Corruption knocks 1.5% off GDP and stories of mega scams abound in the backdrop of people's representatives asking for more perks of office (red light and higher protocol). It also does not help that one-third of the parliamentarians are there because of their families, one-third have criminal records and the remaining one-third possibly cannot be dissociated from chicanery and they will continue to be there so long as elections are like multiple choice tests where citizens will have to choose from all defective answers.
People see parliamentary performance on television, a Bill gets exactly 10 minutes to be passed in the presence of a 10th of the House. A far cry from debate, discussion and modification on the floor. Even if the debate takes place, the range and the depth are limited, often enough. In this background, beating the chest that Parliament is supreme and the war cry that it is the job of the government to make laws sounds hollow and reflects the hiatus between the people and their representatives.
Imagine a situation when someone gets a call to come and meet some agent once the passport is made but does not. When she receives a newly-minted passport by courier to discover that it has been deliberately mutilated, anger and anguish are natural. But the difference is that she is not prepared to accept it as the inevitable wheel of life. She understands that the entire chain of corruption is to be countenanced.
The reluctance to keep CBI's anti-corruption wing under the Lokpal is surprising. The interlocked arrangement and relationship of dependence of the CBI with the government keeps the CBI beyond the realm of impartiality as far as the government is concerned. CBI has got powers but it is not independent. CVC is independent but does have sufficient power and resources. The merger of anti-corruption wings of the government and bringing them under the control of Lokpal is well-thought-out and emerges largely from positive experience of Karnataka.
On bringing the Group C and D employees under Lokpal. Either we accept corruption is a corrosive problem or we do not. If we accept the former is an issue, we will have to recognise the chain and a system is to be devised that will deter corruption by bringing the corrupt to the book and meting out punishment quickly. The argument that a lot of employees are required to cover 57 lakh Group C employees is not convincing. The presence of the law itself will deter the corrupt and make them careful. Perfectlyreasonable people who often descend to corruption in the absence of deterrence are more likely to behave. It will be stupidity to design a system as if everyone is corrupt because given the right climate, majority of them will turn out to be clean. If the need arises to recruit more people, say 10,000 or 20,000, so be it. This is the price the system will have to pay to bring corruption under control.
People see parliamentary performance on television, a Bill gets exactly 10 minutes to be passed in the presence of a 10th of the House. A far cry from debate, discussion and modification on the floor. Even if the debate takes place, the range and the depth are limited, often enough. In this background, beating the chest that Parliament is supreme and the war cry that it is the job of the government to make laws sounds hollow and reflects the hiatus between the people and their representatives.
Imagine a situation when someone gets a call to come and meet some agent once the passport is made but does not. When she receives a newly-minted passport by courier to discover that it has been deliberately mutilated, anger and anguish are natural. But the difference is that she is not prepared to accept it as the inevitable wheel of life. She understands that the entire chain of corruption is to be countenanced.
The reluctance to keep CBI's anti-corruption wing under the Lokpal is surprising. The interlocked arrangement and relationship of dependence of the CBI with the government keeps the CBI beyond the realm of impartiality as far as the government is concerned. CBI has got powers but it is not independent. CVC is independent but does have sufficient power and resources. The merger of anti-corruption wings of the government and bringing them under the control of Lokpal is well-thought-out and emerges largely from positive experience of Karnataka.
On bringing the Group C and D employees under Lokpal. Either we accept corruption is a corrosive problem or we do not. If we accept the former is an issue, we will have to recognise the chain and a system is to be devised that will deter corruption by bringing the corrupt to the book and meting out punishment quickly. The argument that a lot of employees are required to cover 57 lakh Group C employees is not convincing. The presence of the law itself will deter the corrupt and make them careful. Perfectlyreasonable people who often descend to corruption in the absence of deterrence are more likely to behave. It will be stupidity to design a system as if everyone is corrupt because given the right climate, majority of them will turn out to be clean. If the need arises to recruit more people, say 10,000 or 20,000, so be it. This is the price the system will have to pay to bring corruption under control.
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