Our bribescape

As the Lokpal Bill talks between the government and representatives of the civil society movement wend on their pot-holed path, one question continues to perplex: Why does the Anna Hazare team not also talk about corruption in the private sector?
The entire focus of the activists seems to be on the government, from the lowest peon to the mightiest in the land; in fact, much time and energy has been expended in demanding that the Prime Minister be included in the list of those the Lokpal can question. But not a word about the private sector.
Indeed, a suggestion that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) too should be included was immediately pooh-poohed and criticised. Built into the Hazare team’s notion of who should form the Lokpal is the dreamy-eyed belief that somehow those who belong to “civil society” are morally and ethically superior to everybody else, especially the venal political class. But the campaign is called “India Against Corruption” so it should logically be aimed at all those who indulge in this pernicious practice. Instead, much invective and snide comment has been directed at politicians, but very little time has been spent in analysing the inbuilt contradictions of the draft Lokpal Bill.
Corruption is a zero-sum game. After all, for every “corruptee” there is a “corruptor”, for every bribe-taker a bribe-giver. It is the car owner who slips a few bucks into the outstretched hand of a constable so that the latter does not take away his licence and it is the corporate honcho who deals with the politician to get a licence that will help his company and additionally stymie his opposition. For proof, one has to only look at the list of worthies sitting in the sweltering Tihar Jail — there are ministers, politicians and chief executives, all implicated in the same scam.
Yet, our crusaders feel there is no need to include businessmen. Why? Could it be because they think that the private-sector bribe givers — corporates, citizens — are victims, in that they are forced to cough up speed money because the babus and netas are greedy and demanding? Or that it is the elected representatives and the government superstructure in general that should be more accountable to the people? Or perhaps they genuinely feel that the private sector is clean and honest and it is only the government and politicians in general who are corrupt and mendacious.
None of these explanations wash. True, politicians and bureaucrats are servants of the people and should be accountable, but the same applies to a corporate entity (more so the listed ones) or an NGO. They may not be elected, but as far as corruption is concerned, they too are complicit if they indulge in it and the exact same law should be applied to them. This is not to remotely suggest that businessmen and NGOwallahs are corrupt, but the purpose of this bill is to create an organisation that will go after those who are. And an omnibus Lokpal like the one that has been proposed should logically be empowered to treat everyone the same way. It is a different matter whether there should be such an all powerful Lokpal at all, but at the very least, it cannot view the issue of corruption so selectively.
Post-liberalisation, corruption has only increased, as is evidenced by the scams we see all around us. The scams now are on a truly epic scale, easily dwarfing the biggest one of the 1980s — the Bofors scandal was worth a piffling `64 crore. Immediately after the economy was liberalised, we had the stock market scam in which `4,000 crore disappeared. The portents were apparent right then. And now we have the second-generation and Commonwealth Games scams which are monumental in their size. In all of them, official agencies and the private sector have been involved. Babus have played their role, as have members of Parliament and ministers and chief executive officers. This is not a mere matter of skimming a bit of cream off the top; this is corruption on a grand scale, designed by smart and devious minds to cheat the country of wealth.
The official investigative agencies are working to get to the bottom of the whole thing. But it’s hardly an exaggeration to say that the citizen has very little faith in a just outcome. India has the laws, but not necessarily the commitment to fight corruption. Which is why the demand for a Lokpal — an over-arching body that will probe and prosecute — has caught the imagination of people.
The civil society activists have been demanding that only their version of the bill should be accepted; but curiously, while professing no faith in existing processes, laws and institutions, they are not pushing for cleansing the entire system. Their selective targeting continues to be baffling and is one reason why their campaign will always lack credibility.