Fat cats become predators, babus bloat on basic instinct

Our favourite obsession is that corruption is endemic to India. But is it so?

Mohun Guruswamy Delhi

Corruption is a complex word with many meanings, depending upon the context of its use. For instance, if a language or text were to be altered it would also be described as a form of corruption. So would the CNN-IBN’s LK Advani interview promos, which by some mendacious editing, had him saying things he did not intend or say, as was clearly evident in the full interview.

In the present times, when we say a file in a computer has been corrupted, we actually mean it has been spoilt and the original cannot be retrived. But the corruption we have in mind for now refers to its most common usage, which is also India’s main discussion topic. This is the lack of integrity in government.

Wherever one may be, in a party or on a train or with friends ostensibly for just shooting the breeze, the topic of conversation invariably veers around to corruption. From the sheer incidence of discussion it is clear corruption is India’s numero uno concern. And it would be so if periodic opinion polls were considered to accurately reflect the people’s mind. It should then be that corruption is quite endemic. But is it so?

According to Transparency International, the total economic volume of corruption in India last year was about Rs 30,000 crore. When you relate this to the GNP of over Rs 25,00,000 crore, this is small change. Or even when you relate this to the Rs 1,90,000 crore the nation expends in terms of salaries and pensions on the 19 million strong nation of public servants who lord over it, this is small change indeed. So where, then, is the disconnect? The truth probably lies somewhere in between, as it usually does.

The present reality of Delhi is instructive. The city is now the richest in the country in per capita terms. Almost a third of the total number of new motor cars sold in the country is purchased in the National Capital Region (NCR). Its direct tax collection is almost as large as that of Mumbai. It consumes more booze of the Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) variety, and foreign-made foreign liquor, which is mostly Scotch whisky. Even discounting that some of the Scotch is local brew packed to look like imported stuff, it’s still quite a lot of it.

In recent days we have been reading about some ‘Johnny come lately’ industrialists plonking down over Rs 150 crore for a house in New Delhi’s posh localities. Admittedly, they are not that many, but most of South Delhi is made up of crorepatis if just the commercial value of their houses are considered. India is reported by Forbes magazine to have about 87,000 dollars worth of millionaires now. About half of them live in the NCR. What, then, is the main business of Delhi?

Is it industry? Is it IT? Or is it ICE — information, communication, entertainment?

The total industry in the NCR region is impressive, but its share in the regional economy is not more than the national trend of about 22 per cent of the GDP. Mumbai and Chennai have more industrial output. Bangalore has more IT. Hyderabad has more ICE. As a wag once said, Delhi’s main business is hot air — meaning politics and paper, meaning government. So how is it that a metropolis that is all about gas and red tape be so wealthy?

That is just it. Not only is Delhi literally built by blatantly abusing the maze of building regulations, Delhi was made big business by the business of unbundling the maze of regulations ostensibly meant to keep the country under its thrall. The main activity in Delhi is for each one of us to cut the hundreds if not thousands of Gordian knots that bedevil our lives. All this costs not just time but also money. This is the money that fuels our politics and keeps our politicians well above the poverty line. To see how well-heeled our politicians are, one has to study the returns filed before the Election Commission (EC). Almost each and every case is a success story and most of them are self-made.

Take, for instance, the Bhishma Pitamaha of the BJP: Atal Behari Vajpayee. He was born to a humble school teacher and hagiography has it that he walked several kilometres each morning to school. Very lower middle class, one would have to say. His EC return shows a declared wealth of over Rs 1.5 crore. Not bad for a man whose lifetime was devoted to the service of the nation, mostly as an elected person. The salaries, as we know, are not too hot, particularly if you are a family man. Somehow, a wealth of Rs 1.5 crore does not sit too comfortably with the known sources of income. We do not know if the declared wealth includes the properties in Manali, Gwalior, Lucknow, while he has an officially allotted house in New Delhi.

Like him, his son-in-law, Ranjan Bhattacharya, is also a self-made man, but a much wealthier one than him. Vajpayee is not the only one of our better known politicians, but also one of our better politicians. This does not mean only in terms of intellectual acumen but also in terms of integrity. I take Vajpayee as an example because he is among the best we seem to have. He is ‘almost pure’ when compared with the likes of a Mulayam Singh Yadav with Amar Singh in tow (or the other way around) or the late, much lamented Pramod Mahajan or so many others who dominate our airwaves and consciousness. Of course, Vajpayee is pally with the Hindujas and a few other well-known crooks, but then who can thrive in politics now without the fat cats?

I saw an opinion poll the other day that the most preferred Class I services now are the Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Revenue Service (IRS). In the Indian Army, the first choice is often the much discredited Army Supply Corps, but not because an army marches on its stomach but because the army offers much for the stomach. Need one say more?

How much does one have to pay to become one of the millions of petty bureaucrats who turn out to be such tyrants when it comes to giving out a driving licence, or a ration card, a passport, a PAN card or details of the hugely inflated electricity bills or fixing the broken sewer or allowing citizens to get by with our mundane, everyday lives? Quite clearly, public service is not the last refuge of the scoundrel but the first preference. Besides, it’s a lifetime of assured public service, except of course the military that marches to the beat of a somewhat different drummer in matters of integrity, standards and service longevity, or so it seems.

The preference for government service is not due to the terms of service, but the discretionary powers that turn it into a lucrative, permanent occupation.

The first step towards eliminating the corruption that bugs us so much is to reduce the discretionary powers of officials. This does not mean more rules, but far fewer. For instance, there is no need for a police verification to issue a passport. The verification is just another excuse to harass the ordinary citizen. The Abu Salems and Monica Bedis had no problems in not only getting one passport but several of them.

I recently tried to get the electricity meter of my house changed to my name. The house has been mine for several years and the bills show no past arrears. When I went to the electricity office, I was told that the form can be procured from the vendor across the street. The vendor told me that he had to be paid Rs 300 since he had to pay the fellows inside for the forms. Evidently, this was a case of corruption being outsourced.

In any case, I got a form from the bada babu after haranguing him a bit. After the form was filled up and all required documentation provided, including a copy of the registered sale deed, I was advised I would have to give a notarised affidavit stating that I will pay for any arrears that may show up in future. When I told them there were no arrears, and the bills with me indicate that, I was told that either I must just get it, which meant another day spent getting an affidavit written up and notarised or pay Rs 500. When I demurred, the babu said that a person like me, who has paid several lakhs for the property, must not hesitate when having to pay a little to a poor man like him!

A close friend, who till recently headed an intelligence agency, recounted to me the harrowing experience of getting his Central Government Health Service (CGHS) card made. It was terrible. Well, welcome to the real world!

These are instances of the niggling corruption that makes everyday life excruciating and unpleasant. But when this is projected at the national level, the costs can be enormous. To toss you a figure, no less than Rs 6,00,000 crore is the cost of the overruns on long delayed infrastructure projects.

A Russian diplomat once told me that the Sukhoi 30 was the best fighter plane in the world despite the fact that its wings are now a bit heavy. When asked to elaborate he said in a deadpan manner that since the deal spanned three regimes, the plane was bound to get heavy! So the next thing to do after deregulating our lives a bit is to put time limits on project closures. Thus, if a dam or highway is delayed and extension is sought, reasons must be sought and enquired into, and persons deemed responsible must be penalised. For instance, witness the Light Combat Aircraft project that is now 15 years behind schedule or the Arjun tank programme which never really began and never seems to end.

Another urgently needed reform is the unhindered service lifetime assurance of employment, even to the worthless and tainted. The military has a system of weeding out the unsuitable at each level which is why we get progressively higher ethical and professional standards as the levels rise. The military has performance and academic requirements specified at every level, but not so the civil servants. The system of promotions by virtue of seniority ensures the scum also rise to the top with the worthy. This is an unworthy system. The cost to the nation is enormous.

What will get us out of this situation is a regime that incorporates the four T’s: transparency, time, tenure and termination. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has spoken about this for sometime now, but then he speaks about so many things these days and does so little. But at least his chapter’s closure comes in a couple of years, which is not what we can say about the babudom.