FRIDAY, APRIL 26, 2024
As a credible social activist Anna Hazare started a movement for creation of omnibus constitutional institution to deal with corruption. The fast unto death started by Anna on April 5 a decade back culminated in uprooting of the UPA government despite it creating that paper tiger called LokPal as demanded by him. The movement gave birth to Aam Aadmi party which no longer speaks on that topic. Arvind Kejrival is also not heard for over half a decade on that topic. He is busy showcasing his schools and hospitals. The BJP got an anti corruption mandate that swept away the UPA. It is an irony that on the same day that Anna started his fast, ten years later French anti-corruption agency AFA akin to our Comptroller and Auditor General of India, but with power to audit and investigate private companies reported payment of Rs 8.64 crore (one million euros) to Gurgaon based Defys solutions of an US national Sushen Gupta who is under investigations for VVIP chopper scam during UPA era as success fee for assisting in the ‘government to government’ Rs 7.87 billion deal of 36 Rafale fighters. The Rafale deal was always controversial. The UPA government had bargained with the same French company Dassault for 126 jets at a lower price with transfer of technology to HAL. The agreement cleared by our CAG and it passed through the ‘sealed envelope jurisprudence’ of the then CJI Ranjan Gogoi. The Supreme Court certificate removed the shady taint only to be brought back on the table by the online investigative journal ‘Mediapart’.
Politically the dividends were harvested by the present ruling party. In 2014 the BJP manifesto said “we will set up an effective LokPal institution. Corruption at any level will be dealt with firmly and swiftly. The Anna Hazare movement destroyed the core of UPA government and reduced the Congress party to rubble as ‘bhrashtachar mukt bharat’ was promised. For full five years the LokPal was delayed and derailed until the apex court moved in. Finally we got a paper tiger in 2019. Does anybody know we have a functioning LokPal? or who the LokPal is? Do we hear of any major decision or action by the Country’s LokPal? The failure to operationalise the LokPal and empower the institution with investigative and prosecution show how serious the present ruling party is on the issue. But what can we expect from a LokPal which starts its functioning in a rented accommodation of a five star hotel with a monthly rent of Rs 50 lakhs?
The previous regimes took decades until Anna Hazare fired the imagination of the country with the idea we thought it’s time had come. We believed the time of having a corruption free administration had come. The Rafale Mediapart report has not set the country on fire. It all started a 2018 complaint by a respected anti-corruption crusader called ‘Sherpa’ alerting National Financial Prosecutor’s office (PNF). French President Hollande had confirmed that the selection of Anil Ambani group as Dasault’s partner had been imposed by Modi government. It was murkier that Ambani group had financed a film project involving Hollande’s partner to the extent of over a million euros! There is an indication that the illegally obtained confidential documents from Indian Defence ministry helped a better bargain in the Rafale deal! That is damning indictment which cannot be tolerated. In 2019 an Indian investigative website Cobra post revealed the contents of documents demonstrated links between Dassault, Sushen Gupta and the Government.
An investigation in France cannot be used to nail our negotiators but the cloud created by Mediapart needed investigation. The Indian Enforcement Directorate so eager to nail political opponents of the regime opened an investigation into the matter. Dassault pressing for removal of anti-corruption clause in the agreement did not alert those who promised ‘na Khaega, na khane doonga’. But what’s our record.
Transparency international, a global civil society credits our country with the highest rate of bribery and use of personal links to access public services in Asia even in Healthcare and education. Our overall bribery rate is the highest in Asia to be followed by Indonesia and China respectively according to global corruption barometer. The world’s largest democracy was in 80th position among 180 countries in the corruption perception index in 2020. In one year it has slipped six positions down in 2021, India is at 86th. Everyday corruption at lower level has lulled us and big-ticket scandals no longer attract attention. The country has resigned to live with that way of life.
UPA time scandals were exposed by RTI a law created by it. A study by Yale University confirms that law is used by public spirited citizens and NGOs to highlight corruption. The 2019 amendment brought in by the NDA government has made the law a toothless tiger. Members on the CIC are not being appointed. The grievances redressal Bill of 2011 lapsed and the present regime did nothing to bring it back. The Whistle blowers protection law enacted by the UPA in its last lap to protect complainants in the matter of corruption failed to get required wherewithal. Scores of activists are gone into thin air. Whichever way you look at it, the movement against corruption has reached nowhere. The BJP government has only destroyed the anti-corruption infrastructure put in place by UPA which devoured UPA itself!
The LokPal has also let the country down. Its failure to act on the French anti-corruption agency has shown where it stands in this fight against corruption. Crores of rupees are spent in having the LokPal create a semblance of anti-corruption system. What for? As every institution abdicates its responsibility, I get jitters!
(The writer is a senior practising lawyer,
senior faculty in law and a political analyst)
