which quietly came and went on December 9, almost unknown, unrecognised. Rarely, a global UN event gets such a silent reception in India. There was probably no reason to celebrate the event at a time when the government and its top anti-corruption agency, CBI, are struggling to protect themselves against a host of hi-profile corruption charges. In fact, the country is continuously in the news for corruption at its highest echelons. The government itself is facing massive corruption charges, from the opposition Congress party, in the Euro 7.8-billion (worth over Rs.60,000 crore) Rafale deal with France’s Dassault Aviation for the purchase of 36 multirole fighter aircraft. Though the Supreme Court has given a clean chit to the government, Rafale’s choice of severely cash-strapped Gujarati businessman Anil Ambani as private Indian offset partner still remains a mystery.
On the other hand, two top executives of India’s most powerful Central Bureau of Investigation are accusing each other of massive corruption. Such a situation is unthinkable in any government. CBI is practically lying topless. The stopgap arrangement is without any fresh decision making power. Congress is now accusing the government’s Enforcement Directorate, another hi-profile — though limited purpose — anti-corruption agency, to fix Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra on questionable business deals and money laundering charges. The charges against Vadra are nothing new. However, their sudden hype ahead of the coming Lok Sabha election, along with the trial of Christian Michel, alleged middleman in AugustaWestland VVIP chopper purchase deal during the Congress-led UPA regime, is being interpreted more as a desperate political attempt to fight the falling public rating of the main ruling party than their real worth.
Hi-profile bribery and corruption cases in India, involving top politicians and their business underlings, rarely end in conclusive conviction. In most occasions, they are used as political tools by both the ruling party and its opposition ahead of national election. However, never before had the government itself faced such a situation where its No.1 sleuth in CBI lodged an F.I.R against the No.2 seeking the latter’s arrest and prosecution in a graft case. CBI named its second-in-command Rakesh Asthana as an accused in a bribery case along with another agency official and two private persons. The accused named in the FIR (13A/2018) include CBI Deputy Police Superintendent Devender Kumar, Dubai-based investment banker Manoj Prasad and his brother Somesh Prasad. More than Rs.30 million in bribes were allegedly paid to get relief in a case against meat exporter Moin Qureshi and others, CBI said. In turn, CBI special director Asthana has accused the organisation’s director, Alok Verma, of impropriety in more than a dozen cases. The faultliness have only become deeper. The CBI has hit a new low, even by its none-too-glorious standards. And, so is the government’s image.
In his ‘International Anti-Corruption Day’ message, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said corruption which is present in all countries — Rich and Poor, North and South — “is an assault on the values of the United Nations.” The World Economic Forum estimates that the cost of corruption is at least $2.6 trillion – or 5 per cent of global GDP. The World Bank estimates that businesses and individuals pay more than $1 trillion in bribes each year. Corruption begets more corruption, and fosters a corrosive culture of impunity. Although millions of people in the democratic world go to ballots often with governmental corruption as a key campaign focus, nothing seems to really change after election. New government quickly compromises with old corruption practices. Incidentally, political corruption takes precedence over all other types of corruption. Bribery, cronyism, nepotism, kleptocracy, speed money, stash funds, legal plunder and electoral fraud generally manifest political corruption which is at the root of all other forms of corruption. According to the Transparency International, “in some countries across the Asia Pacific region, journalists, activists, opposition leaders and even staff of law enforcement or watchdog agencies are threatened, and in the worst cases, even murdered”. India shares space with the Philippines and the Maldives among the worst regional offenders in this respect. The largest contributors to corruption are entitlement programs and social spending schemes of the Indian government, including the national rural employment guarantee scheme and national rural health mission. Among the other routinely big corruptions of permanent nature is India’s goods truck operating industry which is forced to pay billions of rupees in bribes annually to numerous regulatory agencies and police stops on interstate highways.
Elections change administrations in the panchayats, district councils, states and the centre. But, the corruption trend seems to continue with vigour, expanding its scope covering newer areas, with every new election and new government. Laws and regulations to control corruption appear to open new avenues of corruption. For instance, laws such as FERA and FEMA did not prevent rising illegal Indian foreign deposits in tax havens. The privatisation laws offer new opportunities for corruption and public exploitation. Recently, a seemingly simple takeover of Anil Ambani’s power supply business in parts of Mumbai by Gautam Adani’s firm immediately led to massive expansion of electricity bills of consumers, generating protests across the city. The state is governed by BJP. Ambani and Adani, both Gujaratis, are known to be close to the power that be. India’s effort to improve ‘the ease of doing business’ came at a high cost to the common man. The all-too-deep and all pervasive corruption is adversely affecting the country’s economy. It is a pity that corruption is holding the economy back from reaching new heights. Instead, rampant corruption is stunting the country’s development. In the end, it has made the government’s fight against bribery and corruption almost a joke. (IPA Service)