Challenges to tackling corruption in public life and the corporate world
Ignorance or arrogance no more affordable!
No one is speaking of the critical issues!
No one is also speaking out!
Our Parliamentary democracy is changing. Our Parliament is no more seen as supreme. Though it is now asserted that our Constitution is supreme, we have seen that with the fast growing and much complicating large scale corruption among the Cabinet ministers and much criminality among the MPs, of the both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, there is a whole new dimension to our parliamentary democracy today.
The Prime Minister, as a symbol and as a person, Dr.Manmohan Singh is now seen as a pathetic figure or figure-head.
Why?
In his seven years as Prime Minister, it is now universally seen as the presiding over the most corrupt government in independent India, right?
So, what is sacred about our Constitution and the Constitution-mandated Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and even the Cabinet.
The latest reports by the Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR)and the National Election Watch(NEW),we see the Cabinet minister’s assets are ballooning!
P.Sainath, the no non-sense associate editor of The Hindu (Sept 21, 2011) has scathingly attacked just two ministers, the former aviation minister and the current MOs of the Information ministry whose assets, to put it in Mr.Sainath’s terms, rose by a million a month! The DMK man saw his assets rise by 1,092 per cent! Just in one term or two terms? What does it matter? The others ,no less the young and the old ministers from Milin Deora and Sharad Pawar have lost track of their millions.
So, the UPA Cabinet is now getting richer and richer and the millions are getting poorer and poorer, just Rs.25 or 35 per day per head!
Apart from the joke, the corrupt ministers and MPs inside Tihar jail speak of another scenario.
Now, the latest is the veteran Finance Minister Pranab Mukerjee’s 11-page letter(why such a lengthy letter?) to the PMO on the former Finance Minister and the current heavy-weight Home Minister P.Chidambaram’s role in the 2-G scam.
So, where does all this would lead the government? The leadership of the incumbent Prime Minister?
The irony is that in the absence of Mrs.Sonia Gandhi from the country, in a span of just a month or so, we saw Anna Hazare came along and transformed the mood in the country.
And yet, since Mrs.Gandhi returned to India and her presiding over the first Congress meeting, of all things, to select candidates for the UP Assembly elections, a very unenviable job at any time and for Mrs.Gandhi to do just this as her first assignment and yet in all these days no one seems to have briefed Mrs.Gandhi about what Anna did and what her government did for him and what is now going on and what is likely to happen in the coming days. There is no word or even a hint that Mrs.Gandhi knew the dimensions of the new challenges before her and her government.
The Standing Committee of Parliament on the Jan Lokpal Bill is yet to meet and there is every suspicion and yet some hope about the outcome of the Standing Committee report on the strong Lokpal. The word strong is often used by concerned persons as if to make clear that he or she is on the right side of the spectrum!
Now, the government stands to lose further more credibility simply because no one is speaking out his or her mind on the critical issues.
Is the Congress serious about tackling the corruption in the various foras.
Surely, the Supreme Court can be expected to give some modicum of objectivity to the most complicated case before it. How to identify the guilty, the Cabinet Ministers and the MPs of both houses of Parliament, the role of Mr.Amar Singh in the cash for votes scandal. With now Mr.Ram Jethmalani spilling the beans, no one can pretend to be ignorant of the cash origins.
Nor the Cabinet Ministers, Raja and now PC can simply wash off their hands from fixing the spectrum pricing and get away without owing some responsibility for stealing the treasury or causing such huge loss to the exchequer.
Not just reputations will suffer.
There could be a rout in the next elections.
The point here is what the way our and what is is the road ahead.
This much is clear. The PM must take some responsibility and do things as he deem fit. He can’t simply continue to do the 9-5 jobs as he is accustomed to do.
He has to either reorganise the cabinet, ease out the more visibly irritating faces of corruption or huge asset-building one or he himself must resign and make way for a new comer.
The Cabinet is corrupt and non-performing. No doubt about it.
The AIR India episode is enough to paint the government in red or black! AIR India must be put back on its past glory. It is a national carrier and now it is a national shame. The Aviation Minister, poor Vayalar Ravi, is very inarticulate and inaudible and he doesn’t inspire confidence. Please do the needful, Mr.Prime Minister. Oh, there are other serious deficiencies. Kapil Sibal must be off-loaded from the two heavy portfolios.
Please appoint minister in the vacancies that are kept vacant for no reasons. Should we repeat the vacancies? We have done it many times, now!
Surely, the corruption issue won’t go away easily. There must be internal party elections in the Congress party. No one would excuse Mrs.Gandhi for weakening the party in a progressive way in every state.
Rahul Gandhi, we don’t comment. The foreign media, Wikileaks, the US Congressional report and many others give enough indication they young man is not going to have it easy.
So, blatant irresponsible talk and speculation about dynastic politics, dynastic succession and the power brokers around Mrs.Gandhi and all have almost done great damages to our political and government functioning.
A strong Lokpal Bill might send out a strong signal for transparency and honest and ethical beginning.
Ultimately, it is the basic ethical values that can enhance one’s image, not the busy protocol and pretensions of innocence or unpardonable ignorance and arrogance, please!
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