HVK Archives: Re: Basu calls for moratorium on corruption
Re: Basu calls for moratorium on corruption - The Times of India
L K Sharma
()
29 September 1996
Title : Basu calls for moratorium on corruption
Author : L K Sharma
Publication : The Times of India
Date : September 29, 1996
Jyoti Basu, West Bengal chief minister and United Front
leader, said the corruption cases against Narasimha Rao
and Sukh Ram would have no impact on the stability of the
United Front government.
For ever, a pragmatic communist, Mr. Basu called for a
five-year moratorium on corruption in India and cautioned
against the judiciary usurping the functions of the
executive.
At another meeting, P. Chidambaram, finance minister,
seeking to present an attractive face of India to foreign
investors, used the corruption issue to his advantage
when he pointed out that the United Front government had
"allowed the law to take its course and not interfered
into any inquiry."
Mr. Basu said the cases involving Mr. Narasimha Rao or
Mr. Sukh Ram would have no political impact on the Con-
gress support for the United Front government since the
new Congress president realised the importance of the
stability of the present government. No one wanted
another election in the near future, he said.
On the possibility of the Congress now joining the United
Front government, he said his party was opposed to it.
The Congress must change its policies and also start
fighting communal forces, he said.
M. Basu whose understanding of the human nature has
turned out to be better than that of Karl Marx, did not
call for the eradication of corruption but only for a
moratorium. In reply to a question, he also said that
Mr. V.P. Singh, himself when he was the prime minister,
did not want Mr. Narasimha Rao to be held responsible for
the St Kitts affair, since Mr Rao had only allowed him-
self to he involved at some one else's bidding.
Mr Basu regretted that during a visit to a foreign coun-
try, he had to say that corruption had become a way of
life in India. Mr. Basu could have hardly avoided the
subject which now figures in most NRI gatherings. Mr
Sukh Ram, former communications minister, who kept the
London dateline alive in news columns for several days,
has gone but he is still being remembered even in the
conferences of investors.
The other day, a participant speaking on behalf of medi-
um-sized companies said while multinationals could in-
fluence the bureaucracy in India, entrepreneurs like him
were unable to do so. Another participant no!& that the
judiciary in India had "acquired teeth".
Addressing the foreign press association, Mr Basu said if
the judiciary started taking over the functions of the
executive, it would be injurious to parliamentary democ-
racy. The supreme court, it appeared, was taking over
the administration. But then this had happened in the
wake of the executive not doing its job and the political
parties failing to cheek corruption. It is the political
parties who were responsible for the present outbreak of
corruption on such a large scale.
There had been frequent complaints about corruption in
the judiciary also and he himself had brought it to the
notice of the leaders in that field, Mr Basu told this
correspondent.
"Let us decide that for five years no bribe would be
taken for allowing any industrial unit to be set up", he
said. When asked why he could not mobilise support in
all political parties for a combined effort to eradicate
political corruption, Mr Basu said he did not have enough
"political clout". Other countries were corrupt too but
they were rich and they could absorb the shock of corrup-
tion. India was in a different category.
Something needed to he done to check corruption in India
and state funding of political parties' election cam-
paigns was one suggestion which must be explored.
Mr Basu was repeatedly asked how the communists in India
had escaped the stigma of being corrupt. He said his
party was also paying the income tax which it was re-
quired to pay.
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