Real goal is to end corruption: Kejariwal

SOPAN INTERVIEW

Corruption has become a secular evil to live with. Anna Hazare has struck a chord with the common man. However, the controversies continue to dog. The Jan Lokpal Bill has united the common men but divided many, khadi wearing pot-bellied leaders in particular. Some have camouflaged their discomfort with an ideological guise or intellectual argument. RTI activist, Magsaysay award winner and a member on the joint committee for drafting the Lokpal Bill, Arvind Kejariwal speaks to Shitanshu Shekhar Shukla on all issues, including the recent controversies.

Q. What If Lokpal himself becomes corrupt?

A. In order to ensure only an incorrigible person occupies the coveted post of Lokpal, there will be committees to select him. Election is not an option. The committees will have representatives of legislature, judiciary besides the civil society. If Lokpal were still to be found indulging in corrupt practices, the Supreme Court would expeditiously look and decide within stipulated period of one month whether the case prima facie holds water. If yes, a recommendation would be placed before the President of India to remove the Lokpal.

Q. The panel will, we hear, include Prime Minister, leader of opposition, Supreme Court judges etc. Since the Lokpal will have jurisdiction over them all, will not it lead to deadlocks? Don’t you think consensus will be elusive?

A. It may. Yes. But there is no option.

Q. The CD controversy has dented the credibility of the Bhushans. They are still on the panel. What is important for you at this stage -- Probity or legal brain?

A. True that they are on the panel only and only because the draft needs a legal brain. At this stage at least. One can say that probity is not so important as legal brain to draft the Bill. However, we emphasise on both – probity and legal brain. Both Prashant and Shanti Bhushan are clean lawyers. Not a single case has ever been proved against them. Not only that we, each one of us, are open to any independent inquiry. We are writing letter to the prime minister and the SC judges to hold against us any independent investigation they want. The CD was circulated and made by the corrupt forces trying to disrupt and divert the movement.

Q. Some politicians appeared to run a smear campaign against you all. Probably they saw the movement as opposed to them.

A. No. Not the entire political class. Only the corrupt elements did it because they felt threatened.

Q. Could you have avoided the controversy if you had a politician on your side?

A. No. Because it would have invited us more trouble. We would have been identified with certain party. Even as we are all apolitical, allegations fly thick and fast against us that we are getting help from this party or that party. Imagine what would have happened if we had beside us a politician.

Q. Will the Lokpal have enough teeth to bite? Or will it be just a barking watchdog? Hawala case is a poignant reminder. Despite the Jain diary mentioning the high and mighty, the case fell flat in the court. The shoddy investigators can sabotage the best of cases.

A. The Jan Lokpal Bill gives Lokpal enough teeth to bite. It will have its own prosecuting and investigating agency. The CBI dealing with corruption cases will come under jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Q. There are some disconcerting voices that your movement is running down the democracy.

A. I have before me a news clipping. Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer has been reported as saying that the anti-corruption movement spearheaded by civil society is undermining democracy. Frankly, I am unable to understand it. The power of legislature to legislate has not been and can’t be usurped. We are only trying to give a few inputs but it will be for Parliament to discuss, debate and pass the Bill. We are strengthening democracy, not weakening it. It is similar to pre budget exercise when finance minister meets and invites several economists, business honchos for their views and their expectations from the budget. The intention is to help each other and grow economically faster. We are also doing same thing here. Is it a mute society which they want to rule? A speaking, discussing, deliberating society can make a democracy participatory. This is our sole objective and we shall achieve it.

Graft graft go away…

Corruption in the country is as common as anything one could imagine. But there is a ray of light. The civil society is on an effective march against the menace

Amitabh Shukla / New Delhi

Anna Hazare and his movement against corruption has caught the imagination of the nation. Never before had the civil society forced the government to act so decisively against graft and in favour of a Jan Lokpal Bill which threatens to eat into the vitals of corruption and make the country rid of the menace once and for all.

Not surprisingly, after Anna launched the movement from Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the government was in a “moral pressure” and forced to act decisively against top corporate honchos, involved in the 2G scam, Suresh Kalmadi, who is seen by many as the man responsible for the loot of public exchequer in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games and even the prominent functionaries of the UPA allies like the DMK by getting its members charge sheeted.

Many see the swift action as a direct fallout of Anna’s movement and the zero tolerance which the people have now developed towards corruption – a cancer which has thwarted the development of the country for decades.

The anti-corruption movement has been criticized, even lampooned and trivialized by the vested interests. We feel that some of the personalities associated with the movement against corruption could have indulged in some aberrations and should not be spared if found guilty of any wrong doing. However, we should never lose sight of the bigger picture – the drafting of the Jan Lok Pal Bill. Personalities are not important the issues are and corruption is definitely such an issue.

Attempts have been made to derail the bill by the political class and a section of the media by following a policy of selective amnesia. We clearly believe that this is a diversionary tactics to deflect from the issue of corruption. The critics of Anna and those against the Bill can make their “learned assessments” after the draft Bill comes in the public domain, discussed in Parliament and then passed. We do not believe in anarchist theories which do not give solutions but merely pose questions, one after the other. Let the doubting Thomases eat a humble pie on this question.

The attempts to discredited and underestimate the genuine anger of growing sections of the public against widespread corruption at various levels of the political leadership and bureaucracy is a knee jerk reaction to the popularity of Anna, a Gandhian of immense stature. The mud-slinging went to comic extent to sow the seeds of confusion amongst the people. But ultimately, the political leadership of the country saw the futility of bringing in CDs, land deals, character assassination, funding of NGOs into the larger picture of the fight against corruption.

Soon after starting, the movement threatened to spread far and wide across the country and attracted the support of growing sections of the youth, which had till now shown little interest in the campaign against corruption. The participation of the youth, though not comparable to the JP movement of the 70s, forced the government to accede to the demands of framing a Jan Lokpal Bill.

The demand for the creation of a position like the Jan Lokpal has been there since 1969 and ironically, none of the governments in power since then took it seriously, including the Janata Party government in 1977 and the Janata Dal government in 1989, both of which made corruption a national issue, mobilized the youth of the country and won elections on this count.

In the last two years, people of the country have seen what shape and form corruption has taken place - a monster out to gobble everything in sight. A series of scandals relating to the loot of public funds, or the twisting of rules to benefit high and mighty, broke in the country late last year. These included the Commonwealth Games, 2G spectrum allocation, Adarsh society scam in Mumbai, a series of corruption cases against ministers in Karnataka etc. These are mere indicator and the tip of iceberg of how widespread corrupt practices are, in the states and at the Centre.

This is the reason why people are now asking questions relating to discretionary powers enjoyed by ministers and senior officials, and the creation of a Lokpal, or ombudsman, at the Centre. When there is no hope for the citizens, Anna emerges as the beacon at this point of time, catching the imagination and the thought process of the country.

Some want the Prime Minister kept out of the purview of the Lokpal. But the question which we ask is whether this is acceptable in a democratic system? Why does the office of the PM needs to be shielded from vexatious and motivated quarters? Similarly when there have been insinuations against the judges of the High Court and the Supreme Court, wouldn’t it be prudent to bring them too under the Lok Pal. After all how many judges of the country have been impeached since Independence for their acts of commission and omission? None. Is there anyone in the country who can stand up and say with confidence that all the Judges are honest to the hilt? If not, then bring them also under the purview of the Bill.

Even though the main target of attack on corruption and the Lokpal Bill has been the ruling UPA, all political parties are aware that they are under attack as very few have shown the will to fight against the menace in the states where they are in power or at the Centre when they were in office at some point of time. Anna’s movement has clearly shown that they can no longer afford to ignore the mood of the nation. If they do so, it will only be at the cost of their own political fortunes.

Along with the Lokpal Bill, more measures are needed to weed out corruption and usher in development. If money, which goes into the pockets of politicians, bureaucrats, corporate houses etc due to corruption and then finds its way in the Swiss banks, benami deals, hawala trade and is routed back to the country through questionable means is stopped, a lot of money would remain available to remove curses like poverty, illiteracy, hunger, malnutrition and other maladies which affect our society.

Besides, grant of genuine autonomy to the CBI and the CVC would be a move in right direction along with the creation of a similar and effective institution at the state level. Both these institutions have been suffering at the hands of whoever is in power. Genuine autonomy would shield these institutions and help in the fight against under the table deals.

There could also be a case of state funding for elections to root out the malady. A separate debate should begin on state funding, holding elections only once in five years and removing the aberrations which have crept in the electoral system over the years. The resent Assembly election in some of the states indicated how ill-gotten money is used indiscriminately to influence the voters.

But above all, there has to be an institutional mechanism in the country to fight graft. A national consensus has to be built around such a mechanism and we are sure when the Parliament takes up the Jan Lokpal Bill for discussion and passing and the draft Bill comes in the public domain, such a consensus would emerge.

ashukla.mail@gmail.com

Livelihood revolution with flower cultivation

INITIATIVE

Sibananda Dash / Cuttack

Ordinary people inspired by the ideal to promote and demonstrate financially sustainable, ecologically compatible and small scale agribusiness models to farmers and motivated and supported by Industrialist brothers have led to a livelihood revolution with flower cultivation in Orissa.

Soumendra Behera, engaged in footwear business, partnered with his brother Saptendra and founded the Company Bhoomi to look for greener pastures in agribusiness. This idea of floriculture was conceived when the elder Behera brothers – Rabindra, Suvendra and Sailendra – the joint founders of RSB Transmissions, were scouting for novel activities that would be combination of business and corporate social responsibility and thus lead to a sustainable model.

The Behera brothers wanted to build a small yet modern agribusiness activity and demonstrate it to others to replicate the same and usher in a revolution in the horticulture and floriculture sectors in Orissa. Bhoomi, thus conceived, signifies return to nature and caring for our plant: Earth.
Blessed by socially conscious parents and encouraged by brothers, Soumendra and Saptendra took the risk of venturing into this novel business of floriculture – the first of its kind in Orissa. Neither of them had any professional agricultural qualification or experience, but the prospect of immense satisfaction of succeeding in a novel area and demonstrating it to the others, prodded them on.

In a 2.5 acre piece of land at Tangi, Cuttack they set up greenhouses for floriculture. Horticulture and vegetable farming was added to have product diversity and reduce the risks of dependence on a single product. They erected five greenhouses – three for roses and two for gerbera flowers. Drip irrigation technique ensured maximum use of the limited water available.

Soumendra beams with happiness as he says that in a short span of one and half years Bhoomi has done remarkably well and established itself as a viable business initiative. The entire harvest of gerberas and roses are easily sold in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack but remains far short of demands of the twin city. Bhoomi’s gerbera flowers are now preferred over the ones from Bangalore, which are reputed for their outstanding quality. It also grows fruits and vegetables like musk melon, cauliflower, bottle gourd etc. Musk melon is being sent to Kolkata and Ranchi.

Bhoomi is now planning to expand and set up more greenhouses and add more varieties of flowers, fruits and vegetables to its basket of products. The company is very confident that very soon they would also be exporting their flowers, fruits and vegetables. Soumendra is upbeat that commercial floriculture is a niche business segment and Government of India has identified it as a sunrise industry and has accorded it 100 per cent export oriented status.

It has emerged as a hi-tech activity as it takes place under controlled climate conditions inside greenhouse. The new seed policy makes it feasible to import planting material of international varieties. In addition, the export demand is also quite high. This industry being in its infancy in India, the opportunities are abundant. In Orissa this industry is yet to take off and there are opportunities for many more players to enter into this type of farming in different parts of the state and match the level of achievement of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Bhoomi is more than eager to share the knowledge and experience that it has acquired with others who would be interested in venturing into such a floriculture and horticulture initiative. The Behera brothers are also immensely happy that their idea of combining a viable business with their commitment to CSR has indeed worked out to be as conceived by them. They have indeed seeded a flowery revolution in Orissa.

The myth of Orissa being unsuitable for floriculture owing to its climate has been shattered once for all by Bhoomi. The colourful and pretty gerbera and rose flowers are no longer the monopoly of only Bangalore and Pune, blessed with their salubrious climate. Orissa has now firmly planted itself in the floriculture map of India.

Corruption: A never ending malaise

ISSUE

Will the country ever get rid of corruption? The issue has now become the prime concern of the common man

Shitanshu Shekhar Shukla / New Delhi

Constitution of nine-member group of ministers (GoM) by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to recommend an effective anti-graft mechanism and discuss the Lokpal bill with activist Anna Hazare has not stopped the social activist from expressing his apprehensions over passage of the bill in the desired form.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may be an honest person but is remote-controlled which might make it difficult to pass the Lokpal Bill," Hazare said adding that there was a vast difference between the draft of the Lokpal Bill prepared by him and the one by the government.

Even as the GoM was meeting in New Delhi to form a sub panel of four ministers (Defence Minister AK Antony, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, Law Minister MV Moily and Minister of state for personnel V Narayanswami) to start discussions in last week of March, Hazare was tearing into the UPA government.

"When I discussed the issue with the prime minister, he refused to accept all the proposals I had suggested. I then urged him to make some changes from both the sides. The government alone should not formulate the Lokpal Bill and it should be autonomous like court. It is only in such a case that the government would not be able to interfere it its functioning. Organisations like CBI and central vigilance commission should also be covered under Lokpal Bill," he said.

Anna Hazare was alluding to his recent meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over Lokpal Bill. He was carrying with him the disconcerting voices of the common men perturbed over the season of scams. Hazare came out much disappointed to hear the ‘honest’ Prime Minister say no to including within the probing ambit of the bill almost every executive including the Prime Minister himself.

The season of scams included alleged theft of billions by officials behind last year’s Commonwealth games in Delhi; $40 billion in revenues lost from the crooked sale of 2G telecoms licences; and over $40 billion stolen in Uttar Pradesh alone from schemes subsidising food and fuel for the poor.

Dismayed over rise of corruption-related petitions by more than 50%, the apex court recently blurted out “what the hell is going on,”. The Supreme Court’s anger reflects growing cynicism among the hapless populace. Appointment of a tainted bureaucrat as anti-corruption chief had already raised eyebrows among the liberal forces.

Eventually, he was forced out. But the people had seen Manmohan defend the tainted bureaucrat to his fault. And when it came to share the accountability, Manmohan found in Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan a willing scapegoat. Graft is hardly new in India. But there seems to be more of it for everyone than ever before. India is getting richer fast. The faster the economy grows, the more chances arise and the more mind-boggling is graft.

Foreign businessmen, who have slashed investment over the past year, rank graft as their biggest headache behind appalling infrastructure. Till recently, corruption evoked little more than shrug of shoulders. Threshold of tolerance had gone up. After all, corruption does not seem to be stopping India from growing. Now, it has served to break the unspoken truce between the opposition and the ruling regime. Because everyone prospered from spate of scams. Impending assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala may reflect, if at all, a sense of unease among the citizens over corruption taking roots.

Inspite of usual political noise against corruption, the voters are generally swayed over by cash, caste and communal creeds. The BJP appears to have won a few brownie points though a general election is not due until 2014. By boycotting parliament, it closed most of the winter session, until it won the inquiry into graft that it had demanded. It had a ripple effect and the press, the courts and street protesters picked up the campaign. The opposition may be hoping to make the 2 G scam another Bofors which cost the congress win in 1989.

Alive to the threat, Singh and his (and Congress’s) boss, Sonia Gandhi, want people to believe that the nation will soon see sweeping reforms (some suggest the reforms could radically change the policy making process) across the board. These may include state funding for political parties, the removal of discretionary powers abused by politicians and civil servants, and the ratification of a UN corruption convention.

There is no cause to believe such statements. Because most are forgotten as soon as they are spoken. But if they want, there are many books from which to take a leaf out of. Bihar is a recent entry to the list of states changing for better. They might do well to look no farther than this state where elected officials and civil servants must now publish a list of all their private assets or fear suspension. It was, is and, to a great extent, will continue to be a flourishing industry.

Nature of the state is the root cause of corruption. “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” goes the adage. But more and more people are joining the civil movement against the graft. They are coming to the view that corruption raises costs not just to Indians, but also to the foreigners whose capital India needs. Thanks in part to the recent spate of scandals, India’s stockmarket was the worst-performing outside the Muslim world over the past year. According to Hazare, around 60 lakh persons, mostly youngsters, have supported the agitation and shown interest in the movement.

Participation of the youth in the fight against corruption has created optimism. "The Prime Minister asked for a time limit on the Lokpal Bill and we decided to wait till April 4. If concrete steps are not taken by then, a country-wide agitation would be launched from April 5," he said. It will also help if the agitation brings to senses those at the helm before treasury is thrown open for ambitious development projects.

Some mechanisms must be instituted to check the graft before the next five year plan commences next year. Because about $1 trillion is expected to be spent on roads, railways, ports and so on, with billions more on re-equipping the armed forces and welfare. As ever land, water and minerals will be much scarcer commodities. This all makes for a monsoon of bribes. Besides RTI, web is helping.

There are Websites, led by ipaidabribe.com, to reveal the cost of graft by publicising the details of bribe demanded. Some states have even the bids for state contracts being run online so that anti-corruption bodies may keep tab on them. The central government’s scheme to implement a universal, computerised ID would allow welfare payments to be paid into individuals’ bank accounts, eliminating space for state workers. shitanshushukla@hotmail.com

Launching a war on development in Bihar

AGENDA

Emboldened by the resounding success in assembly elections, Nitish plans a total recast of strategies

Kumari Chitra / Patna

A war against corruption, better health, education and electricity along with keeping up the good work on roads and law and order is the new development mantra for the Bihar government in its second tenure.

War against graft

The state cabinet has scrapped the annual Rs one crore Local Area Development Fund given to each of 243 MLAs and MLCs. It was believed that the fund was an honest way to stay corrupt. Now a planning body, comprising of top bureaucrats, would approve plans. Only time will tell whether a small group will run the show or it is the best method to check corruption by MLAs and babus alike.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has also got Bihar Special Courts Act 2009 to try its public servants facing corruption charges. In this, the state government will seek permission of trial courts to confiscate property of an accused so that ill-gotten money is not used to influence witnesses. If an accused is acquitted, the government will return the property with compound interest.

A Special Court recently gave first such order in which property worth Rs 44 lakh, owned by a motor vehicle inspector, accused of graft, was confiscated. CM Kumar announced that a school would be opened in the building owned by the corruption accused. Six special courts were set up for speedy trial of corruption cases and seven cases against bureaucrats, including a former DGP have been registered under the Act.

Other important measures taken by Nitish-II to rein in corruption include government making it mandatory to declare assets of everyone – right from CM to the lowly clerks and proposal to bring Right to Services Bill ensuring time-bound service to citizens from the government end. GAD principal secretary Deepak Kumar said no exception will be made to this order and by April, a 500 GB space will have all assets declared online.

Women Empowerment

The election result showed that there was a 10 per cent jump in woman voters most of whom voted for the incumbent government. Kumar has shown initiative and showcased his Kanya Suraksha Yojana (see box). The scheme was a deft attempt to discourage child marriage and even female infanticide. Nitish government has also decided to open a women police station each in all 40 police districts during the financial year to deal with women-related cases with special focus on women atrocities. At present, there is no woman police station in state. “Let us put in place provisions to have district headquarters-based police station in all districts to effectively deal with cases such as rape, eve-teasing and other forms of women atrocities”, Kumar said.

Road to success

If Digvijay Singh had lost 2003 Assembly election in Madhya Pradesh because of poor roads, Nitish won because of better roads in 2010 in Bihar. After having constructed/ repaired or elevated 25,000 odd km roads, Nitish is now taking help of technology to monitor road inspection. Can one believe that now Android (latest mobile operating system supporting all Google applications including GPS) mobiles will check road progress right from state and district headquarters. Bihar State Road Development Corporation (BSRTDC) under Road Construction Department (RCD) introduced latest mobile operating system – Android, for central monitoring of road construction by executive engineers from district headquarters and RCD secretary from the state capital. Bihar will be the first state in the country to use this technology. Earlier, Bihar State Bridge Construction Corporation successfully used mobile inspectors to track engineers on duty by providing them GPS-enabled phones.

It will work in two ways. First, assistant or executive engineers will have to visit the construction site every two days to take pictures of constructed road for uploading on RCD site. And to ensure double compliance of work done, RCD secretary will use the latest technology using Google map to see progress of work, reported by executive engineers concerned.

RCD secretary and BSRDC managing director Pratyay Amrit said: “In the first phase, we have provided Android-enabled phones to eight executive engineers in charge of road construction at state highways – 68, 69 and 70 in Naxal-hit Gaya and Aurangabad”. Amrit said once the government found satisfactory progress with help of new technology, all 200 engineers in-charge of road projects under RCD would be given new technology-enabled phones.

Education

Getting all out of school children back to formal education is on top of agenda now. Now all school children from class one to eight will get free uniforms and boys and girls bicycles in Class nine. A recent report by Asian Development Research Centre and Pratichi, yet to be released, says that now only 5.9 lakh children between six and four years of age are out of schools. This number stood at 25 lakh in 2005-06. Students’ enrolment has jumped to 92.7 per cent in 2009 against 32 per cent in class six, seven and eight in last three years. Now every one lakh population in state has 114.3 schools against just 60 three years earlier.

Ensuring food security for 1.4 crore BPL families is another agenda of Nitish-II. On electricity front, there are problems galore as despite several MoUs, power sufficiency will take some time. Bihar still has to settle coal linkages issues with Centre.

Bridging the gap in education

INITIATIVE

NGO provides data on education to help policy makers

Sopan Correspondent / New Delhi

“For the past five years, Pratham has undertaken this annual exercise of assessing and evaluating the outcomes of education of our children across the length and breadth of the country. As a huge non governmental citizen-focused effort involving over 25,000 volunteers and covering over 700,000 children in 15,000 villages each year, it demonstrates that the well being of our children is not just the government’s responsibility, and that citizens can and should do more to initiate, propel and direct public policy towards public good,” Vice President Hamid Ansari said on the occasion of release of the report on The Annual Status of Education Report, ASER 2010.

Pratham is the largest non governmental organisation working to provide quality education to the underprivileged children of India. Pratham was established in 1994 to provide education to the children in the slums of Mumbai city. Since then, the organization has grown both in scope and geographical coverage.

Today it reaches out to millions of children living both in rural and urban areas through a range of interventions. The Pratham team comprises of experts in every field who all bring their experiences and perspectives to the organsiation and are unified by the common vision of improving the future of our children.

Madhav Chavan, CEO Pratham Education Foundation, Rukmini Banerji, Director ASER Centre, Ajay Piramal, Chairman, Pratham Education Foundation, Surjit Bhalla, Yogendra Yadav and Dhir Jhingran were the other speakers at the function.

Conducted every year since 2005, ASER is the largest annual survey of children in rural India. Facilitated by Pratham, ASER is conducted by local organizations and concerned citizens. It finds out whether children in rural India go to school, how well they can read in their own language and whether they can do basic arithmetic.

Key findings

Enrollment: In 2010, ASER found that 96.5% of children in the 6 to 14 age group in rural India are enrolled in school. While 71.1% of these children are enrolled in government schools, 24.3 % are enrolled in private schools. 5.9% of girls in the 11-14 age group are still out of school. In Bihar the percentage of out of school girls and boys in all age groups has been declining steadily since 2005.

Enrollment in private schools in rural India increased from 21.8% in 2009 to 24.3% in 2010. The percentage of five year olds enrolled in schools increased from 54.6% in 2009 to 62.8% in 2010. Even after five years in school, close to half of all children are not even at the level expected of them after two years in school. Only 53.4% children in Std V could read a Std II level text. On average, there has been a decrease in children’s ability to do simple mathematics.

A clear decrease is seen in the incidence of tuition among children enrolled in private schools across all classes up to Std VIII. ASER 2010 found that over 60% of the 13,000 schools visited satisfied the infrastructure norms specified by the RTE. However, more than half of these schools will need more teachers. A third will need more classrooms.
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