CANCEROUS CORRUPTION
The current crisis of confidence in institutions of
governance is an opportunity for reform. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a
prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.
— Oliver Goldsmith
A group of 14 prominent and well-regarded citizens have
written an ” Open Letter To Our Leaders” to express alarm at the “governance
deficit” in “government, business and institutions”, and underline the “urgent
need” to tackle the “malaise of corruption, which is corroding the fabric of our
nation.”
It is a rare move and goes to show how quickly the mood of
the nation appears to have shifted from a sense of satisfaction with political
stability and high growth rates, to one of grave concern over the recent spate
of scandals and the sense of drift in the government which, it is feared, could
affect the growth story.
The letter, which follows a meeting in Mumbai, has been
signed by businesspersons Azim Premji of Wipro, Keshub Mahindra of Mahindra &
Mahindra, Jamshyd Godrej of the Godrej Group and Anu Aga of Thermax; HDFC
chairman Deepak Parekh; ICICI chairman emeritus N Vaghul; former Hindustan Lever
chairman and now Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Ganguly; former Reserve Bank of India
governors Bimal Jalan (also an RS MP) and M Narasimham; Justices Sam Variava and
B N Srikrishna, who heard the Harshad Mehta and Mumbai riots cases respectively;
chartered accountant and architect of key SEBI and RBI regulations Yezdi Malegam;
member of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council Prof A Vaidyanathan and
banker-turned-social worker Nachiket Mor.
Many in this group have played crucial roles towards the
India Story, advising successive governments and at critical junctures, playing
conscience-keepers. Some of them are, in fact, said to be close to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh.
The group has said that among “several urgent steps to tackle
corruption”, the most critical is to make the “investigative agencies and
law-enforcing bodies independent of the Executive… in order to ensure citizens
that corruption will be most severely dealt with”.
“In the last few months, the country has witnessed the
eruption of a number of egregious events, thanks to an active media eagerly
tracking malfeasance. There are, at present, several loud and outraged voices,
in the public domain, clamouring on these issues, which have deeply hurt the
nation,” the letter says.
On the crisis of governance, the letter says, “Widespread
discretionary decision-making has been routinely subjected to extraneous
influences… The judiciary is a source of some reassurance but creation of
genuinely independent and constitutionally constituted regulatory bodies, manned
by persons who are judicially trained in the concerned field, would be one of
the first and important steps to restore public confidence.”
The group has called for the setting up of “effective and
fully empowered Lok Ayuktas” in every state and “early introduction of the Lok
Pal Bill at the national level for the purpose of highlighting, pursuing and
dealing with corruption issues and corrupt individuals”.
Without naming environment minister Jairam Ramesh, the group
appears to tilt in favour of industry in the raging development vs conservation
debate. “It is widely acknowledged that the benefits of growth are not reaching
the poor and marginalised sections adequately due to impediments to economic
development. This is because of some critical issues like environmental concerns
and differences in perspectives between central and state governments,” the
letter says.
The group is also implicitly critical of the opposition for
blocking almost the entire Parliament
session gone by. It says elected representatives need to “distinguish between
dissent and
disruption”.
The G14 has decided to meet again later this month and come
up with suggestions on economic issues should there be a positive response from
the political leadership to its offer, a member of the group told TOI.
(Source: Times of India dated 18-01-2011)
Many parties are being floated to launder money, warns
Election Commission
The Election Commission believes fraudulent political parties
are being floated to launder money which finds its way into the stock market and
is also used to buy jewellery, but has little to do with electoral campaigning
or any other political expenses.
It says tax evasion and dubious donations could be behind a
high number of defunct political parties. The commission says only 16% or 200 of
1,200 registered parties are actually involved in political activities. Most of
the other parties are floated to park money illegally as donations to exploit
the tax exemptions enjoyed by registered political outfits.
Although not all inactive parties are dodgy, several
instances of cash transfers ranging from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, have been
detected by the commission which, it feels, were for non-political purposes.
Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi told TOI, ” We have
repeatedly written to the government about defunct political parties asking for
powers to strike them off the rolls.” He said the commission had proof about
party funds being “channelled into the stock market and also used to purchase
jewellery.” But little has been done to check
fraudulent parties.
Documents accessed through the RTI Act show the EC has been
raising the alarm over a rise in dud parties since 2006.”
The then CEC N Gopalaswami had in a letter to the PM
expressed concern over donations collected by political parties. “The commission
has reason to believe there could be something more than what meets the eye in
these donations,” he said in a communication on July 31, 2006.
The letter said, “Recently the commission has come across
many cases of little known unrecognised political parties receiving donations
running into lakhs of rupees, many times in cash, from individuals and
companies.”
The commission had also asked the Finance Ministry and the
Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to examine the accounts of some parties.
RTI documents, accessed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), shows
two registered unrecognised political parties — Parmarth Party and Rashtriya
Vikas Party — received cash and came under scrutiny.
On March 3, 2006 EC secretary K F Wilfred asked CBDT to
scrutinise the transactions.
Parmarth Party received Rs 15 lakh in just one transfer in 2004 while Rashtriya Vikas Party received two “donations” of Rs 75 lakh and Rs 50 lakh from one company within two months.
(Source: Extracts from News Story by Himanshi Dhawan in Times of India dated 14-01-2011)
