Friends,
We finally present our point of view on fighting corruption. We make it clear that they are only a few of the suggestive ways and not an exhaustive list.
Amitabh # 94155-34526 Nutan # 94155-34525
How to Fight Corruption
We can't fight a disease like Cancer in one day. So, the first thing that a person who has got affected by Cancer needs to clearly understand is that he has been afflicted by a disease which needs a very thorough and detailed diagnosis followed by an equally long and painful treatment. If someone does not understand this simple fact and starts showing undue haste, he is bound to lose the battle in the very beginning itself. The situation of corruption in India is no different from the disease of cancer. It is difficult to say whether it is from the top or from the bottom. While we have some very powerful people being involved in big scams like the 2G spectrum and Commonwealth scam, we also have a very large proportion of us playing these corruption games at every nook and corner. Thus we will find one of us either giving some money to a TTE in a train to occupy an unreserved birth or another person acting as a Traffic constable and accepting some token money from some person in lieu of some traffic violation. Similarly, while one of us is giving huge donation money to get our ward admitted to an engineering college, another one is accepting unaccounted money for admitting a child in one of those prestigious schools. Most of these corruption games are not being played by big people. It only has involvement of ordinary people who are doing this in a completely voluntary manner. In such circumstances, if some person or some group of individuals comes before us and starts saying that it has come up with an easy cure for this disease, then it is similar to some doctor coming with a Baby tonic and saying that this is what will cure the disease of cancer. In our opinion, an Institution like Lokpal is not singlehandedly going to have any substantive effect on a menace like corruption. Corruption is a very deep and intricate problem in India and hence if we want to have a solution for this problem, we first need to understand it in its totality. This needs a very broad and holistic view and not short-cut sweet-looking solutions. No single organization or Institution can get rid of this menace. So how to fight corruption? Here we present a few of the possible ways. But at the same time, we very well understand that they are only a few of the many possible ways and are in no way exhaustive. Each one of us can contribute our own solutions and can add up to this list to make it more holistic and effective. a. The first thing is to accept and fully understand that corruption cannot be eradicated in one day. This might seem to be too simplistic and obvious but has deep inferences. The first thing it means is that we shall not go for any kind of easy-looking solutions which might have detrimental effects in the days to come. Secondly, it also means shall we shall not get unnecessarily concerned if we are able to end or control corruption within a given time span. Those ready-to-use kind of remedies for fighting corruption send bad signals and when they don't happen in reality, people start feeling doubly demoralized. We need to stay clear of any such situation. b. The second thing to understand is that our country lacks neither in laws, acts and rules nor in the institutions to fight corruption. As far as independent and autonomous bodies are concerned, they are always so more on paper than in reality, particularly in democratic structures. We all know that the appointments for the top posts in many of the presently operating Institutions are said to be made on factors of merit, performance and job requirements and are officially bereft of any socio-political influences but the fact is that different factors of extraneous nature are always said to have their effect on many of these appointments. Each of such Institutions and its people have their own set of influences. The members of the Civil service get selected through an independent examination and their career prospects are so safe that no political person can generally harm them beyond a limit, yet we all see political influence on the functioning of the career bureaucrats. Hence to say that Lokpal(s) and the employees belonging to this Institution will be chosen in an completely independent manner and will go on serving in the same way is a completely erroneous one. c. The third thing is that to fight corruption, we need not only laws and acts and institutions, we also need complete public involvement and public cooperation. But how will this be done? This is a very difficult and time consuming process where each of us who want to contribute to a corruption-free society will have to come forward and will have to get as many people involved in this process as possible. Each one of such publicly concerned person will have to initiate as many people into this as is possible, so as to make it effective and truly widespread. d. The fourth point is that we need to make corruption, its ill-effects and ways and necessity of fighting corruption an integral part of our educational system. Thus we need to incorporate not only Moral and Ethics as part of our educational curriculum right from Class One but we also need to have Anti-corruption as part of our study system from the very beginning. We know that we don't necessarily follow each and every thing we are taught in our school days, yet it is also true that such things do form a part of our subconscious and have their own impact on our action and behaviour. e. Fifth point is that we do need to criminally penalize those who are found involved in corrupt means. This punishment can be of three kinds. The first of these is social punishment. Those who are found involved in corrupt activities must be socially ostracized and this fact must be spread far and wide. The media and newspapers need to come forward to get these done. They must present all corruption-related news with due prominence. We are of the view that other than penal punishments, these social punishments also have a great role in dissuading people from adopting corrupt means. For this again, we need all the social organizations and socially-concerned people to come forward and play their effective roles. f. Sixth point would be to penalize the person involved in corrupt practices departmentally. Whenever any kind of complaint comes against any government servant, it needs to be enquired immediately and suitable action needs to be followed as a result of this enquiry report. What is equally important is that such an action is taken in as short a time period as possible. This is important to have its salutary impact on the concerned officer as well as a deterrent impact on others. If such a departmental action goes on lingering for years and the affected person finally comes as being innocent, then the entire process has a very negative effect on everyone else. Hence it is necessary that exact time limits are fixed for all kinds of departmental enquiries and departmental proceedings which shall be followed in absolute terms. Whenever such prescribed time limits are not followed, the concerned official shall also be taken to task and shall be suitably penalized. If such rules are framed, they will certainly be followed and this will have tremendous impact on the reduction of corruption. g. The same is the situation with our Judicial setup. The huge delay in the judicial process is considered as one of the greatest problems of our nation and since judiciary comes in play in almost every walk of life, hence the delay in judicial process affects the system badly at different places. We need to give great emphasis to this aspect. What we need today is fast and speedy justice. The moment there is delay in justice, injustice and atrocities automatically come in play- not only against the accused but also for the innocents and for the rest of the society. In both conditions- where evidences and witnesses are not coming and where there are sufficient evidences present, decisions need to be taken on a much faster pace than it is happening today. We strongly feel that there is an immediate need to formulate such laws which fix the maximum period in which every court case shall get decided. Even if some accused get free through this system of faster justice, it is much better than today's position when the cases are kept in limbo for years and a person's fate and reputation hangs in air for decades. We must welcome the Government of India's step to bring the Right to Justice Act which tries to cater exactly to this problem. This would be a real milestone in our legal system and will help in corruption related cases as much as in other cases. h. One thing that we need to ensure is that all our economic and financial transactions, all our economic and trade activities, industrial productions and all kinds of services provided are duly registered and documented. What this means is that whatever goods are sold and purchased, whatever services are offered and used, whatever goods are transacted shall all get computerized and their database shall be maintained. This is not an easy job to get achieved in a day or two but this is the only way in which we can really ensure than the flow of black money gets actually checked. At the same time, it is also not very difficult because the systematic use of e-governance can get this realized in actual practice instead of its remaining a wishful thinking. The moment the financial transactions get electronically tabulated, the scope for black money to circulation the economy will be severely curtailed. Thus we shall begin all our efforts in this direction to get it actually materialized. i. The next point relates to the proper use of Benami Property (Prohibition) Act. We know that this is a very potent Act if it is used properly which unfortunately we have not been using this Act to its complete potential. The reason is that many of the people who earn huge amounts of black money generally try to store it through benami property earned in the names of others. Hence if proper surveys of all big properties are conducted and even if the very basic information about these big properties is sought through these surveys, they would yield very useful results. The reason is that in many cases, there would be people who never actually existed and are hence completely fictitious. In other cases, they would be people who are in such poor financial conditions that they simply can't explain the possession of these properties. This kind of survey is not very difficult and if the Government makes up its mind to do it sincerely, it can certainly get it done. j. At the same time, we also need to be very concerned about the ill-effects of such social problems like the Caste system and the Dowry system. These two social menace have a big influence over corruption. Due to the presence of rigid caster system, people are forced to marry their children within very limited circles. The result is that dowry is increasing by the day. We have seen many a person getting into corrupt practices solely to get money for their daughter's marriage and yet not being able to gain sufficient money till the end. This also amply proves that mere laws are not able to get rid of a social problem. It is years since we had the Dowry Prevention Act promulgated, but even today we find almost all marriages accomplished with huge sums of dowry money. Corruption, like dowry, is also a social problem other than being a crime. Hence we need to frame laws which can be genuinely implemented and have the desired effect on the society.
If we follow all these steps and many more such ways in their totality with an open mind with complete honesty, due diligence and immense patience, then only we shall be able to rein in the problem of corruption to the desired level that our society today desires. Otherwise, nothing is going to come out of all these dramatic propositions and high-sounding proposals.
http://irdsindia.com/Lokpal%20vs%20Corruption%20%28Hindi%29.htm
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