Swacchh Bharat - cleaning up corruption

The tremendous stress that the new government is laying on nation building is bound to give results but it would take its time. Nation building demands the toil of generations and definitely does not come cheap. The future, perhaps for the first time indeed looks bright.

One of the fundamental issues that needs to be addressed is the deep-rooted corruption, corruption that has engulfed the entire grassroots to the extent that there is hardly any interaction of the common man with the tantra that is not laced with graft. The common man yes, for the powerful are beyond its grip and the wealthy find a way around it.

Yet not many complain as long as the work is done, for unfortunately corruption has started getting regarded as an inescapable part of the cutting-edge processes.

In my over four decades of working within the system, I never witnessed a serious and concerted drive by my superiors to eradicate this evil from the various organizations. Unfortunate still was the reluctance to even bring this issue on the table and the effort merely remained confined to a review of the working of the assorted vigilance setups without appreciating that it is more of a cultural issue.

The real ease of doing business would indeed come, even for the common man when he does his business with the government at various levels, only when the cutting-edge functions are not laced with graft. For us bureaucrats especially, remaining confined to our comfort zone is the most ideal scenario. Why accept the ills of the system and why try to set it right when our life passes on peacefully handling issues that sound more impressive.

The irony remains that those of us who can change the system remain unaffected by it, and therefore have no stake in the change.

The solution lies in first acceptance of the problem, placing it bang on the table and then going about process reforms with a zeal previously unheard of. Yes, the solution lies in simplification of the various processes that define governance, empowerment of the executive to enable fixing direct responsibility and accountability and having a system of swift redressal of the issues as well as that of exemplary punishment to the delinquent.

The complexity of the tantra is the issue. The plethora of thumb impressions that every decision necessitates ensure that no single bloke can ever be held directly responsible. Such a system only emboldens the inspectors, the keepers of the cutting-edge who demand compensation from the client for every act for which they are getting a salary from the government too.

It is the same for everyone, except the high and the mighty. Whether one is an individual or a corporate, every single interaction with the Sarkar, especially at the cutting-edge level is generally a deal where nothing happens without a consideration.

We have to pause and think. Is it not necessary to go in for reforms – cultural, procedural and structural so that working becomes simpler, graft reduces and delivery multiplies?

Whenever I interact with my friends who are from the corporate world or who are plain simple citizens of the nation, the harsh reality comes out tumbling fast. And my friends on this side of the fence who indulge in governance generally feign ignorance or express helplessness.

We cannot have the mission areas – ease of governance and make in India, compromised by officials embroiled in corruption at the cutting-edge level. Cleansing the muck of decades is definitely not an easy task, yet a task that has to be handled.

One hopes and prays that the massive expectations are not belied.

The anatomy of corruption

The recent case of harassment of a director level officer by an officer of secretary level simply because the junior played the role of a custodian of government property to the hilt, indicates the level to which ethics in public life have nose-dived. Yet the essential difference that I have witnessed in this case as compared to scenarios two or maybe three decades earlier is in the highly elevated level of brazenness of the corrupt. “Chori and Seenajori” has indeed become the order of the day. It is also true that there has been a sharp decline in the morals and ethics of the society at large leading to a scenario where the service of the government has degenerated to service of the self. Any young entrant to services would easily testify to this ground reality.

The last ten years have set new milestones in the national race for amassing ill-gotten wealth and the servants of the governments have been generally leading the race. The veracity of this statement can be checked by interacting with any sector of the sarkar, strictly as a common citizen. Invariably every single of such interactions is laced with graft.

Yet the new dispensation at the centre gives hope. But it warrants critical appreciation that raising ethical levels of over a billion citizens would be far more complex and difficult than merely injecting a stiff dose of integrity amongst the few million of those who misgovern, often for personal gains. Beginning with the tantra therefore seems the most sensible and logical course to follow.

Total absence of a nationalistic fervour has been the hallmark of the indian society, except for the period when independence from the british was being actively sought. This has led to a scenario where personal good has assumed overriding priority over the general good without realizing the pitfalls of such a thought process.

And within the Sarkar, the inability of individuals at large to be able to make a meaningful difference leads to scant self-respect and therefore the spate of efforts at other means of self-gratification that merely give material comfort. And the failure to realize that a material high is far lower than a spiritual high is not exactly a direct fault of such individuals. Perhaps over the years our efforts at nation building have fallen far short of the requirements and therefore the distortions in the social mind set.

The complexity of the tantra that acts as a convenient shroud for the corrupt enabling him to almost never getting caught is also at fault. Yet the recent indictment and jail of senior politicians for abetment of corrupt practices gives hope that perhaps we are moving in the right direction.

Our inability to differentiate between what is ours and what is not is indeed sad and this is at the root cause of incidences akin to what resulted in the recent harassment. Our rank inability whether mistaken or on purpose to play the role of custodians and also our penchant to regard the service of the self, much above that of the nation provides the foundation for such actions.

Yet one single individual can change the direction or the fortunes of the nation and all its citizens. That is what leadership is all about and perhaps we are witnessing that rare moment in the history of the nation when that single individual has arrived on the national scene.

In god and providence we trust and in our hearts a burning desire to see a really clean nation.