Combating corruption

AS A DOCUMENT which enumerates the various socio-economic causes of corruption in India and catalogues the measures needed to arrest it, the Vigilance Commission's just-released Citizens' Guide does not contain many novel or trailblazing ideas. But it does more than a good job of identifying the appalling scale of the problem and the urgent need to tackle it. Much of the subject matter between the two covers of the CVC's guide to fighting corruption has a familiar ring to it. This is not surprising as the publication bears the unmistakable stamp of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Mr. N. Vittal, who has used his office to carry out a high-profile campaign aimed, on the one hand, at the modification of the rules and procedures which encourage corruption and, on the other, at sensitising the public about the menace.

Corruption in India has assumed such large proportions and variegated forms that large numbers of the public have come to believe that it is impossible to get rid of this malaise. In such an atmosphere of pervasive cynicism, one of the things that the guide repeatedly emphasises - and quite correctly - is that the scourge can be managed or controlled. Other countries have been notoriously corrupt in the past (for example, Britain in the 18th century) but have succeeded in tackling the problem through a mixture of administrative and electoral reform. The situation in America during the late 19th century vis-a-vis corruption bears a strong causal resemblance to that which exists in India and many other developing countries today. In dispelling the gloomy but widespread notion that corruption in India cannot be curtailed, the Citizens' Guide notes that even Botswana, according to a World Bank report, has improved the probity in its public life.

The Chief Vigilance Commissioner, who evidently perceives his office as a catalyst for organising a war against corruption in India, may be a tad too optimistic if he believes that the guide could become a common basis for citizens or groups of citizens to mobilise themselves in this effort. But in a country which buckles under the gigantic burden of corruption and struggles to find a way to overcome its oppressive weight, any step towards giving the still-nascent anti-corruption movement a fillip deserves to be warmly commended. The guide acknowledges the need for a variety of strategies to fight corruption, ranging from general measures such as the simplification of rules and procedures and the application of information technology to specific steps such as trapping corrupt public servants. While agencies such as the CVC can play a vital role, any comprehensive strategy to combat corruption would have to involve other bodies such as NGOs and the print and electronic media.

Although it may hurt the pride to admit it, India is one of the most corrupt countries on the world map. The latest Corruption Perception Index conducted by Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO which conducts an annual survey which attempts to aggregate perceptions of corruption within countries, ranks India a lowly 72 out of a list of 91 nations. It is small comfort that nations such as Bangladesh or Uganda rank lower in this list of infamy. As early as 1964, the Santhanam Committee, which was set up to examine the increasing menace of corruption in the administration, observed that the ``tendency to subvert integrity in the public services instead of being isolated... is growing into an organised well-planned racket''. If anything, it has grown much larger and become even better organised since. The war against corruption is formidable and not going to be easy to win, but the CVC or anyone else who fires a few salvos deserves to be cheered for engaging the enemy.