The Hindu Business Line : The continuing fight against corruption

TO some people, writing about corruption in Indian public life is tantamount to wasting time and effort because of the intractable nature of the problem. The clear inference is that no matter how much the subject is publicised, nothing much can be done to reduce corruption in any way.

No matter how much one dislikes contributing to this point of view, the fact remains that it cannot be dismissed lightly, which actually throws light on the firm bonding between corruption — in all its forms and not merely the monetary aspect — and the average Indian psyche. And yet, it is also true that the fight against corrupt behaviour in all walks of Indian life must continue because the alternative — sitting unconcerned and cocooned in one's small milieu — is unacceptable to anyone who answers to the description of being a true and loyal citizen of the republic.

In practice, what this means is that, apart from living as "clean" a life as is possible as one goes about one's daily chores, every sinew must be stretched to the fullest to support and encourage any spark of protest against corruption in the public and non-public domain that one might come across.

A glaring example of this has been the continuing struggle against corrupt officials by an action group of the Uttar Pradesh IAS Association (which has since disowned the group), which was formed in 1996 and is, surprisingly, still battling the odds ranged against it with exemplary steadfastness.

The group has been under sustained pressure from those in UP babudom who have a vested interest in persisting with the current order of things.

The latest flashpoint in the continuing struggle has been the State Government's order issued "around midnight" last Tuesday, which reportedly states that "any move to identify corrupt officers through a ballot was against healthy administrative traditions and amounted to `misconduct'".

The Government's move comes in the wake of the action group's recent letter to all officers working in the State to help "in identifying five most corrupt officers" in UP through a secret ballot. On the face of it, it may look somewhat incongruous that such a ballot should be held in the first place among officers to whom the administration of the State has been entrusted. But the fact of the matter is that some of these officers themselves have perceived the need for such a ballot, which itself speaks volumes about the state in which the higher echelons of the UP administration is in.

What makes the move even more significant is that since there is no reason to believe that the officers active in the action group are themselves not fully aware of the "healthy administrative traditions" of the service they work for, the fact that they have decided to take such a step in spite of this awareness underscores the extent to which the "administrative traditions" in UP have become polluted.

Indeed, the first such ballot was held in 1996 and three officers were accorded the pride of place as being perceived by their colleagues to be the most corrupt, one of whom later became Chief Secretary and also came under the scanner of an official investigation after a raid at his house discovered wealth that was considered to be incompatible with his known sources of income. Not unexpectedly, no other ballot has followed the first one, the Government clamping down on the recent effort to hold a second such exercise.

This apart, the convener of the action group, now reportedly holding the rank of a principal secretary to the State Government, is under some pressure in that he has gone to court apprehending action against him by the vigilance department, which is liable to interpretation of a kind which does not do any credit to the Government's public image.

The court proceedings will of course take their own independent and impartial course, but the fact remains that the move by a handful of UP IAS officers to take a public stand against corrupt colleagues in their own ranks needs the utmost public support if Indian society generally is to made a wee bit cleaner than it is now.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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