With respect to Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Lal Bahadur Shastri was able to walk the talk and carry the country along. The jawans of India did the nation proud by giving Independent India her first decisive victory in 1965, a far cry from the 1962 debacle with the Chinese. Likewise, the kisans set the country on the path to food self-sufficiency by adopting the Green Revolution practices with enthusiasm and vigour.
However, when it came to tackling the menace of corruption, even though Shastri put his heart and soul into mainstreaming the discourse on corruption in public life, the outcome was not as successful. While his own life was an example of probity and rectitude, as the helmsman of the Home Ministry he was deeply anguished by the allegations of corruption against prominent Chief Ministers — Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed in J&K, Pratap Singh Kairon in Punjab, CB Gupta in Uttar Pradesh, Biju Patnaik in Odisha — and some of his colleagues like KD Malviya in the Union Cabinet.
In fact, during an intense discussion on the issue in Parliament on 6 June 1962, Shastri said:
“I feel that this matter should not be entirely left for consideration in the hands of officials. It is desirable that there should be exchange of views between them and public men of experience. Perhaps, Hon’ble members might have read in the papers that I have suggested that a formal Committee should consider the important aspects of the evils of corruption… (in fact), we know most of the problems, the real point is to take remedial action. I, therefore, propose to request some members of Parliament and, if possible, other public men to sit with our own officers in order to review the problem of corruption and make suggestions.”
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The Santhanam Committee
In pursuance of this announcement, a committee consisting of K Santhanam, MP (as Chair), and parliamentarians Santosh Kumar Basu, Tika Ram Paliwal, RK Khadilkar, T Nath Pai, and Shambhu Nath Chaturvedi, along with two officials — LP Singh of the ICS and DP Kohli of the IP (who later became Home Secretary and Director, CBI, respectively) — was established within the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Its terms of reference included, inter alia: 1) Examination of legal and administrative procedures of the existing vigilance set-up in ministries, departments, and PSUs. 2) Evaluation of the functioning of the Special Police Establishment (the predecessor of the Central Bureau of Investigation). 3) Review of penal provisions regarding the prevention of corruption. 4) Recommendations on conduct rules and disciplinary procedures for the All India Services. 5) And, not least, the creation of a “conducive environment against hoarding, black marketing, and corruption in the country.”
The committee noted that the scourge of corruption had peaked due to shortages and controls during World War II but had continued post-Independence, as the scale of government expanded without adequate checks and balances, particularly in revenue, PWD, food and civil supplies, industrial licensing, and police departments.
The key concern was that corruption, once limited to the lower rungs of the bureaucracy, had now infected the All India Services and political leadership. Notably, while trade unions and state-level trade associations extended support to the committee, the captains of industry were reluctant to engage or share views on addressing the issue.
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87 sittings
The committee held 87 sittings and submitted a 306-page report on 31 March 1964. However, in the interim, it proposed — and the government accepted — several recommendations that today form the foundation of how service conditions for AIS officers are regulated.
In its very first communication to Shastri on 20 October 1962, the committee suggested tweaking Article 311 to enable disciplinary action against habitually recalcitrant officers who used these provisions as a shield. Sardar Patel had originally included these provisions to protect officers’ freedom of expression — not to condone misconduct.
Following the Chinese aggression, Santhanam wrote to Shastri on 17 November 1962 recommending changes to the Defence of India Rules and the jurisdiction of the SPE. By February 1963, the committee had submitted recommendations related to the IPC; in May, it submitted the first draft of the conduct rules. On 17 August, the proposed draft for establishing the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) was submitted.
Although Shastri demitted office under the Kamaraj Plan, his successor Gulzari Lal Nanda — equally committed to eradicating corruption — tabled the resolution for the Vigilance Commission in both Houses of Parliament on 16 December 1962. It was adopted with rare unanimity on 20 December, paving the way for the appointment of India’s first Vigilance Commissioner, Justice Nittoor Srinivasa Rao, a Gandhian and translator of Gandhi’s works into Kannada, on 14 February 1964. By then, Shastri was serving as minister without portfolio, attached to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Several corruption-inducing factors identified in the report — such as inflation-neutralising DA enhancements, adequate housing and HRA, medical facilities for dependents, and education allowance for children — have helped reduce employee grievances. These measures are, of course, not foolproof. But consider the counterfactual: what if these provisions had never existed?
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Teeth or dentures?
Over the years, under both UPA and NDA governments, legal provisions have been made more stringent. The Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 gave the CVC broad powers, including: Reviewing pending sanction applications; supervising vigilance operations across central ministries and departments; and protecting whistle-blowers under the Public Interest Disclosure Resolution, 2004.
The RTI Act, 2005, too, enhanced transparency. And the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013, finally realised the Santhanam Committee’s vision of an ombudsman to hold all public office holders, including legislators and ministers, accountable.
Over six decades, the position of CVC has largely been held by individuals of integrity and public stature. Except for the controversy over PJ Thomas, whose appointment was struck down by the Supreme Court, most Vigilance Commissioners have added value to the probity discourse.
Some — like G Somiah, N Vittal, Pratyush Sinha, and Sanjay Kothari — remained engaged with civil society even post-retirement. In his memoir The Honest Always Stand Alone, Somiah urged officers to uphold integrity in both personal and professional life. Vittal introduced a practice of ‘naming and shaming’ officers with disproportionate assets and championed IT-driven transparency.
Although Pratyush Sinha once said the CVC had no teeth, “only dentures”, he was instrumental in overhauling procedures to make it more effective. Even years after retirement, he was appointed to head SEBI’s pro bono committee on conflict of interest.
Light at the end of the tunnel
This columnist worked closely with Sanjay Kothari to bring greater transparency and objectivity to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Nafed’s procurement operations. The underlying idea: if quality could be judged empirically, ground-level corruption could be minimised.
As noted in the previous column, the FCI’s success in reducing transit losses — and the competitive push among states to improve their Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living scores — shows that there is, indeed, light at the end of the tunnel.
This is the fourth article in a series on Lal Bahadur Shastri and the institutions he helped establish.
Sanjeev Chopra is a former IAS officer and Festival Director of Valley of Words. Until recently, he was director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration. He tweets @ChopraSanjeev. Views are personal.
Disclosure: The columnist is a trustee of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial (LBS Museum).
(Edited by Prashant)