As the aam aadmi across the nation indulged in anguished debate on whether India has hit rock-bottom on the issue of high corruption, Congress President Sonia Gandhi took the dirty bull by the horns when she set out a five-point action plan in her address to the Congress plenary last month to fight the scourge. Her prescription ran thus: fast-tracking all corruption cases against public servants, including politicians; taking forward the proposal of state funding of elections; legislative and clear procedures to ensure transparency in public procurement; shedding of discretionary powers by chief ministers and all ministers, including at the Centre, especially in land allotments as they “breed corruption”; and, an open competitive system of exploiting natural resources. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh kept his promise to that plenary session to follow up on that roadmap and got the PMO to quickly prepare a draft note. The Congress core group, comprising Mrs Gandhi, Dr Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister A.K. Antony and Mrs Gandhi’s political secretary, Mr Ahmed Patel, met on Friday to discuss the PMO note. The group is said to have considered promulgating an ordinance, if existing laws are found inadequate, to ensure that the five-point plan rolls out clean administration in good time. With five states going to elections this year, it is important for the Congress party, hit by a few hugely embarrassing scams in recent months, to come up with serious mechanisms to fight corruption.
But then, some of Mrs Gandhi’s suggestions are almost impossible to handle. Take, for instance, the state funding of elections. Everyone knows that fighting elections has become hugely expensive these days, what with stories from places like Madurai that the bidding price for one vote has gone up beyond `1,000. And Tamil Nadu happens to be one of the states going to polls this year. Experts argue that it would be virtually impossible for the state to fund elections because there cannot be an acceptable pattern of distribution of money. For instance, if `5,000 crore is budgeted for state funding, how will it be distributed between the Congress, the BJP, the NCP, Samajwadi Party and so on? Also, state funding of parliamentary elections will automatically have to be followed by state funding of Assembly elections, and then of panchayat elections. Serious legal and constitutional issues are involved. Besides, this will surely lead to the floating of bogus parties that only want to claim election funds.
The suggestion of shedding discretionary powers by ministers is welcome and implementable. A beginning could be made by getting all the Congress chief ministers and Union ministers to jettison their discretionary powers. Even the common man knows that contemplating new ordinances apart, just the implementation of existing laws, including the Prevention of Corruption Act, could bring a sea change to Indian polity. True, it will be a huge task to shift the dusty corruption cases onto the fast track as the government needs to procure data on the number of cases pending state-wise, the availability of district judges, the number of cases stuck in the high courts on account of stays, the number of appeals pending, and so on. But still, some way must be found to ensure that the corrupt politician does not slip through the many loopholes in the law. Also, it might be a good idea to amend the income-tax laws to send tax evaders to jail; right now they can get away by paying fines. A few governors in the American state of Illinois are in jail for corruption and tax fraud, and one of them, 76-year-old George Ryan, serving a six-and-a-half-year term, drew blank last week petitioning a federal judge for release on bond so that he could be by the bedside of his cancer-stricken wife.