Published in The Tribune dated 28 May, 2011

Punjabi antenna

Corruption conundrums

By

Randeep Wadehra

Last fortnight the Day & Night News channel’s Prime Time discussed the Punjab Civil Services Act, 2011, which has kept the executive and judicial branch appointees out of the purview while “less powerful” services like medical and water supply etc have been included with retrospective effect. Thus, now, the appointees will be kept on probation for three years during which they could be discharged from service without assigning any reasons or giving notice. Worse, during the probation the appointees will get only basic pay, and absolutely no allowances or benefits! The angst of the affected persons was understandable. However, Kanwar Sandhu’s poser whether this will lead to increase in corruption in the concerned departments merits serious deliberation.

In fact, corruption has come back under the regional media’s scanner thanks to the arrests of two Chief Parliamentary Secretaries of the current Akali-BJP coalition. Zee Punjabi’s Khabarsaar had a discussion on the issue where, predictably, the Akali and non-Akali-non-BJP invitees clashed. Sadly, there was no constructive suggestion as to how should the government tackle this ever growing menace. What structural changes in the governance would help combat corruption? Or, how do we inculcate values like honesty and conscientiousness among those operating the various levers of power? Unfortunately, these issues were drowned in the ocean of high decibel verbiage. However, amidst the maze of pointed fingers and flying accusations, one was struck by a very candid and sharp remark that people of Punjab are khafa with their elected representatives for encouraging corruption to proliferate.

So what can khafa people do? Recall their elected representatives? This was discussed on the Day & Night News channel’s another Prime Time debate. The general sentiment was that people should have the option to recall elected representatives. However, while discussing the methodology for recalling such representatives several problems appeared to have cropped up. For example, the MLA deals with issues concerning the entire state and not just his constituency. Similarly, the MP plays at least the national, if not global, role. So, should a representative’s performance be evaluated just by his constituency or a larger electorate? Moreover, what would the procedure for recalling an elected representative be? A referendum? Now, if the MP/MLA is a minister and has indulged in corruption would the referendum be limited to a specific constituency or the nation at large? We know that elections entail complex planning. Given the spread and frequency of bribery and other corrupt acts the nation’s entire focus would be distracted from developmental and other issues of governance. The costs of holding such referendums would be mindboggling. A tough conundrum, no?

Another issue to catch the media’s attention was the retraction of confession by Swami Aseemanand. Masle on PTC News expanded the scope of the debate to include not just the reasons for the retraction but how the media and the state combine to stick communal/regional labels to terrorism, viz., Islamic, Sikh, Saffron, Naga etc. Gobind Thukral pointed out that this sort of labeling stigmatizes entire communities although terrorists – from whatever community – form a miniscule minority. In the process the innocent get demonized and become punching bags for victims of terrorist acts. Worse, even the police treat people from the concerned stratum with suspicion – we have seen that happening to Kashmiri Muslims and Sikhs in our own country, and at the global level ethnic profiling has become a norm in the United States and other western countries.

Other points raised in the debate were – why do people retract their confessions once they feel sure that they would not be in police custody any longer? Is it the fear of the police or do the police actually torture the suspects? And, why do specialized investigating agencies handle common criminal cases like murders, corruption etc instead of more significant crimes? Any answers?

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