Minister Jairam Ramesh’s statement ” I can control demand side of corruption but not the supply side of corruption “(TOI, Jan19, 2011) is rather confusing the corruption issue ,dogging the Congress Party and the government headed by the honest faced Dr Manmohan Singh.
What the minister probably means is if the giver of the corruption money, stops the corrupt act then corruption can be controlled. Now that is stating the obvious.
What we have seen in the Adharsh , Telecom scams , it is the government and its agents who were indulging in corrupt practices in the first place.Thus the government was and is increasing the supply of corruption.
Government of the day enacts the Laws,draws up procedures and regulations. If the minister or the officers violates the letter and spirit of the Laws and regulations blatantly to benefit illegally, with the full knowledge of corruption to serve the vested interests,then it is the government and the implementers of the policy who are increasing the supply of corrupt practices.
In case of the Telecom scam even our PM who carries an honest face in the government, failed to show honesty in pulling up the minister and removing him from the cabinet at the right time. PM’s inaction increased the supply side of corruption and the nation paid the price of loss of lacks of crores.
PM’s inaction for a long time on the scamster minister Raja is being read as an attempt to save the Congress led coalition government. Minister Raja was from the ally the DMK. Any attempt to dislodge the minister would mean losing the ruling position for the Congress. So Raja was kept alive and kicking in corruption. The ruling coalition had to be saved even at the cost of good governance. Supply side of corruption increased again by those in power.
In hind sight one can infer that the Lavasa environmental violations too was ignored for a long time for similar reasons, of affecting the Coalition . Minister Sharad Pawar’s well intended involvement in the Lavasa project many new. But the Government at the centre could not be oblivious to the fact that such serious lapses as are being unearthed now , too were playing in the under current . Especially when such a large scale project was being undertaken with high profile advertisements government cannot plead its innocence. It’s the ally NCP once again that must not be disturbed. Even now the Minister Jairam Ramesh says ‘I am not on a witch hunt of high profile violators. My actions are in response to the representations I receive from various organisations.” Why so apologetic. Congress led coalition must be saved. So minister Jairam Ramesh ,who is increasing the supply side of corruption ?
DNA in its Jan 18,2011 edition has published the open letter to the leaders, signed by eminent persons like Jamshyed Godrej, Justice Sam Variava, Yezdi Malegam, Bimal Jalan, Keshub Mahindra, Azim Premji among others.The letter states inter alia; we are alarmed at the widespread GOVERNANCE DEFICIT almost in every sphere of national activity covering government,business, and institutions.Possibly the biggest issue corroding the fabric of our nation is CORRUPTION. This malaise should be tackled with a sense of urgency, determination, and on a war footing.
Corruption is directly proportionate to governance deficit. In a recent argument before the Supreme Court bench Ravi Shanker Prasad asserted that Indian democracy had not gone the US way where a President grants pardon to a convict after he made donations to party funds. And the SC bench said “Worse had happened in India. A man shot a corporator during a meeting in Haryana. The SC upheld his conviction. The government exercised discretionary power to grant him pardon. It was set aside. The government again pardoned him.These facts and abuse of discretionary of power shows how the government is increasing the supply of corruption.
This pardoning of the convict by the government twice ,declare the intent of the government of the day to favour the wrong if it serves the high & the mighty. It’s a brazen disrespect and under mining of the highest court for criminal benefits.All these brings out unequivocally that the government is stubbornly increasing the supply side of the corruption as each day passes.
Unless the the Congress government and its so called high command leaders who oft repeat ‘zero tolerance to corruption ‘ act without zero delay to punish the corrupt , supply side increase of corruption by the government will not abate soon.
With the 70 lakh Crore Swiss stash plunder waiting to blow all over, it’s just a matter of time to reveal how many suppliers of corruption are present in the governments of both past and present.Ministers like Jairam Ramesh must speak more substance than make a style statement on such serous issues like corruption which is threatening the very existence of our democracy and rule of law.
