CAN LEGISLATION PUT AN END TO CORRUPTION?
Corruption appears to be as old as human beings
themselves. The first incident of
corruption is narrated in the Bible.
Jacob, the younger brother of Esau fooled Isaac his blind and old father
and stole his blessing and inheritance which rightfully belonged to Esau .3
(Genesis chapter 27)
Another serious incident involved the King David. David was attracted by a beautiful woman
Bathsheba wife of his army general Uriah.
He wanted to marry her. To do
this David organised to get the general killed in the battle (2Samuel, chapter
11).4
Later we come across historical accounts of how the leaders
of the Jewish community sitting on the judgement seat and passing unfair
judgements against the weak, the poor and the widows.
Judas, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus sold Jesus to his
enemies for 30 silver pieces.
In the third century BC Kautilya in his Arthashatra speaks about corruption as the most serious crime
deserving severe punishment, even a punishment by death. But he also recognizes the inevitability of
corruption. He compares the tax
collectors to fish breathing under water.
Both would partake at least some quantity of medium in which they find
themselves. There is an age old saying
which goes like this: “one who guards a lake would obviously drink water from
the same lake”. Commenting on the
shrewdness of the corrupt officials Kautilya notes, “It may be possible to mark
the movements of birds in the sky, but it is impossible to gauge the hidden
intention of corrupt official.
There is an old Bengali folklore which goes like this:
“There was a king who had a highly efficient and equally corrupt official. The king used to get numerous complaints
against him where ever he was posted.
Getting exasperated the king wanted to punish him by assigning him the
duty to count the waves of a river that passed through his territory. Alas and what a wonder as soon as he took
over his new duty there were again floods of complaints from the
merchants. No boat could cross the
boundary in the river without paying bribe to that person as their movement
would interfere with his duty of counting the waves.”
Gandhiji too was baffled by the enormous corruption among
the British rulers in India. But what
shocked him most was when the Indians were appointed as officials under the
British rule were equally corrupt. He
said he would go to the length of giving the whole Congress a decent burial
than put up with the corruption that he has seen so rampant among the Indian
officials under the British rule.
There are serious reservations among many about the idea of
ending corruption through legislation. Anna Hazare is not the first one to
start a movement against corruption. In
the year 1975 Jayaprakash Narayan launched a nationwide movement for ‘total
revolution’ to end corruption and authoritarianism. From his time till today corruption has not
gone away.
The common belief was the licence raj and government
departments were corrupt. The private
sector was believed to be corruption free and efficient. But after the 1991 reform when there was
large scale privatization drive corruption in India has grown in leaps and
bounds. Privatization and liberalization
has given rise to massive corruption.
Legislation against corruption either through Lokpal bill or
through the so called strong Jana Lokpal bill of Team Anna will not make
corruption disappear from the society.
One, Lokpal talks about dealing with people after corruption
has taken place. The processes that are
spoken about in these bills will not help to prevent corruption. These procedures may help in faster action
against the corrupt people.
Two, the notion
of corruption expressed in the movement of Anna Hazare is very shallow. It is understood only in terms of financial
irregularities or money misappropriated by politicians or political class and
the state bureaucracy directly or indirectly.
There is no analysis of corruption nor is the corruption seen as linked
to the overall economic and political system of our society. Therefore it finds an easy solution in a
piece of legislation can put an end to corruption.
The western advanced capitalist countries propagated that
corruption was characteristic of the third world countries where the states are
weak and underdeveloped. They used this
argument to justify the Washington consensus.
But this myth was exploded during 2007-2009 global financial and economic
crises.
Three, corruption
is linked to the overall social, economic and political system of our
society. De Sardan in his article
states, “Corruption should be understood as a ‘moral economy’ underpinned by
value systems and cultural codes. There
is an imaginary world where corruption does not exist, which is nowhere
realized in a pure form, and there are ‘real world’ economies where extant
corruption is inevitable. It is the very
impossibility of realizing corruption free economy which produces its
disciplinary power, for its realization would dissolve traction.” “A Moral
Economy of Corruption in Africa” (Journal of Modern African Studies).5
Four, Nithin Gadkary defended corruption of Yeddyurappa by
asserting ‘what he did might have been morally wrong but he was legally right’. When
we speak of corruption we do not speak about what is legally right only. What is legally right should also be morally
right. What is morally wrong cannot and
should not be legally right. We need to
go one step further and consider that what is legally right should also be
socially just. Justice and equity are
high moral values and legal system cannot over rule these values and declare
some acts as legally right though socially unjust and morally wrong. Legal system is creation of human institution
to uphold justice, equity and morality in governance and in functioning of
society. Legal system should converge
with social justice and morality.
(to be continued)
