O P I N I O N S

Perspective

Declining integrity
Citizens should refuse to pay bribes
by R.K. Raghavan
The apex court has come down heavily on the worsening integrity levels in the civil service, even as it made abundantly clear that it would not brook corruption in the judiciary. In agreeing to an open hearing on the subject, the court has defused criticism that it was shielding black sheep among the brethren.

Wit of the week
A disinformation campaign on the issue of the inclusion of the Lok Sabha Speaker’s name on the CPM MPs’ list submitted to the President of India is doing the rounds. What I had said is that the Speaker’s name should be included in the CPM list as he was elected as a CPM candidate but with an asterisk denoting that currently he is the Lok Sabha Speaker, as is the normal parliamentary practice.

OPED

Set for confrontation
One is strategically right, the other tactically superior
by Gautam Sen
In 1992 at the Luxemburg conference I had the opportunity to interact with Dr Menshikoff, as former Chairman of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, then in residence in western Europe after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. I asked him how and what catalysed the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

On Record
Panchayati raj has empowered women
by Vibha Sharma
For Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, the political and social empowerment of women in panchayats is one of the most significant achievements of India in the past decade. In an interview Aiyar talks about issues related to this empowerment of rural India and hurdles that continue to face it.

Profile
Not a blind follower
by Harihar Swarup
Politics is a weird game and caught in its web this time is Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The question is whether he should give in to the diktat of the CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat and quit or hold on to his high constitutional post.

Perspective

Declining integrity
Citizens should refuse to pay bribes
by R.K. Raghavan

The apex court has come down heavily on the worsening integrity levels in the civil service, even as it made abundantly clear that it would not brook corruption in the judiciary. In agreeing to an open hearing on the subject, the court has defused criticism that it was shielding black sheep among the brethren.

In a hard-hitting judgement delivered in a recent Punjab case, Mr Justice Passayat and Mr Justice Bedi, the two most respected judges of the apex court, came out with a few unusually firm and unequivocal statements which would warm the cockles of those who plead for strict action against corrupt bureaucrats.

The judges will have to be quoted verbatim if only to convey their anguish over a malaise that has caused incalculable harm to society and the country’s image.

Their first observation was: “Corruption by public servants has now reached monstrous proportions in India. Its tentacles have started spreading even to institutions created for the protection of the republic.”

This was possibly an innuendo against judicial corruption itself, and it could not have come at a better time when the apex court itself was slated to hear a petition alleging specific charges against some judges, including a sitting Judge of the Supreme Court.

This bold and decisive step on the part of the highest court in the land is one refreshingly positive move in the campaign against public servant corruption.

The second observation by the two judges was: “When a public servant is found guilty of corruption after a judicial process, judiciousness demands that he or she should be treated as corrupt until exonerated by a superior court”.

All of us know how many civil servants, including ministers and chief ministers, have got a new lease of life by stalling the judicial process through wanton appeals and stay or suspension of sentence orders, which some courts have thoughtlessly issued.

We also know how some courts tend to give the benefit of the doubt to the accused in corruption cases where such benefit is totally unwarranted.

In such a miasmic atmosphere, convictions in corruption cases are naturally few and far between. When this is the situation, how can we be also party to neutralising sentences awarded by courts on the specious ground that an appeal is pending?

The apex court’s recent obiter dictum will amount to a declaration that a conviction is a conviction, and till it is overturned by a superior court, the accused will have to be presumed guilty.

Even as it is, there are absolutely no uncertainties in the law on the subject and the SC’s latest observation puts to rest any doubts in the matter.

A final pronouncement by the two judges was: “If honest public servants are compelled to take orders from proclaimed corrupt officers on account of suspension of their conviction, it would shake the system itself.”

Every state has its quota of dishonest officers who are widely known to be corrupt but who enjoy political patronage. Such officers include Chief Secretaries and DGPs.

I know of one officer who was known to be corrupt to the core but was ironically posted to head the anti-corruption bureau. Nothing can be more ludicrous and demoralising to honest civil servants to abide by the orders of dishonest seniors, and this is what the SC had possibly in mind.

I know Uttar Pradesh is one such state where confirmed dishonesty is often ignored while postings are made to senior positions. Possibly this is true of many other states as well.

The difference is that in UP, a few years ago, a poll was conducted among IAS officers on rankings of known dishonest officials. Shockingly, those who figured high on the list rose to the number one slot in the hierarchy.

The message is that the more dishonest and pliable you are, there is a greater chance of your being able to rise to the seniormost position.

What are the implications of this situation for young officers about to begin their career? Utter cynicism over the expediency of remaining honest has turned many an honest young officer into a thoroughly corrupt bureaucrat.

When Sardar Patel conceived the IAS and the IPS in the early years of free India, he would not ever have believed that lack of integrity could become so irrelevant to public service.

Against this backdrop, it is not surprising that corruption has become a nearly hackneyed subject for discussion. Well-intentioned and strong-willed people with an impeccable reputation are not only becoming irrelevant and skeptical, but are also no longer willing to carry on with the struggle against corruption.

Nothing can be more dangerous than this to a democracy like ours. I am not surprised that a campaign of calumny is unleashed against the CBI whenever it nails some top politicians for their downright dishonesty in acquiring wealth which they cannot account for.

Political motives are attributed even when the agency produces evidence of a lack of cooperation in the investigation by an accused politician, who alone has the knowledge of intimate facts crucial to taking an investigation forward to its logical conclusion.

There cannot be an unhealthier situation when the country nurses ambition to capture a high place among the comity of nations.

It is not enough to have an honest Prime Minister. We need equally honest ministers and chief ministers, who will pledge themselves to fight the war against corruption in public life without any reservation.

The need of the hour is to raise a new generation of citizens, who will not grease the palms of government officials when the latter are approached for even what are lawful demands such as the issue of a birth certificate or a passport or sanction of an income-tax refund, all of which now require payment of illegal gratification.

Such a generation can come about only if at least some of us start now by refusing to pay bribes, whatever be the provocation.

The writer is a former CBI Director.

Wit of the week

Sitaram Yechury

A disinformation campaign on the issue of the inclusion of the Lok Sabha Speaker’s name on the CPM MPs’ list submitted to the President of India is doing the rounds. What I had said is that the Speaker’s name should be included in the CPM list as he was elected as a CPM candidate but with an asterisk denoting that currently he is the Lok Sabha Speaker, as is the normal parliamentary practice.

— CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury

If such a precedent were to be set (of the Speaker resigning because his party wants him to) every political dispute in Parliament and the state legislatures involving the ruling and the opposition benches would lead to resignations of presiding officers to help fulfil the agenda of the original party on whose ticket the presiding officer was elected to the legislature.

— Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan

We must make it clear that if Pakistan cannot or will not act, we will take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights.

— Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for the job of U.S. President

The Sonia-Manmohanomic party is neither Indian nor national: the Congress has formally become the brand name of a political business corporation

— V. R. Krishna Iyer

There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty. If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.

— South Africa’s former President Nelson Mandela

Renaming Lucknow’s Amausi airport as Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport will facilitate better take-offs and landings at the airport.

— Finance Minister P. Chidambaram

If sportspersons are shifting base to other countries, it’s just because they are not getting their due here. Instead of directing the authorities to find out what went wrong, Badal has expressed his helplessness.

— A Punjab Police sportsperson

OPED

Set for confrontation
One is strategically right, the other tactically superior
by Gautam Sen

Manmohan Singh Prakash Karat

In 1992 at the Luxemburg conference I had the opportunity to interact with Dr Menshikoff, as former Chairman of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, then in residence in western Europe after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. I asked him how and what catalysed the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

He was candid to accept the inability of the Soviet political leadership to distinguish between national interest and reforms within the political systems.

He went on to say that “I asked my colleagues as to why we are doing this to ourselves where we have everything in our favour. Why are we becoming so rigid to protect our ideology in a falsified manner when in reality we have to be accommodative to preserve our national interest, integrity and the status of a super power?”

The recent unfolding of the political “one-act play” witnessed in the last six months between the Congress and the Left generically, or more particularly between Dr Manmohan Singh and Prakash Karat, raises some pertinent questions for which this nation and its intelligentsia have to introspect deeply long after the trust vote in Parliament is cast.

There is no doubt that both the Congress and the Left allies are led by two men with an impeccable record of honesty and integrity. Each not only has a firm belief system in his head as well as heart but has also displayed a great tenacity to stick to his individual perceptions and world vision.

However, it is interesting to analyse the two personalities on their own merit. Dr Manmohan Singh is at heart a liberal with a strong academic background and is an intellectual in his own right.

His stint in the South-South Commission not only made him review his own convictions but also made him both an advocate and an implementer of reforms, which he himself had initiated when he served as the Finance Minister in the 1990s.

Thus he showed pragmatism to be flexible in a changing world scenario reeling under the impact of an emerging knowledge society based on information available transparently through the Internet to the common man.

He will be remembered more for the economic reforms in real terms than pursuing the Indo-US nuclear deal, which has been dubbed with the Western strategic label of national interest — something which the Left under Prakash Karat has opposed from day one.

Prakash Karat has no such academic or world-class image of being accepted amongst the rare class of intellectuals except being a JNU alumni. His impeccable honesty and integrity as a Marxist ideologue begins and ends there.

His marriage to an equally illustrious woman so confident about her self and her convictions makes his inner psyche robust enough to be an envy of all who are around him.

He is a true communist in the Marxist sense and will never compromise on the fundamental issues, which divide the proletariats from the capitalist class.

Therefore, despite being aware that the nuclear deal pales into a secondary position vis-a-vis the more fundamental issue related to inflation, unemployment and inequality, he has made the nuclear issue a rallying point because it has international visibility.

Therefore, what conclusion do we draw? In my assessment both are right and both are wrong. Dr Singh is strategically right and Prakash Karat has been tactically superior in bringing the strategic issue in the arena of voting power, which is often more emotional than pragmatic.

One can see how the inability of Dr Manmohan Singh and Prakash Karat to resolve their differences will remain a part of political history long after the outcome of the trust vote is cast in Parliament whether for or against the government.

Also the avoidance of confrontation would not have militated against the ideology of either of the two. Therefore, no one of the two is the winner. The only winners are those who are waiting to jump off the fence.

The writer is the Director General of the Indian Institute of Education, Pune. His e-mail address is: sgautam42@gmail.com

On Record
Panchayati raj has empowered women
by Vibha Sharma

Mani Shankar Aiyar

For Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, the political and social empowerment of women in panchayats is one of the most significant achievements of India in the past decade.

In an interview Aiyar talks about issues related to this empowerment of rural India and hurdles that continue to face it. Excerpts:

What is the realistic account of panchayati raj institutions in the country?

The single biggest achievement of the past 15 years is that panchayati raj in our country has been made irreversible and irrevocable.

The extent of this massive social revolution is reflected in the existence of nearly 2.5 lakh elected institutions at the village, block and district levels to which we have elected no less than 26 lakh members of whom 10 lakh are women.

Moreover, our recent study shows that SC and ST women are even greater beneficiaries of panchayati raj in terms of political and social empowerment than women from the so-called higher castes.

Reservations in general have enabled them to capture political power proportionate to their share of the population at each level of the panchayati raj.

The social engineering through a democratic process on a scale is without precedence in history and without parallel in the world. There are more elected women in our panchayats than the number of elected women in the rest of the world put together. This is a tribute not only to women of India but men who have accepted the transition of millions of rural women.

How effective are women in performing their duties? Many a time it is her husband or some other male family member who takes decisions on her behalf.

There are formidable problems to be overcome. However, after 5,000 years of being locked up and put in purdah it is ridiculous to imagine that either the presence or performance of women will immediately on a par with men.

Women in panchayats are catching up and the gap between men and women is narrowing. What is heartening is the younger the women, the more educated they are likely to be and, thereby, more effective in panchayats.

As the young make an overwhelming proportion of our population and as those below 40 are better represented, I think we only have to wait another couple of round of elections to find women on a par with men.

In Punjab and Haryana, the states notorious for female foeticide and having the background of repeated invasions in history, it is not surprising that participation of women is less effective than say Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand. This is because a large number of males in these hill states have for decades been leaving their wives behind in villages to look for jobs in plains that women have acquired the tradition of being more self-reliant.

So I think we should make allowances for cultural and traditional practices before rushing to conclusions.

Democratic decentralisation seems to be largely on paper.

PRIs have ensured political and social empowerment. The extent to which panchayati raj is bringing about administrative and economic empowerment depends upon space, depth and effectiveness of the devolution process.

In southern and western India as well as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh there has been a well-established process of devolution. The greater the devolution, the more effective is the performance of all representatives, including women.

But the progress of panchayati raj has been much slower in “jis desh mein Ganga behti hai aur jis desh mein Yamuna behti hai”. That is why the continued dominance of the bureaucracy and the continued impotence of panchayati raj is more evident in large parts of north India.

But over the past four years, in all states, including North and Northeast India, there has been so much progress in activity mapping, establishing district planning committees and preparing plans and generally understanding principles of panchayati raj that I am confident that within the next 10 years we would be able to point with pride at one of the best democratically elected systems in the world.

It is unfortunate while countries are approaching us for understanding this democratic and participatory system of governance, there is a complete lack of awareness in our country. Somehow the story of Indian panchayati raj seems to have hardly touched the urban middle class India.

Profile
Not a blind follower
by Harihar Swarup

Politics is a weird game and caught in its web this time is Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The question is whether he should give in to the diktat of the CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat and quit or hold on to his high constitutional post.

The moment he was unanimously elected the Speaker, he resigned from the party and became a non-party man.

Somnath Da, as he is popularly addressed, is, therefore, not bound by any directive of the Marxist party. He is rightly sore that his name was included, without consulting him, in the list of MPs who have withdrawn support to the UPA government.

Somnath Da does not want to be seen voting along with the BJP; he is also against the CPM siding with the BJP when the vote of confidence is put to vote in the Lok Sabha. If he is compelled to relinquish the Speaker’s office, he would also resign his Lok Sabha seat.

Somnath Babu has, as a matter of fact, never toed the party line blindly. In 1996 when a majority in the central committee committed the “historic blunder” by not allowing Jyoti Babu to become the Prime Minister, Somnath openly sympathised with the then West Bengal Chief Minister.

Upset by the party’s stand in not allowing Basu to become the PM, he refused to contest the 1998 election but finally relented at Basu’s insistence.

More recently, the Karat lobby denied him permission to be considered for the Vice President’s office because of his liberal attitude. Somnath Da is said to be close to Basu because of his liberal views.

Earlier, when the Basu government took a reform path to revive industry and attract investment, he proved to be a great asset.

Support is now pouring in for Somnath Da from various quarters. There is unanimity among top jurists, including Fali Narima, Soli Sorabjee, P.P. Rao and Rajeev Dhavn, who have advised Mr Chatterjee not to succumb to pressure of the Left and uphold the dignity of the high office he holds.

Former Law Minister and Rajya Sabha member, Ram Jethmalani, wrote a letter to Somnath Da, urging him not to step down.

“ It is almost like coercion asking the Speaker to quit”, said Nariman. “The sort of procedure adopted by the Left parties completely destroys the dignity of the Speaker’s office”.

“Why ask or force the Speaker to resign when he is not a nominee of any party?” Sorabjee pointed out.

Somnath Da also found support from his predecessors — Rabi Ray and P.A. Sangma — as both the former Speakers were of the view that the Speaker’s post should not be dragged into any political controversy.

“I fervently appeal to the leadership of the CPM to allow him to continue as the Speaker”, said Ray, who was the Speaker of the ninth Lok Sabha between 1989 and 1991.

His views were echoed by Sangma, who said Chatterjee “need not resign because the Speaker’s post is a non-partisan post and once you become the Speaker, you do not belong to any political party”.

Born in Tezpur to a conservative right-wing family, his father N C Chatterjee was a senior Hindu Mahasabha leader. Later, he left the Hindu Mahasabha to join Left politics and was elected to Parliament with the support of Communists.

Educated in Kolkata and called to the Bar in the UK , Chatterjee became a lawyer and a card-holding communist in 1968.

Entering Parliament for the first time in 1971, he served as an MP in almost all successive Lok Sabha terms, getting elected for the 10th time in 2004. In 1982, he lost his traditional Jadavpur seat to Mamata Banerjee. He then shifted his seat to Bolepur.