Corruption
free India –A vision or A fantasy ?
CHANDIGARH
(JAG MOHAN THAKEN)
Despite observance of Vigilance Awareness
Week by the central government and its wings every year with full fledged show offs , the ultimate
result seems to be much ado about nothing .The official figures themselves
witness the day to day deteriorating position . In 2015 , CBI registered 617
corruption cases against 5957 persons , In 2016 it registered 673 cases against
2842 accused , whereas the central
agency has registered 339 cases of alleged corruption involving 487 government
officials , 660 private persons and 14 politicians this year upto June 30, 2017. On this date a total of 6414 cases of alleged corruption
were reported pending trials in different courts against 16875 government
employees ,18780 private persons and 115 politicians .
like previous years, this year’s Vigilance
Awareness Week ,with the theme of “My Vision –Corruption Free India” , is also being observed from 30th October to
4th November, 2017 throughout the country . It has commenced with the Integrity pledge
by public servants in all the Ministries , Departments , Central Public Sector
Enterprises and Public Sector Banks on 30th October . The pledges ,
one for citizens and the other for organizations , intend to affirm commitment
to eradicate corruption and to uphold highest standards of ethical conduct ,
transparency and good governance . The Chief Vigilance Commissioner states the
purpose of observing Vigilance Awareness Week is to educate the public at large
about the corruption related practices and sensitize citizens on the
ill-effects of corruption.
Before stepping ahead we must know what
does the corruption mean? An NGO
Transparency International defines the corruption as the abuse of entrusted
power for private gain . It classifies the corruption as grand ,petty and political
depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs . Grand
corruption consists of acts committed at a high level of government that
distort policies or the central functioning of the state ,enabling leaders to
benefit at the expense of public good .Petty corruption refers to every day
abuse of entrusted power by low and mid-level public officials in their
interaction with ordinary citizens ,who often are trying to access basic goods
or services in places like hospitals ,schools ,police department and other
agencies .Political corruption is a manipulation of policies , institutions and
rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political
decision makers, who abuse their position to sustain their power ,status and
wealth .
In our country all the three types of
corruption co-exist. Whereas the petty corruption corrupts the common man and
it creates chaos in the public ; the grand and political corruption corrupts
the entire system within and makes the country a hollow tree eaten by inner white
ant. However the number of politicians
exposed involved in corrupt practices seems small (115 out of total 35770
reported above in CBI cases ) ,but the quantum of their corruption is very
large .It aptly characterizes the
Hindi proverb “DEKHAN MEIN CHHOTA LAGE ,
MAAR KARE GAMBHEER i.e. seemingly the number of their involvement is small ,but
their marring effects have Black Sea boundaries .” Some of the infamous scams
of India that have hit the country over
years, Indian Coal Allocation Scam (Rs.186000 crores ) , 2G Spectrum Scam
(Rs.176000 crores ) ,Fodder Scam (Rs. 950 crores ) , Common Wealth Games Scam ,
Hawala Scam , Bofors Scam and Vyapam Scam etc. , speak about the corruption of the nexus of politicians and
bureaucrats . And this nexus always tries to hide their misdeeds to safeguard
them by hook or crook . Recently the BJP
led Rajasthan government under the Chief Ministership of Vasundhara Raje has
crossed all the limits by promulgating
an ordinance , which bans lodging of FIR without the prior permission of
the state government . According to new rules ,promulgated through this
ordinance , no investigation can be ordered by the police under section 156 or
a magistrate under section 190 into allegations against public servants, judges
and magistrates and no journalist can report these allegations unless and until
the state government sanctions the prosecution . The Editors Guild of India has
opposed the ordinance and has told this a pernicious instrument . “ But in
reality it is a pernicious instrument to harass the media , hide the wrongful
acts by government servants and drastically curb the freedom of the press
guaranteed by the constitution of India .”
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts
absolutely , rightly said for such instances . In the present scenario , a
strong Lokayukt /lokpal , with sharp edged scissors in its hand , is very much
needed .But will the nexus allow an overseer to have an eagle eye to observe it
? Till some solid and effective steps are not taken to curb the corruption ,
Vigilance Awareness Week will remain a Weak Vigilance Awareness campaign . Let
us all think over it .
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