The hydra-headed monster of corruption is stalking the land. There is hardly any sphere of public activity on which the sinister shadow of corruption has not fallen. Corruption has become so much rampant during recent years that it is being taken for granted. People have almost ceased to regard corruption as something to be ashamed of and to be abhorred. They look upon it as an inseparable incident of official activities.
Enormous sums are being filched from the public by unscrupulous elements amongst officialdom. The technique of extorting illegal gratification has been made into a fine art. The weapon of official delay is being used so adroitly that those who want to assert a right or seek redress have to grease some high palms. Innumerable formalities laid down by legislation and notifications for the transaction of official business give ample scope for delay with the consequent opportunities for extracting bribes. The victims of corruption whether they be tradesmen or manufacturers, pass on the burden of the wrong-doing, exactions to the public. The superior officers connive at corruption amongst the subordinate staff because they do not like any scrutiny in their own assets or expenditure. It is notorious that a number of officials live in a style which is beyond the limits of their official salaries and perquisites.
In order that the evil of corruption may be minimized, if not eradicated, it is necessary that the top-most executive body which controls the ministers should be entirely free from the virus of corruption. Unfortunately, such is not the case. In Orissa, Kerala, U.P., Punjab, Andhra and other regions members of the ruling party have made serious allegations against some of their colleagues in the ministerial ranks. There are loud and insistent demands for judicial probes in the impugned dealings of the ministers. In Punjab a senior Congress legislator has recently prepared a 100-page charge-sheet making serious charges of bribery, corruption, nepotism and maladministration.
If the ministers indulge in corrupt practices for personal aggrandizement or for consolidating their political power, they become the grave-diggers of democracy. The surest way to destroy the tree of democracy in any country is to irrigate it with the foul and stinking waters of corruption. When a political party remains in power for an unconscionably long period it gets a vested interest in graft, corruption and nepotism. Having tasted the fruits of power, it longs to perpetuate its own dominance even by trying to corrupt the electorate in devious ways with the tax-payers money.
Nothing has given greater fillip to corruption in our country than the totalitarian-type economy with its incidents of unrealistic taxation and inflation. The totalitarian regimentation of the economic life has armed the executive with enormous powers. Under the provisions of such legislation as the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, the Essential Commodities Act, the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, the Companies Act, the Banking Companies Act, the Exports Imports (Control) Act, and hundred and one similar pieces of legislation and thousands of rules and regulations passed thereunder, the Government servant has been invested with enormous powers, which in a number of cases do not fail to exploit for his personal gain.
The highly regimented economy has brought into existence the parasitical and corrupt tribe of contact-men who specialize in the art of obtaining favours for or warding off disfavour for their clients from the officialdom for a price, which varies according to usually accepted sliding-scale. The totalitarian regimentation not only hinders production and economic development but breeds corruption on a vast scale.
Government’s reliance on inflationary finance for their various projects has also given a strong impetus to corrupt practices. History is replete with instances where a debased currency has led to the debasement of national character. A dishonest currency by robbing people of their hard-earned savings and creating economic instability destroys the morals of the people and forces them to resort to corrupt and dishonest practices. Inflation furnishes the usual excuse for indulging in corruption. When the value of the rupee keeps falling and the prices keep spiralling, Government servants say that they are forced to obtain illegal gratification to supplement their dwindling incomes. The greatest disservice which a totalitarian economy with its incident of inflation renders to the country is to deaden the conscience of the people and make them regard corruption as a way of life.
The best way to eradicate corruption from our midst is to do away with ideologically inspired policies and programmes which give facility and scope for corruption. Human nature being what it is, if Government policies breed corruption, machinery for the detection and eradication of corruption will itself tend to become corrupt. Power without character is an unmitigated evil. Laws which bring out the worst in man rather than all that is good in him should never be placed on the statute-book. A people who love sturdy independence and are vigilant in safeguarding their fundamental rights against the insidious encroachments of a self-righteous state will not become victims of corruption and extortion by the unscrupulous elements in the bureaucracy.
A healthy opposition and an alert and well-informed public opinion provide a formidable guarantee against corruption. In a democracy the people are entitled to be informed on all matters affecting the public. A Government which adopts secretive policy in vital matters affecting the public creates opportunities for corruption and high-handedness for the bureaucracy. The ministers as the highest executive heads must carry on the administration without fear or favour. They must scrupulously avoid a double standard: one for themselves and for those in whom they are interested and another for the general public. It is axiomatic that in matters of integrity and fair dealings, the people will adopt the code of their leaders.
If the President of India is liable to be impeached under the Constitution there is no reason why the ministers should be accorded immunities against conduct which cannot bear public scrutiny. If the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers do even one-tenth of the sermonizing to their own colleagues in the ministries as they do to the people, there may be, perhaps, some appreciable improvement in the tone of public administration.
The Commissions of Inquiry Act of 1952 empowers the Union and the State Governments to appoint a Commission of Inquiry if the Government concerned is of opinion that it is necessary to do so for the purpose of making an inquiry into any definite matter of public importance and performing such functions as may be specified in the notification. The appointment of such a Commission is made obligatory on the appropriate Government if a resolution in that behalf is passed by the House of the People or as the case may be, by the Legislative Assembly of the State concerned.
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In the existing state of affairs there should be a greater recourse to this Act in all appropriate cases. As there are frequent complaints that persons in authority try to hush-up inquiries or whitewash individuals for political reasons, the Act should be suitably amended to empower the President as the head of the nation, who is above all parties, to appoint the personnel of the Commission in his own discretion. The President should be also empowered to set up vigilance Committees consisting of highly respected citizens of integrity at the Centre as well as in the States. Ministers and high officials should be required to submit to these Committees a statement of their assets at the time of their assuming office and every year thereafter till they continue in office. If the Committee is of opinion that there is a prima facie case for inquiry, it should submit its recommendation to the President for necessary action. Even the existence of such Committees will seem as a salutary check on the depredatory proclivities of persons in power.
There should be a publicly declared code of conduct for ministers. Strict notice should be taken in cases of deviation from this code. Resignation should be demanded from persons found guilty after impartial inquiry.
In order to ensure integrity and efficiency in administrative services, members of the legislature who try to exercise back-door influence on government servants should be brought to book. Connotation of corruption should not be confined only to cases where there is receipt or demand or offer of illegal gratification. The definition of “Corrupt practices” should be wide enough to cover the innumerable forms in which corruption manifests itself. Politicians found guilty of corruption should be deprived of their political rights for a number of years. If the government is really sincere in its avowal to eradicate corruption, there are already in its armoury enough weapons to achieve the object. It is for the people to choose governments which are free from the taint of corruption.
This essay is part of the Indian Liberals archive series by the Centre for Civil Society, available at Indian Liberals. It is excerpted from the August 1963 issue of Freedom First, under the title Corruption: Causes and Cure. The original version of the essay can be accessed here.