Time to fight back corruption

Time to fight back corruption

by RAJIV KUMAR,Director General, FICCI

It is important that all major constituents and stakeholders in every sector pay greater attention to self-regulation and to weeding out the rotten apples from within their midst.


Transparency, accountabilityand probity in governance are vital to preserve India's robust image and keep its growth story intact.

Corruption, that has been corroding our system over the decades, now threatens to derail the India growth story. It has perhaps already become systemic; according to the pessimists, the rot is so deep and widespread that it is beyond repair. Such pessimism, I think is both undesirable and unwarranted.

While the rot is undoubtedly extensive and seriously damaging to Brand India, it can still be reversed and the system saved from its pernicious impact.

To appreciate this, we must recognise that we are today free from the earlier forms of petty corruption that characterised nearly all aspects of our daily lives. We do not have to pay bribes for securing an industrial licence, phone or gas connections or to get a railway ticket.

These are but a few examples to highlight that liberalisation, combined with rapid growth, has eliminated many varieties of corruption and rent-seeking that were due to widespread supply shortages and policy-introduced rigidities.

While industry and the middle-classes clearly suffer far less now from corrupt practices than in the pre-reform period, the poor continue to suffer as a result of extensive misgovernance that characterises the delivery of public goods and services in nearly all parts of our country.

Onus on governments

The onus for this corruption is clearly on the State and Central governments. This needs to be tackled urgently as misgovernance is arguably the most important cause for the worsening internal security situation. But the main sources of corruption today relate to either the allocation of scarce natural resources, such as land, spectrum and minerals or to large-scale government construction or procurement contracts. In all these cases, the government at various levels, especially the higher echelons of public authorities, and not the petty official, are involved and implicated.

On the other side of these transactions are either a new breed of fortune-seekers or the larger corporations and not the small and medium-sized entrepreneurs who, instead, have to deal with fending off the inspectors who harass them to ostensibly enforce the non-enforceable statutory provisions.

A new form of crony capitalism can be observed in the various scams that unfolded over the latter part of 2010, in which the new class of entrepreneurs build a strong nexus with corrupt politicians and succeed with the active connivance of some bureaucrats.

The question must be whether there can be a push-back against such a nexus and crony capitalism in a situation where all major constituents of our social fabric seem to be tainted.

The media, judiciary (including its highest-ranking members), civil society organisations, the formations to whom we look for fighting against entrenched vested interests and corruption are sadly themselves often implicated.

This allows the unscrupulous to brazenly argue that no one has the moral authority or right to hold anyone else to account.

Not a banana republic

One is tired of hearing the worn out cliché about everybody being naked in the bathhouse. It is indeed distressing and shameful that this hollow argument is now routinely bandied about to justify one's own indefensible acts of audacious corruption. Let's hope we are not yet a society or banana republic which has come to accept corruption as normal, let alone glorify it.

It is therefore important that all major constituents or stakeholders in the country pay greater attention to self-regulation and to weeding out the rotten apples from within their midst. In this context the initiative taken by the IAS association in UP several years ago to identify the most corrupt within them is indeed commendable and is a step in the right direction. It is a pity that the initiative seems to have withered away. It is important that such laudable initiatives are mainstreamed and receive institutional support and encouragement.

There is an attempt now to shift the entire blame for corruption on to Indian industry and there is growing talk in the public domain of the ethical deficit in the Indian corporate sector. India Inc cannot, of course, deny that a few of its members are a party to corrupt transactions. But it must be remembered that for every bribe-giver, there is a receiver too.

However, there is some basis for optimism on this count. FICCI, the oldest industry association in the country, recently released a resolution which, among other things, states that: “Given FICCI's roots in nationalism, we are deeply concerned about the potential damage to Brand India and the India story due to brazen acts of corruption by a select few. To preserve India's robust image and keep the growth story intact, FICCI calls for transparency, accountability and probity in our system of governance. We urgently need rules and regulations that do not allow rent-seeking.

Therefore, FICCI believes that anybody found indulging in corrupt practices, either as payee or recipient, must be punished summarily in a fast-tracked process.”

Let us hope that other industry associations will follow this lead and also establish some self regulatory mechanisms like an ethics committee that will lay down some norms for their members and ensure their compliance. This will give India Inc the high ground from which it can demand higher standards of probity and accountability from the political and bureaucratic establishment and other social formations.
(The author is Director-General, FICCI. The views are personal.)