Other aspects of the Volcker Report
W
idespread media coverage of the damning report of former US federal reserve chief Paul Volcker, which charges that former Union external minister Natwar Singh and the Congress Party received illegal gratification in Iraq’s food-for-oil scandal, is testimony to the emergence of a new, transformed fourth estate determined to get to the bottom of scams and scandals without regard for the tender feelings of the high and mighty. This is a welcome development because institutional checks and balances against the multiplying depredations of politicians, bureaucrats and ubiquitous fixers and middlemen have been weakened to the point of ineffectiveness. However despite this, some aspects of the controversy which prompted the resignation of Natwar Singh have received insufficient attention, if they have not escaped media scrutiny altogether.
One of these is the ease with which not only public officials, but their sons and hangers-on are able to climb aboard the government gravy train and avail official privileges and perquisites at public expense. In this particular case, the former external affairs minister saw nothing wrong in his son (Jagat) or his progeny’s friend (Andy Seghal) travelling to Iraq — allegedly to negotiate private deals with ousted dictator Saddam Hussein and his servile cronies — at the Congress party’s expense. Nor does he regard it unusual for the progeny and relatives of public officials using insider information to negotiate lucrative private deals.
Secondly, such casual mixing of business and pleasure apart, one of the highlights of the whole contretemps is the righteous indignation displayed by Singh for being denied the perks and privileges of office despite his having done — according to his own assessment — "a good job" as foreign minister. This claim which is equally loudly proclaimed by the mandarins of the external affairs ministry and members of the IFS (Indian Foreign Service) who maintain incongruously lavish embassies and consulates at public expense in an estimated 180 countries around the world — where they combine official business with private interests with the same casual insouciance — is debatable.
The plain truth is that lumbered with a self-righteous and arrogant IFS, except for a brief period in the 1950s when it was able to play off the Soviet Union against America and derive handouts from both cold war powers, India’s foreign policy has been a disaster. Obsessed as it is with precedent and narrow legality, the IFS has not been able to resolve the festering Kashmir dispute which has bled the country dry.
Nor is its failure restricted to parleying with Pakistan. All our neighbouring nations including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, China etc are at loggerheads with India. Neither has post-independence India developed particularly good relations with the US and the western democracies which should be our natural allies.
The consequence is this dirt poor nation has never been able to reap the peace dividend and has suffered continuously rising defence expenditure. In short, after getting and spending for over half a century since independence, the imperious babus of the ministry of external affairs have very little to show for their professed effort.
Unacceptable tolerance of official graft
When politicians brazenly ignore the open and continuous graft of public officials, it is an indicator that the cancer of corruption has severely infected society.
On November 9 Justice N. Venkatachala, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India who was appointed the Lok Ayukta or chief anti-corruption officer of the Karnataka state government in 2001, raided the residences of R. Ranganath and M.C. Prakash, two top-level engineers of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (municipal corporation) in the city. In the palatial home of the former was found Rs.10.2 lakh in cash, 3 kg of gold and silver jewellery, and incriminating evidence to the effect that Ranganath whose monthly pay is an estimated Rs.15,000, owns 14 acres of land across the state, a large building in the city and several motor cars and vehicles. Likewise in the raid on the home of Prakash, an assistant engineer, the Lok Ayukta’s sleuths unearthed cash and assets grossly disproportionate to income — clear evidence of corruption and misuse of public office.
The netting of these big fish of the municipal corporation of Asia’s fastest growing city should have been an occasion for joy and celebration. Instead Justice Venkatachala utilised the press conference following the raids to lash out at the state government for its conspicuous failure to sanction prosecution of any of the 1,900 senior IAS/ IFS/ IRS/KAS or 3,000 lower level government officials against whom he has recommended filing of criminal charges since he assumed office four years ago. More specifically during the past year, Justice Venkatachala recommended prosecution of 447 officials. Of these, 347 recommendations were summarily dismissed by the state government and 100 are pending presumably similar summary dismissal. Under the Lok Ayukta Act, 1984 enacted by the state government, the latter has to accord formal sanction for the prosecution of government officials.
Against this backdrop, it’s plain that there is a direct correlation between Bangalore’s crumbling infrastructure — roads, incomplete flyovers, blocked drains and sewage lines — and the hugely disproportionate assets owned by corporation and government officials. The numerous taxes and cesses paid by the citizenry are being siphoned off into the private accounts of the state’s astonishingly venal politicians and public officials in the absence of proper accounting and monitoring systems. Clearly, tolerance of this situation is tantamount to fatalistic acceptance of the city’s supporting infrastructure collapsing into civic chaos and anarchy. Therefore there is an urgent need for all right-thinking citizens, particularly within Indian academia, to bring the pressure of public opinion to bear upon state governments to institute and empower the office of the Lok Ayukta.
It is in the vital public interest that the Lok Ayukta Act, 1984 is amended forthwith to invest suo motu powers of prosecution in his office. Further vacillation on this critical issue of civic governance is an invitation to disaster.