Corruption in Indian States: An Accepted Practice and A Way of Life

 

‘The Maharashtra state home department is likely to set aside the reinstatement of the police inspector Anand Bhoir following a Times of India Report,’ claimed the leading news paper of Mumbai on 15 July, 2021.

Police inspector, Anand Bhoir was reinstated despite having been caught by the Anti Corruption Bureau for accepting a bribe of Rs. 22 lakh in 2019. He was dismissed from service by the then Police Commissioner in 2019, who was reinstated by the MoS, home.

Sachin Vaze, the tainted Mumbai cop was earlier suspended, was reinstated after 16 years. Vaze was not only reinstated in 2020, but was also given important cases to probe by the government of Maharashtra. He wielded a lot of power in the police force because of the blessings of the political leadership. Sachin Vaze alleged that the former home minister of Maharashtra, Anil Deshmukh, forced him to extort Rs. 100 crore every month from Mumbai bars and restaurants.

For 2020, Transparency International Corruption Index has ranked India at 86 th position among 180 countries. This ranking is based on the perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people.  

Transparency International India, a leading non-political, independent, nongovernmental anti-corruption organisation of India, sponsored a survey, which was conducted across 20 states of the country to ascertain the level of domestic corruption in the country. The survey called ‘India Corruption Survey 2019 has listed 6 most corrupt states. These are the states where most citizens had to pay bribes to get various works done over the year.

     The list given below is in the order of prevalence of corruption:

1.      Rajasthan

2.      Bihar

3.      Shared by Jharkhand  and Uttar Pradesh

4.      Telangana

5.      Shared by Karnataka and Punjab

6.      Tamil Nadu

Maharashtra has reported the highest number of corruption cases against public servants for three years in a row, from 2017 to 2019. According to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 891 graft cases were reported in Maharashtra in 2019; Rajasthan came a distant second with 424 cases. The conviction rate in Maharashtra, has been a merely 15% in both 2018 and 2019.
      But, surprisingly the name of Maharashtra does not appear in the survey outcome of the India Corruption Survey 2019. Times of India , Mumbai edition, on 15 July, 2021 reported that, ‘There are 204 officers in the state government, who have been trapped by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) for engaging in acts of corruption, but no departmental action has been initiated against any one of them. ACB has even secured convictions for the 29 of them, but even that has not resulted in any action against them.’

As the data suggests, Maharashtra is relatively better in reporting corruption than most other states.

If the ACBs claim is true, it would imply that either the state government or some of its powerful officials, with the tacit support and backing of some politicians, are encouraging corruption and protecting the corrupt. As per, IPS officer-turned- lawyer, YP Singh, ACB is  capable of convicting only tiny fishes like clerks and peons and in all big cases involving civil servants and politicians, it has either issued clean chits or closed the cases.

Anti –corruption agencies- Central Vigilance Commission and Central Bureau of Investigation are perceived to be manipulated by the political powers. CBI has failed miserably in high profile cases. Nick-named as the ‘caged parrot’ from the country’s highest court, CBI often gets slammed for its shoddy probes or weak prosecution tactics by the courts. The corruption investigation agencies have lost their credibility and public trust.

E-governance, which is being promoted presently, can be an effective mechanism against corruption, as it eliminates the middlemen and provides some transparency. But, it may have its limitation in terms of coverage and access to the general public. Only one thing can really bring down the corruption in the country. That is, political commitment to provide clean governance, willingness and determination on the part of the political party in power.

NDA government made ‘corruption free India’ as its main poll plank and won decisive victories in both 2014 and 2019 general elections. The government also unveiled a series of anti-corruption measures with the intention of eradicating the social evil of corruption. Looking at the statistics of corruption cases and the country’s ranking in Corruption Perception Index, one really wonders whether the anti-corruption measures are helping to eradicate the menace of corruption or remained only paper tigers.

Can India effectively fight the malice, which has spread its tentacles deep and wide all over the governance and the society?

I sincerely wish and hope that this will come true one day! Let us all optimistically wait for that distant golden period.

 

Dr. C K Sreedharan

www.sreedharanck.com  ,   amazon.com/author/sreedharanck