 |
||
|
||
|
||
In the last few months, Maharashtra saw an upsurge in the public outcry against
corruption. Mr. Anna Hazare, social worker engaged in village uplift, took a new
avatar to wage a relentless war against the growing, all-pervading evil in
government and society at large. A person of Gandhian ideology, of impeccable and
sterling character and Of Simple living, he fired the imagination of the people.
His small physical build and resemblance to Lal Bahadur Shastri was also partly
responsible for his mass appeal. For a while, people believed that he was a
messiah who could rid society of corruption. His public meetings evoked a
spontaneous response. People vied with one another to give monetary
contributions- Many came forward to offer their unstinted support and services to
his campaign. But the movement is clearly petering out. Mr. Hazare's name has
gone out of the front pages of Marathi and national newspapers and periodicals.
His credibility itself has come into question. Worse, there is a widespread
feeling of despondence that the war against corruption cannot be won.
To begin with, it has to be admitted that eyebrows were raised when Mr. Hazare
took up the issue of corruption, particularly at the political level, in a big way
only after the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition came to power, since the preceding Congress
regime had not acquitted itself particularly gloriously. It had too many
skeletons in the cupboard. Why did Mr. Hazare not raise his voice at that time,
was the common refrain heard from even well-meaning persons. In fact, Mr. Hazare
accepting chairmanship of committees on rural development, with a large corpus of
state funds, set up by the Sharad Pawar Government, along with perquisites such as
a car, a residential flat and an office in Pune, was seen as an indicator of his
closeness to the previous regime.
Mr. Hazare's credibility came under further scrutiny when he initially went too
close to the Shiv Sena-BJP regime and was seen hobnobbing with the ruling elite.
This impression was further strengthened when he publicly gave testimonials to the
Shiv Sena chief, Mr. Bal Thackeray, the Chief Minister, Mr. Manohar Joshi, and
some other Ministers vouching for their integrity, honesty and good governance.
Later, he went on fast as his suggestions for taking action against some allegedly
corrupt officers were not acted upon promptly by the Government. During the
hunger-strike, he made contradictory statements and finally gave up the fast on
the basis of certain assurances given by the Government. This gave rise to
criticism against Mr. Hazare and an impression was perpetuated that he had sold
his soul to the ruling party once again. Some even called him a sarkari sant
following the example set by Vinoba Bhave during the Emergency. This obviously
stung Mr. Hazare and he decided to take a tough posture against the Government.
Once the campaign was launched, all political parties and those leaders who were
in the wilderness, either socially or politically, or who wanted to further their
own prospects, decided to join his bandwagon. The Congress(I) was not to be left
far behind. This naturally made the ruling coalition raise its defences. It
launched a propaganda offensive to show that the whole campaign was politically
motivated. Mr. Hazare quickly announced that his campaign was non-political and
that no party Or its active workers would be permitted to join in. Even then the
problem of some others with political ambitions remained and this partly detracted
from the merits of the movement as being totally objective.
The campaign was always far too Hazare-centric. As if his word was the command
and every utterance. the last word. This was in no small measure due to Mr.
Hazare's own announcements from time to time. Thus, at one stage, he insisted
that committees, to be appointed at the tehsil, district and other levels to
oversee the working of the government agencies, consist only of his nominees. He
further insisted on such committees having executive responsibility to decide on
tenders, award of contracts and so on. This was objected to even by some of those
who were sympathetic to the campaign. Mr. Sharad Joshi. leader of the farmers'
association. publicly announced that he would launch a stir if this demand was
conceded. Mr. Hazare then announced that he would have nothing to do with the
Government and would take the issue to the people. No one was clear about what he
meant. At the same time, he continued to press the Government to inquire into the
allegations against hundreds of officers which he had forwarded to the
Government.
Earlier, during the Pawar regime, Mr. Hazare went on fast pressing for the
suspension and prosecution of some allegedly corrupt officers. With the threat of
Mr. Hazare going on a hunger-strike, the Government suspended some officers and
started inquires against some others. Later, it was found that some of the
officers were innocent and they had to undergo humiliation and mental torture.
This led to widespread demoralisation and resentment among government servants.
Mr. Hazare continued to be oblivious to this and kept sending complaints against
individual government servants to the Chief Minister. This was followed up later
with complaints against some Ministers, including the Deputy Chief Minister. Some
of these complaints were found to be either untrue or not warranting any action.
A general impression gained ground that he was forwarding complaints to the
government without applying his mind and had become a tool in the hands of those
who wanted to exploit his name and image.
This came sharply into focus in respect of Mr. Hazare's allegations against two
Ministers, Mr. Sarvashri Shivankar and Mr. Sutar. Even in this case, Mr. Hazare
insisted that the persons to be appointed to inquire into the complaints be his
personal nominees. No government, of whichever party, can agree to such a
stipulation. Matters were not helped one bit when a one-man committee constituted
by a retired judge of the Bombay High Court, appointed to inquire into the
allegations, gave a testimonial to the Government of its seriousness in weeding
out corruption. This created a controversy about his impartiality. Even before
the report of the committee came out, Mr. Hazare announced that its findings would
not be acceptable to him if the two Ministers were given a clean chit!
The Government never looked at the issue of corruption with any seriousness or as
of any consequence to the long-term interests of the State. Its effort initially
was to placate and humour Mr. Hazare and to bide time. It seriously hoped that
the issue would go away. When this did not happen, it took the classic stance of
stonewalling the controversy. When even this ruse failed, it took recourse to the
usual tactics of appointing an inquiry committee without any legal backing under
the Commission of Inquiry Act. After the report of the committee was received and
when prima facie it was established that there was substance in the allegations
against one of the two Ministers, the government appointed a commission of
inquiry, under the Act, under the chairmanship of another retired High Court
judge. And now a vicious campaign has been launched by the Shiv Sena to denigrate
Mr. Hazare and to question his personal integrity and character. A few months
ago, the Chief Minister announced that a white paper on corruption in government
would be published before the end of 1996. The paper has not seen the light of
the day. Who will say the Shiv Sena and the BJP are a novice in the game of
running the government? They can teach a thing or two even to the Congress, which
has been adept at this game for the last 50 years.
The main Opposition party in the Legislature never made any serious effort to
expose the corruption in the government except making some appropriate noises from
time to time and adopting a holier-than-thou stance. This was mainly because of
the fear that, pressed too hard, the government might retaliate, ordering
inquiries into the misdeeds of the previous Government.
Finally, all issues pertaining to the institutional, policy and procedural changes
in governance which could have made a long-term impact on the problem of
corruption never figured in this whole aborted campaign. How to make the
government more transparent and accountable, how to reduce delays in decisions,
how to reduce the points of unnecessary contacts between government functionaries
and the people and how to simplify procedures and reduce paperwork are matters
warranting serious attention if the campaign against corruption is to be put on a
permanent and firm-footing. It should not be difficult to make a list of 20
areas, for example, in respect of each department, municipality or a zilla
parishad where specific result-oriented action can be initiated. Such a step
would not have earned screaming and bold headlines in the newspapers or received
the ephemeral publicity for the persons leading the campaign. But it could have
started the battle-tanks rolling. Mr. Hazare can claim credit for having made a
Minister resign by this campaign. But winning a battle should not be equated with
winning a war. The real battle against corruption is yet to be joined in.
(The writer is a former Union Home Secretary.)
|
||
|
||
|
||