Stem the rot!

By
Amar Nath Wadehra and Randeep Wadehra
 

21st century India is witnessing a trend that has the potential to change the very nature of our polity. On the one hand we have secular civil society activists, led by Anna Hazare and, on the other hand, there is the saffron robed Baba Ramdev; both arrogating to themselves the role of reformers. In fact they have made it bold to suggest to the government of India how the country should be governed. Hazare’s team wants the establishment of the institution of Lokpal that would have immense powers to investigate and, perhaps, even punish those guilty of corruption and mal-governance. The Lokpal’s jurisdiction is proposed to be quite wide – right from the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India to government ministers and officials down the line. Earlier, in the 1970s the JP movement too had attempted something similar – triggering off some very unfortunate consequences. The only beneficiaries of JP’s sacrifice were the politicians of course! So, why, after more than four decades similar reformative movement, albeit less incendiary in tone and content, has come about? Where have things gone wrong?

Over a period of time governance seems to have lost steam. The enthusiasm with which institutions were built by the makers of India’s constitution and sought to be strengthened by the Nehru regime is on the wane now. In fact, the rot had set in during the later years of Nehru’s tenure but it manifest itself in all its ugliness during Indira Gandhi’s regime when institutions were not only sought to be marginalized but also subverted with impunity. Populism became a convenient replacement for honest endeavor to improve the lot of the downtrodden. All sorts of fanciful schemes were launched to give slogans like Garibi Hatao a modicum of credibility. These schemes only ended up in giving a huge boost to corruption even as the national debt soared. Just to give one small example. There was this IRDP Scheme meant for integrated rural development. It was supposed to promote entrepreneurship among individuals and families in the rural areas. They could buy a buffalo or cow and sell milk to earn livelihood or start some cottage industry. However, there were no supporting services like appraisal of the loan seekers’ skills or, for that matter, any facility to help in the marketing of their products and services. The rate of interest on loans under the scheme was around 4%. It gave petty politicians and babus a lot of clout. The end result was “sharing of the booty”. No matter how insignificant the amount may appear today but the sums ranging from Rs. 2500 to Rs. 4000/-, cumulatively, were considerable during the 1980s and even 1990s. Needless to say most of the loans were never returned and Public Sector banks had to pick up the tab for all the loan melas. The banks had no say in the selection of candidates for giving loans. Even the recovery of loans was not really in the bank managers’ hands as they had to defer to the local “people’s representatives”. The RBI turned a blind eye to the colossal waste of public sector banks’ resources. Consequently, while precious resources were wasted in developing entrepreneurship amongst the undeserving the real enterprise – the private sector – was not just starved of funds but asphyxiated by restrictive trade and industrial policies. Eventually, the country was pushed to the brink of bankruptcy.

Things were equally bad in various government departments. Unless you had connections in bureaucracy or ministry you could not even get an FIR filed, or obtain a ration card, or avail of proper medical attention in a government hospital… These were, and to a large extent still are, problems at the grassroots level. To make things worse, corruption kept spreading like a contagion in the society. Even for getting a death certificate or a postmortem report one had to grease palms. Complaining to higher authorities was futile.

On the higher plane, too, things had begun to deteriorate. One of the side-effects of the Emergency was that the judiciary began to lose its spine and the majesty of law began to look less majestic. The public image of judges began to take a beating. Today, We are told that the rot is only at the level of lower judiciary – as if that is of any consolation to the common man who has to seek justice from that level onwards. And where do the members of higher judiciary come from? There is any number of judges even today who should not have been anywher

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