The news of Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi being removed as head of the 2010 Commonwealth Games organising committee will be met with much relief. These marching orders should have come a long time ago. Narratives of malignancy regarding preparations for the Delhi Games under Mr Kalamdi’s stewardship had begun to surface about a year before the event. The Prime Minister was urged to step in to stem the rot. The reports carried credibility and Dr Manmohan Singh was compelled set up a Group of Ministers to look into the shoddy goings-on. A special unit of dependable Central officers was also created to maintain schedules and quality as it was no longer feasible to rely on Mr Kalmadi’s capabilities and his probity. However, what Dr Singh did not do was to wield his authority to ease out the OC chief quickly. By the time his government acted to place curbs on Mr Kalmadi, a lot of damage had been done.
In a way, the Games saga stands out as a symbol of the absence of timely governmental action when malfeasance is abroad. In the face of early signs of wrongdoing and corruption, our governments typically begin to pore over the rulebook instead of isolating the bad apples, begin to look at the political colour of the persons under scrutiny, and sometimes even give the impression that their citing of rules is meant to stall action. From this arises the idea of partisanship with the wrong sort. The idea of due process — a key requirement of democratic life — is permitted to give wrongdoers a long leash, although everyone knows what the score is. This needs to change, and swiftly. Without deviating from due process, the system needs to be armed with legislation and procedures to deal with crooks transparently and speedily. The absence of this is hurting the political system grievously even when individual leaders are themselves perceived as being above board. The long line of corruption scandals in recent decades shows that governments seem to act only when the people mount pressure, almost never on their own. The UPA-2 government needs to strain every nerve to alter this perception. It can make a beginning with the issue of black money stashed in tax havens abroad by unscrupulous individuals. True, the government cannot breach the confidentiality conditions under which it has obtained the names of 26 individuals from Germany — who are said to have secreted away ill-gotten wealth in funny places to avoid paying taxes. That will close doors for the future and make foreign governments — with which we deal on a regular basis on a plethora of issues — mistrust us. But what the government can do is ask the judiciary to disclose the names — and once these are in the public domain, it will have to find the ingenuity to deal with those who had parked black money abroad on a stringent basis. Needless to say, the matter must move beyond taxation.
Recently 14 eminent figures from different walks of life wrote “an open letter to our leaders” in which they rightly held that the “malaise of corruption” is “corroding the fabric of our nation”. They urged that investigating and law-enforcing bodies be made independent of the executive. This is simplistic. America’s FBI, for instance, is an arm of the US justice department. In a democratic order, when governments carry the mandate of the people, it may be even dangerous to transfer such powers away from elected authorities. The right way would be to reform governments, ensuring through legislation that clean people are elected and to have stringent laws against bribe-givers too. The subject is rocking the nation: effective steps are urgently needed.