The spontaneous resignation of Ms
Uma Bharati in response to a non-bailable arrest warrant issued by a lower
court at Hubli has expectedly revived the issue of tainted ministers in
the Union Cabinet. Rather than brushing aside the resignation episode as
a strategic move of the BJP to gain political mileage, the nation should
ponder whether it is time to identify the corrupt gene in the DNA of our
body polity and go for its mutation, as the country has suffered long enough,
since Independence.
Identification of the corrupt presupposes
its distinctive identity as the one that not only eats into the vitality
of the nation retarding its growth, but also as one that is responsible
for institutionalising it. The word 'taint' according to Webster's Comprehensive
Dictionary means "to render morally corrupt or vitiated; contaminate; pollute."
With reasonable common sense, one can distinguish the case of Ms Bharati
from those of the tainted ministers accused of corruption, murder, arson,
riots, etc.
The only allegation against Ms Bharati was that she led a rally at the Idgah Maidan in Hubli, Karnataka, and hoisted the national flag in August 1994 defying the court order banning any assembly there. It was nobody's case that such defiance, though actionable, was an instance of corruption devitalising the nation. As a matter of fact, veteran communist leaders, including comrade Jyoti Basu, had often flouted the Section 144 order banning assembly and courted arrest during previous Congress regimes in West Bengal, but none would call them tainted for the same. Now compare this with the allegations against some of the Central Ministers, notably Mr Shibu Soren, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mohammad Taslimuddin, MAA Fatmi, Jayprakash Narayan Yadav and Prem Chandra Gupta.
Mr Soren, a former UPA Minister now in custody, was accused of massacre, communal riot, arson, etc., for which he was charge-sheeted. When a non-bailable warrant was issued against him, he was deliberately absconding and evading arrest. He, unlike Ms Bharati, did not tender his resignation voluntarily, but resigned when directed by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, whose personal integrity is unquestionable. Except for the non-bailable arrest warrant on account of non-appearance against summons, there was nothing in common between Ms Bharati's and Mr Soren's cases.
Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is an accused in the multi-crore fodder scam for which he was arrested and jailed. The trial is still not over and Mr Yadav is yet to be acquitted. Therefore, his induction in the Cabinet defies both logic and ethics. The other Central Ministers viz Taslimuddin, sacked by the Deve Gowda Government for his criminal background, and MAA Fatmi are both accused of murder, kidnapping, etc., while Jayprakash Narayan Yadav and Prem Chandra Gupta are accused of being involved in scams and corruption cases. It goes without saying that none of those cases can compared to that of Ms Bharati's.
Kautilya in his Arthashastra spoke of 40 types of corruption affecting the public. Understandably, he recommended stringent punishment for corruption, including death. And following his prescription, corruption was contained during his time to a large extent as the corrupt, however big and mighty, were never spared. Now contrast this with our lenient and clement approach to corrupt politicians, themselves unsparing to both the public and the State coffer and yet winning election after election, allegedly through corrupt means. This unusual tolerance to political corruption was ingrained in our gene from the time of Independence. It is time for all intellectuals to think of a solution, systemic if not radical, to ensure that 85 per cent of the funds expended by the Government for public welfare reaches the public and are not eaten up by "bandicoots" midway, which Rajiv Gandhi discovered to his dismay but could do precious little.
It is fallacious to treat all offences on par, and some intellectuals knowingly indulge in such over-simplification to hide their personal bias. Just as pick- pocketing cannot be equated with murder and political rally in violation of Section 144 order cannot be equated with embezzlement of public funds, no offence, however grave, can be equated with political corruption, not even the murder committed by a Dhananjoy Chatterjee. For, the agony caused by a gruesome murder is restricted to the family and friends of the deceased while institutionalised corruption spreads like a cancer and maims the general public and consequently the nation.
Let us now consider the ills of corruption in the Indian context. First, in a developing economy, economic growth is largely dependent on the character and dedication of political leaders and bureaucrats, the lack of which affects proper implementation of well-conceived plans and fails to elevate the status of the poor. Second, if remedial action is not immediately taken, corruption tends to proliferate and gets institutionalised under the patronage of political leaders who may themselves be corrupt or else may capitulate under the compulsion of realpolitik, throwing to wind all moral considerations for the sake of power. Third, money power slowly replaces morality, scruples and principles in society causing degeneration of the nation.
Fourth, it has affected electoral processes so badly that the electorate is often left with the choice between the proverbial devil and the deep sea because honest citizens of modest means cannot afford to contest. Fifth, the lack of collective determination to combat corruption has created cynicism in the public rendering them either fatalist or abjectly tolerant, a sure sign of decay.
Even the worst critic of the Vajpayee
Government cannot accuse the former premier of compromising with political
corruption at any level. Will Dr Manmohan Singh, who brought radical departure
in Nehruvian economic policy in the '90s, together with Ms Sonia Gandhi,
the tenacious Congress president, show similar guts in dropping all the
tainted ministers from the Union Cabinet, subordinating political consideration
to national interest? If not, nothing short of a DNA transplant may be
required to create a strong and vibrant India of the vision of Swami Vivekananda.