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Institutional Corruption In India.
http://www.southasiamail.com/blog/?p=63
Posted on September 6, 2009 |
By JN Jayashree
In the context of the recent statement of the Prime
Minister, Manmohan Singh, the following will be read
with interest.
The life of a whistleblower in India is a dangerous
one. In 2003 the country was stunned by the murder of
a government engineer who exposed corruption in the
national highway building programme; two years later a
manager at a state-owned oil company was shot after he
informed on a scheme to sell impure gasoline. JN
Jayashree, the blogger, is married to a bureaucrat who
has spent his career protesting against bribery and
swindling in government practices. When she started to
fear for her husband’s safety, she decided to start up
a blog to protect him and document their
anti-corruption movement.
I live in Bangalore, the capital of the southern state
of Karnataka, ranked recently as the fourth most
corrupt state in India by Transparency International.
My husband, MN Vijayakumar, has been an officer in the
Karnataka cadre of the Indian Administrative Service
for 26 years. He has been trying to fight corruption
in the government throughout his whole career, with
some success. However, for the past two and a half
years his reports have been completely ignored, while
corruption has increased.
My husband has been transferred several times – once
even to a defunct company – with no reasons given.
Last year he tried to introduce a revolutionary system
that would have allowed public inspection of
government files under the Right to Information Act
(an act similar to the British Freedom of Information
Act, which gives the public the right to seek
information from public authorities). Two days before
the system was launched, he was transferred again.
He filed a complaint against the chief secretary – the
top civil servant in the government – before the Lok
Ayukta (an anti-corruption watchdog body), and since
then we have received several threats. One night
someone came to our house and told us that our son
(who studies at university) was sick, and that we
needed to go with him immediately. He had no way of
knowing that our son was actually asleep in our house.
Recently, a stranger came up to me and told me to stop
my crusade, and threatened to hurt my family. We have
filed several police complaints, but they have been
ignored.
I started writing a blog. I didn’t want my husband to
end up like Shanmugam Manjunath or Satyendranath Dubey
(the two men who were found murdered after exposing
government corruption). Most whistleblowers don’t tell
anyone what they are doing until it is too late. I
thought that the public should know how my husband was
being treated. Corruption has always been a problem,
but bureaucrats are now hand-in-glove with politicians
and are promoting it, not preventing it. Even if they
don’t actually take bribes themselves, they turn a
blind eye to those who do.
Currently there is no protection for people who inform
on the government. After the murder of Manjunath in
2005, the central government asked the state
governments to set up committees to protect
whistleblowers, but the Karnataka government has yet
to set up a committee.
My husband and I have filed about 35 applications
under the Right to Information Act (RTI), asking for
information on everything from the government’s
transfer policy to their measures to deal with
corruption and protect informers. It is a slow
process, but we have started to receive some
information. Everything that I do is made public on my
blog, and anyone who wants to make a difference is
welcome to help. I also guide people who want to file
applications under the RTI.
We are trying to build public pressure to get the
state governor to take action. We have not yet had
support from the government, but there has been a lot
from the public: we have well-wishers from all over
the world, some as far away as the US and the UK.
There are plenty of honest people in government who
support us secretly, but they are afraid to speak out;
some tell us that they will help us when they retire.
What my husband and I are trying to do is identify
officers in the government who can help people to get
things done without taking bribes. In Belgaum, the
district in Karnataka where we are currently posted,
my husband set up an anti-corruption movement called
Pragati Belgaum. He plans to compile a list of honest
government officers in the area. There are honest
people out there, but nobody knows who they are.
Several officers have now pledged in writing that they
will no longer accept bribes. On Anti-Corruption Day
we presented a memorandum to the state governor
demanding measures to check corruption, such as
including vigilance officers in every department, and
giving more powers to the Lok Ayukta. There is already
a public services bill, which provides some protection
for whistleblowers, but it has still not been made a
law by parliament. We are lobbying to turn it into a
law.
My husband and I consulted our college-going children
before we began our movement, because we knew we would
be threatened and face financial difficulties. One of
the chief secretaries asked us: “Do you know what you
are doing? I don’t have to tell you that the people
you are fighting against are so powerful that they
will decimate you.” But we went into this with our
eyes open, aware of the risks.
My long-term goal is to change people’s mindset. We
hope to form a network of committed individuals who
will combat the network of corruption. The RTI is the
main tool we have in our fight: information is power.
We can’t expect overnight changes, but I believe that
if we are not part of the solution, we are part of the
problem.
So many Indian people have come to accept corruption
as a way of life; they are ready to pay a bribe to get
their work done – or done faster. We plan to start
anti-corruption education programmes in schools and
colleges to educate the young. The new generation
needs to say no to corruption. |
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Has the
Non Resident Indian fallen from grace?
http://www.southasiamail.com/blog/?p=62
By Swapan Dasgupta
The average NRI’s fall from grace in India has been
precipitate. The vacuous condescension that marked
earlier attitudes has been replaced by desperation to
find some accommodation somewhere. The big NRI players
have no problem — they have seen their social worth in
the West keep pace with India’s soaring reputation as
a rising power. But the small fish whose tie and a
twang once enabled him to lord over his less fortunate
brethren in India has seen envy replaced with
disinterest.
To the NRI confronted with a precarious descent into
obscurity, there is only a small solace: interventions
on the net. Taking advantage of a more connected
world, the professional NRI (who knows no other
identity) has stepped up his battles to cast India in
his own confused image. No Indian website is free from
the voluminous but pernicious comments of the
know-all, ultra-nationalist NRI banging away on the
computer in splendid isolation. From being India’s
would-be benefactors, the meddlesome NRI has become an
intellectual nuisance, derailing civil discourse with
his paranoia and pseudo-superiority. It’s time he was
royally ignored.
Since so many readers of SAJA (South Asian Journalists
Association) forum are NRIs or former NRIs, it would
be interesting to hear your response to his piece. You
can read the full item and post your comments at
http://www.sajaforum.org/2009/08/opinion-swapan-dasgupta-on-nris.html |
