India’s filthy underbelly

Joginder Singh ji
Former Director - CBI

There are various definitions of corruption, the best one, in my view, being corruption is monopoly of authority sans transparency. Indian society and public life has been overrun by corruption for the simple reason that, irrespective of the party or parties in power, the Governments of the day have at best sought to play it down, offered it tacit support and at worst connived with the perpetrators.

Scams, frauds and other graft cases are detected with overwhelming rapidity and the latest ones surpass older ones in technique and figures involved. Everything happens right under the nose of the mighty Union Government, the agencies of which are spread across every nook and corner of the country.

In June, the CBI unearthed a railway recruitment scam following simultaneous raids in Mumbai, Bangalore, Raipur, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The additional divisional railway manager, Raipur, AK Jagannatham, in connivance with the officials of Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai, had secured a copy of the question paper before the examination date and leaked its contents to several applicants for the posts of assistant loco pilot and assistant station master in exchange of bribe worth Rs 3.5 lakh per person.

Those arrested include SM Sharma, chairman of Railway Recruitment Board (he has since been suspended), his son Vivek, AK Jagannatham, his son Srujan, divisional railway manager (personnel) Sethi and a Raipur-based agent. The applicants were required to deposit their original certificates with Jagannatham. The question paper was provided to them a day prior to the examination and their certificates returned after payment of the complete amount.

Searches in Mumbai led to the detection of Rs 60 lakh in bank accounts of family members of Sharma. In Hyderabad, Rs 21.5 lakh in cash and original certificates of 444 applicants were recovered from the residence of Jagannatham. A sum of Rs 12 lakh was recovered from his possession at a hotel in Bangalore where he was staying. Incriminating documents, such as question papers and original certificates of the aspirants, were recovered from him.

Four months ago, two IAS officers (husband and wife) posted in Madhya Pradesh were suspended after a raid on their home by income tax officials led to the seizure of Rs 3.26 crore in cash, jewellery worth Rs 67 lakh, Rs 7 lakh in foreign currency and other assets. In Chhattisgarh, Rs 52 lakh in cash, jewellery worth Rs 73 lakh, and 220 fake bank accounts with transactions amounting to Rs 40 crore were seized during income tax raids in the same period; 14 bank lockers have been sealed.

What has been seized, however, represents only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The real moolah would have been converted into property or stashed away in foreign bank accounts. What’s worse is that the rot has spread everywhere: From the Income Tax Department, Customs, defence forces and IPS to health services and education.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State in charge of the Department of Personnel and Training Prithviraj Chavan said, “As on March 31, 2010, the number of IAS and IPS officers facing trial for criminal charges in CBI cases is 84 and 33 for the two respective categories.”

According to Transparency International, India ranks 84th in integrity assessment out of 180 countries and scores only 3.4 on a scale of zero to 10. World Bank official and co-coordinator of Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative Adrian Fozzard says that assets to the tune of $ 40 billion are annually lost to corrupt practices, which include bribery and misappropriation of funds, in developing countries. Only $ 5 billion of such funds have been recovered in the past 15 years.

In the name of exercising authority on behalf of the Government, white collar professionals and bureaucrats have converted every assignment into a cash cow and have thoroughly exploited the power structure for their own pecuniary gains. India has been robbed of its resources not by foreigners but by its own citizens. In the name of protecting the rights of the accused, the rights of the victims of this robbery have either been trampled upon or put on the back burner.

India has a number of anti-corruption watchdogs, including Central Vigilance Commission, Comptroller and Auditor-General of India, the CBI, anti-corruption agencies, Intelligence Bureau, Economic Intelligence Bureau, Serious Fraud Office, Securities and Exchange Board of India, Reserve Bank of India, Defence Intelligence Agency and National Security Board besides Parliamentary Standing Committees and a ridiculously excessive number of regulators in addition to State-level agencies. It is surprising, therefore, that the Government manages to lose sight of so many frauds.

One of the laws struck down by the Supreme Court on December 17, 1997, was a directive issued in 1988 which made it mandatory that for an inquiry against an officer of the level of Joint Secretary and above prior permission of the Government. The Supreme Court had clearly said that it was ultra vires of the Constitution as taking kickbacks and bribery is not the part of the duties of any Government servant.

The same directive was smuggled in as a part of the Central Vigilance Commission Bill, which came into force in September 2004. Surprisingly, no political party raised a finger against it. When I made inquiries, I was informally told that the Joint Secretary’s level in the Government of India was a decision-making level. If the post was not provided protection, nobody would agree to do anything illegal at the behest of their political masters.

So the present position is that neither the CBI nor any other agency can even start an inquiry to cross-check whether an allegation at this level is true or not. Getting sanction to start an inquiry can take days, if not months and years. The result is quite often those responsible get to know well in advance about the investigation to be undertaken against them. If a cognisable offence is discovered against them, a case is registered. After the investigation is over, another detailed report with the full evidence and results of the investigation is sent to the Government for sanction under Section 197 of the CrPC, without which no court can take cognisance of the offence.

Corruption has become a low-risk and high-paying activity. It makes no difference that the Government increases the allocation for poverty alleviation schemes. What is the point of having schemes running into thousands of crores of rupees, in which the money, instead of reaching the intended beneficiaries, is siphoned along the way? More importantly, will the situation ever improve?

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