Below poverty line households are being extorted the most for basic services
Gandhi Jayanthi was “celebrated” with all appropriate noises. India’s National Portal put out a message reminding the people of Ahimsa, a doctrine for ushering in peace by dealing with injustice and disharmony. But the portal failed to inform the people of the powerful Tamil adage: Needhiintrel Amaidhiillai (Without Justice, no Peace) and that there is a serious disconnect in India between justice and governance.
Gandhi had seen it through and therefore cautioned: “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today.” Six decades later these two venalities have become not only inevitable but integral part of democracy and governance from top to bottom!
At the top, the typical example is the US-India Deal, hyped and celebrated with messages “Singh is King”. Uncle Sam did not dupe India as suggested by Ambassador Niranjan Desai. (See gfiles October issue) To be fair to the Americans, they have been speaking the truth. President Bush put it down in writing to the US Congress that fuel-supply rights were only political commitments and not legally binding. Condoleezza Rice warned of serious consequences and automatic cut-off should New Delhi ever feel the need to test again. American Ambassador admitted that US firms may not be able to supply critical equipment because law and guidelines of US regulatory commission prohibit this.
Even Ashley Tellis, the Indian-American strategist and the prime mover of the 123 Agreement has stated that it is the “US domestic laws that would define the boundaries of the N-Deal” i.e. the Hyde Act with its fuel-killer provisions that could make India “nuke impotent” instead of ending its “nuclear apartheid”.
It is India’s politico-diplomatic-media coterie that has deceived and duped Indians. Their spin of India getting on to the nuclear high-table and achieving “energy security” is just so much hogwash. As a feeble straw to sustain this falsehood ruling establishment is clinging on to the toothless “signing statement” of the outgoing US President that the legislation “does not change the fuel assurance commitments made to India in the 123 agreement.”
Core motive for the “Deal” is windfall business. On its signing, Ron Somers, president of the US-India Business Council said: “We are looking at $ 150 billion of business in the nuclear industry alone”. This colossal amount, going out of India’s public and private coffers, would merely cater to 6-7 percent of country’s energy needs in thirty years.
Suggesting that this would “light up India’s huts” and provide energy security is the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
Corruption of the Deal is reflected in India (rank 85) sinking lower than China (rank 72) on a corruption scale devised by Transparency International, compared to last year, when the two countries were on a par. Corruption Perception Index-2008 puts India’s integrity score at 3.4 as against 3.6 of China.
Admiral Tahiliani, the Country Chairman of TI is of the view that “bundles of currency notes displayed in Parliament during the confidence vote debate (to secure the deal) in July could have influenced such an assessment”.
If this is at the top, how could things be different at the bottom where the governance mechanism has become blatantly extortionist? Recently published TII and Centre for Media Studies report says that one third of people living below poverty line paid bribes to access healthcare, education and water among other basic facilities. It dubs the police force as the most corrupt among the services surveyed.
In 2007 one-third of BPL households paid Rs. 9,000 million as bribe for availing one or more of the 11 public services covered in the survey.(blow up-editor) The services include Public Distribution System, Hospital Service, School Education, electricity and water supply. Need-based services included land records and registration, forest, housing, banking and police service.
Of the 5.6 million BPL households that interacted with the police in 2007, a whopping 2.5 million paid Rs. 2,150 million as bribe for some work or the other and most of them went to the police station for simple registration of a complaint, it said. Land records and registration services comes second in terms of monetary extortion as nearly 3.5 million BPL households paid Rs. 1,224 million in bribes.
Even the government’s flagship NREGA Scheme has not been spared. Over 9 lakh BPL families had to pay bribes to the tune of Rs. 71.5 million to avail the benefits of the scheme. Half of the BPL families had to pay bribe for getting them registered for work. About 14 per cent of the poor either paid bribe or used a “contact” to get the benefits of NREGA. This, despite the much trumpeted “social audits”
UNDP estimates that corruption robs India a quarter of its GDP growth!
Such extortion and corruption, severely impacting justice, dignity and lives of the poor and the paupers of native Bharat, is taking place under the direct watch of IAS and IPS officials. Instead of rooting out such venality in governance, these worthies are seeking to corner all perks and cavort with the rich and wealthy of globalized India. This indeed is real-time hypocrisy.
The deadly concoction of corruption and hypocrisy is a negation of all that the Mahatma stood for.
IAS (retd) with a distinguished career of 40 years - worked in Army, Govt, Private, Politics & NGOs.
