It is ironic that barely a month after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) brought out a National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS), a spate of scams have paralysed parliamentary function and touched the office of the Prime Minister himself. The strategy document delineates a taxonomy of corruption - petty and grand; political and administrative. There is 'A' for the Adarsh housing scam; 'B' for bribery for loans scam; 'C' for the Commonwealth Games scam, and of course the 2G spectrum scam, which has emerged as the 'mother of all scams,' as observed by P.C. Alexander in a recent article.
Clearly, grand larceny is the order of the day at every level of public administration. Listening to audio tapes of conversations among the so-called corporate communications professionals, industrialists, politicians and media, it becomes obvious that the lure of lucre has affected even those organisations and individuals who were once considered squeaky clean. One of the former CVCs, N. Vittal, famously attributed the menace of corruption to a chain of linkages among five principal players- the netas; babus; lalas; jholas and the dadas. The chain now includes media organisations and professional lobbyists, who have brought world class competencies and connections to reinforce their clients' ability to unfairly influence public institutions and political processes. The chain threatens to strangle this country.
Where do we go from here? This unprecedented wave of corruption cannot be explained away - although some have tried - as the inevitable consequence of the country's rapid economic growth over the last decade. Nor should it be attributed to the forces of hyper competition unleashed by the economic reforms begun in 1991. We must recognise that corruption has its genesis in our social structure and psyche. The way forward, therefore, should be an anti-corruption strategy that addresses the genesis and spread of corruption like a systemic pesticide works to kill crop pests from within.
The NACS document brought out by the CVC could well serve as the starting point for a substantive national debate over such a strategy. For instance, the NACS recognizes the inadequacy of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1988 to deal with corruption involving private sector entities, but it does not suggest amendments required to plug the loopholes. Similarly, the strategy relies on the recommendations of the Arvind Pande Committee to strengthen preventive vigilance in the Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), without addressing the deeper issue of freeing the selection process for CVC Officers in PSEs from administrative ministries' interference. Elevating the CVC to the status of a constitutional body, a la the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, may also form an integral part of the debate.
Drafting a good strategy is one thing, but the strategy must also be impartially implemented. To ensure that only citizens with 'unimpeachable integrity' are allowed to sit in the 'Satarktha Bhavan', the national debate must also review the selection process for CVC members. It is not enough to rely on the judgment of the prime ministers and leaders of opposition. Just as the national debate must be approached in a participatory manner, the selection of key personnel to the office of CVC must also be guided by national consensus.
While the national debate over revamping anti-corruption strategy would take some time, we must also initiate a national experiment in 'culture change to combat corruption'. The young men and women of this country must make an investment here and now to ensure that they and their children do not end up paying bribes to buy bottled water. A whole generation of youngsters has come to accept that the intervention of brokers and commissions agents is indispensable to the delivery of public services like getting passports, driving licences, ration cards, old age pensions, welfare scholarships, tax payments, registration of property, FIRs in police stations, rail reservations and even darshan from a beloved deity.
We can empower young people to escape the trap of the 'babus and brokers' by expecting them to participate in public service delivery later in their lives. The state can also ensure that the formal processes of preventive and punitive action against corruption are widely disseminated in both urban and rural areas through a massive state of the art information campaign that would put the best corporate communications body in the world to shame.
These twin investments should create a culture in which the legislative and institutional changes discussed earlier in this column can stand with strength and stability. If this combination of strategy, structure and culture is managed with passion and transparency by the revamped CVC, a new breed of leadership will emerge from gram pradhan to the pradhan manthri. These new leaders will be able to propel this country's economy to new heights of global competitiveness, and put most Swiss banks out of business. Above all, we could usher in a society that values a human being for what he or she is ethically worth, rather than allowing pigmies to masquerade as titans under the garb of their ill-gotten wealth.
Dr. H Hemnath Rao is a professor at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) in Hyderabad, and Director of ASCI's Centre for Poverty and Rural Development.
Special 
