“JUST kick-start anti-corruption movement and it will gather momentum,” says the first initiative of an obscure 15-steps strategy for combating corruption. The strategy ends with same advice: “Just kick-start anti-corruption movement and it will gather momentum.”
Team Anna seems to have taken a leaf out of this strategy. And the Government should not be grumbling over Team Anna’s grit and gumption to put this into action. It should in fact take credit for Team Anna’s campaign for Jan Lokpal Bill because the 15-steps strategy is patronised by the Government itself but only on the paper!
Had the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh acted on this strategy and many other initiatives listed in the tons of official anti-graft documents, he and his Government would not have acted half-heartedly in battling corruption. And the stature of the Executive in relation to other pillars of democracy would not have been lowered.
The UPA Government has back-tracked on the commitments to the people it gave earlier to fight corruption. It has also drifted miles away from the roadmaps it laid for government-public cooperation in pursuing ethics, efficiency and transparency. There are several instances to drive home this fact as discussed later in this analysis.
First a small background about the 15-steps strategy. It has, however, not been conceived by Team Anna but by the Government in collaboration with the Institute of Secretariat Training & Management. It forms part of a book titled ‘Non Distance Learning Module On Combating Corruption.’
The module has been developed under the aegis of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) towards achieving its mission to alleviate poverty and facilitate a people-centered development.
That UPA now simply lacks the political will to fight corruption is best borne by an answer to a question that it gave in Lok Sabha about eight months back.
Asked as to whether the government has proposed to formulate legislation for prevention of corruption in the country; if so, the details thereof; and the time by which the said legislation is likely to be formulated and enforced, the Law Minister replied on 9 December 2010 as: “The information is being collected and will be laid on the Table of the House.”
This is same staple and stale reply that any Ministry official would write in reply to a question in Parliament when it is unwilling to part with information or wants to avoid a discussion on the issue.
A glance through Prime Minister’s speeches beginning from his address to the nation on June 24, 2004 to the one delivered on August 15, 2011 shows the Government is faltering in battling corruption. It is faltering on other public commitments such as eradication of malnutrition.
In his June 2004 address, Dr. Manmohan Singh shared his vision with the nation as: “Fellow citizens, I urge you to come forward and take an active role in the nation’s public affairs. Each one of you can make a difference. I seek your support to restore to our public life a greater sense of purpose and a renewed commitment to decency, morality and the hard work needed to take our country and every one of our citizens forward. We must re-capture the spirit of idealism and self-sacrifice which characterized the high noon of our freedom struggle.”
He articulated this resolve with his maiden speech from the ramparts of Red Fort on 15 August 2004. He stated: “we must reform the functioning of government. We have to make officials accountable – make Government more transparent.”
In implied reference to corruption, he said: “the question of ethics in public life has repeatedly agitated our people and we have tried to find Constitutional, legislative and administrative devices to deal with the challenge. The time has come for us to consensually evolve a code of conduct for all political parties, a code of ethics for all individuals in public life, and a code of best practices for the Government at all levels.”
On Independence day two years later, Dr. Singh stated: “We have to work hard to eliminate corruption in the delivery of public services, in fact eliminate it from all walks of life. We will work to put in place a system that rewards honesty, probity and efficiency.”
If one takes at face value such strong political resolve with what the Government committed in the now abandoned National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) which it had prepared in May 2004 when it first came to power, the public’s disillusionment becomes clear.
Right in the introduction to NCMP, UPA had stated: “The UPA makes a solemn pledge to the people of our country: to provide a government that is corruption-free, transparent and accountable at all times, to provide an administration that is responsible and responsive at all times.”
Compare this Dr. Singh’s references to corruption in his speeches over the last one year. At least in three speeches delivered since November 2010, he sounded dejected when he reiterated that there is no magic wand against corruption.
On August 15, 2011, he, for instance, said: “I have said so much on corruption because I know that this problem is a matter of deep concern for all of us. However, this is a difficulty for which no government has a magic wand.”
It is such despairing stance on graft that has forced the public to whole-heartedly support movement against corruption and demand for Jan Lokpal launched by Gandhian leader Anna Hazare.
Notwithstanding national mood against corruption, UPA continues to be slow, indecisive and non-transparent. Take the case of Group of Ministers (GOM) on fighting corruption that the Government constituted on January 6 this year with mandate to complete its work in 60 days. It is yet to complete its work and recently submitted its first report to the Cabinet Secretariat.
The Government has neither cared to make public this report nor the reports of two committees on allocation of natural resources and government procurement that GOM had appointed.
It has also not yet introduced other anti-graft bills such as the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill (which was passed by Lok Sabha in December 2008 but later on lapsed). What is preventing the Government from enacting a new anti-corruption law?
Similarly, the Government has not yet introduced in Parliament the Public Services Bill that was unveiled in 2007 for seeking public comments. The proposed law would provide a statutory framework for regulating the Public Services in India, as enshrined in Article 309 of the Constitution of India. It would envisage regulation of the appointment and conditions of the officials. It would also lay down and review the fundamental values of Public Services, the Public Services Code of Ethics and Public Service Management Code.
The Bill also provides for establishing Public Services Authority for facilitating development of public services as a professional, neutral, merit-based and accountable instrument for promoting good governance.
If UPA Government does not retrieve its good governance agenda and implements it speedily and sincerely, it might have to live with more Jan Lokpal-type agitations during its remaining tenure.
As put by Dr. Singh in his June 2004 address to the nation, “The power of the people, however , is infinitely greater than the power of governments. But, it is by combining the two that we can make our nation truly great.”
The public has now shown that it can unite for a national cause such as battling corruption. The ball is now in the UPA’s court.
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