Citizen Elected Minister for Anti-Corruption in India.

Let me take some time off, time for some illusion; Let me imagine that I am given the task of eradicating corruption in my country India. The mandate given to me by the most powerful person in India, "The Citizen".

What is Corruption?

Dictionary definition of Corruption “Giving or obtaining advantage through means which are illegitimate, immoral, and/or inconsistent with one's duty or the rights of others”

Listed below are the first 31 points for action, I request my fellow countrymen and women, children to add to the list of ways and means to eradicate corruption in India. Of the points noted below, some are observations, learnt, few copied, no claim of originality of the mentioned points here. As a Minster, Anti-Corruption, I have put these points here. 

1. More Community based Projects: A World Bank official, while congratulating me on my appointment, mentioned that community based projects reduce corruption, in which case, are there ways to make everything like a project and involve community. This may be one of the ways we identify and classify, what are community based projects and the others not, the process of defining these projects should be defined.

2. Everyone should become honest: Another congratulation message came and just said, by becoming honest, (He meant, all citizens have to be honest), a tall order, it is easier said than done, we need to find ways in which we can encourage people become honest or honesty becomes a way of life, while in practice, it may be a tough proposition to convert the theory or wish to practice. Part of it can be achieved through religious leaders, as religion is where people find ways to make a change. Religious leaders would be bought under the request of the commission to practice and preach honesty. 

3. Mistrust in Trusts: There is a lot of corruption in among, what we call as “Trusts”, the ones which are among the most mistrusted by IT (Income Tax)department of the country, how about IT department, how to make it corrupt free, perhaps, the other IT (Information Technology) will help. The accountability of trusts, their funds, ways and means by which the trusts have received, utilised, who is the final beneficiary, should be documented and be available for scrutiny.

4. Breaking Nexus: Whenever corruption is mentioned, Politicians are definitely mentioned, everyone knows all politicians are not corrupt, but one bad apple, can multiply. The issue comes to how are politicians elected, the election commission, the citizens come into the picture. The election commission has had some excellent reforms, if all of these are implemented, Corruption will be reduced, some will change forms, and some will change names. The nexus between politicians, police, criminals is discussed, when we talk of corruption, how do we break this nexus, some through accountability, some through transparency and some through stringent punishment for crime. That brings us to changing the legal systems, which means new laws, bills to be passed by the parliament in majority to become laws. So we are back to parliament and electorate. We need better politicians to enact laws, propose changes, and make the laws effective.

5. Funding of Political parties, election expenses is the basis for getting into corrupt practices. To get a ticket of a national party, you need influence of leaders, who then get bribed, then the system in turn encourages you to be corrupt but not get caught. The democratic practices have lost their validity and reason in the political parties selecting candidates for their symbol. The fact is the political parties are looking for winnable candidates. The winning in the system has become so important that the electorate or a section of the electorate has a golden opportunity every 5 years to encash by selling their votes. There are agents who have mastered the art of negotiating the deals between these sections and the politicians to assure a win. The agents then become power centers and play a dual role, the system that creates leaders of this system should be curbed by the activism of the voters. An awareness campaign needs to be well popularized to make every citizen caste their vote by choice and not by sale.

6. Criminal records will be of use to see, who eats lunch with whom, some one has to watch, we may need a citizen’s forum to be a watchdog for some of the aspects of who affiliates with whom.

7. Poverty, crime, politician link Why criminals become criminals will also be part of the answer that we seek, when we look at how the criminalization happens, our Bollywood has some flicks that tells us that upbringing or for lack of it creates criminals, which leads us to poverty, the bribe taking politician, officer seek support of might, which is crime supported, so the poverty, crime, politician link has to be mended to produce less criminals.

8. Education creates lesser criminals, awareness to be non-corrupt; the education also brings about things like RTI, which can reduce corruption. However, the education in India itself has got corrupted. The approval mechanisms of the boards, at state and central levels are known to be heavily corrupt. The cleansing is normally not done, the appointment to these boards is again a political issues, brings us to the transparency in such a process. Hence appointment to the boards of education in states and at the central level has to be totally transparent. The boards are already accountable under RTI, hence some amount of corruption will be reduced. The fees of the education institutions has to be reviewed, the project needs some time bound measure to cleanse the system. Increase Literacy rate.

9. Corruption-less education system If a government employee’s son has to study in the same school as a businessman’s school, the government employee has to get his money from other means other than his salary. How about creating a uniform system of education looks difficult and not practical, I will ask Kapil Sibal, my friend, who has been working overtime on education reforms; he may also help us with changes that bring about corruption-less education system.

10. The salaries of the government employees is always one good reason for corruption, If the reason is valid, appropriate amendment to made in performance assessment to be paid in accordance with performance. Getting a Government creates a lot of corruption, the transparency of the system is key to eradication of corruption in getting job in Government. Inflation and other parameters should be considered in arriving at government employee’s salary.  

11. The issue of permissions, licences, grants, allotments, awards, penalties, NOCs, who gets, who did not, how, how much, why, why not, who decides, how do they decide, is the biggest corruption possibility. I will request the central and the state government departments  to list out, all the issuances, the method of doing so, the public awareness to seek information, fees etc. Let there be opportunities to lobby, seek appropriate changes to rules, policies, as a legal way to create a possible better outcome. The objective of issuance of the permission or grant, allocation has to be defined along with criteria. Initially the whole process will have to be manual, then work-flow can be introduced, process experts brought in to simplify and then to mechanize the system. This will reduce corruption to a large extent.  

12. Inter-departmental information exchange Non-possession of the licence creates issues, Can you operate without one, Let me think about a driving licence, hope it helps, If a policeman catches someone driving without a valid driving licence, he can on the spot fine the offender the prescribed fine and let him go, how does that person go, will he/she push the vehicle, he obviously drives it again. Instaed, how about a notice to the Transport Office that issues licences to bring the offender a licence within a week. Inter-departmental information exchange. That will make sure that the find and the licence revenues are in the state kitty. Some technology of SMS can also help.

13. We will also have to build an organizational arrangement to

a) Identify incidents of corruption through stakeholder participation

b) How to eradicate the incidents

c) How to sustain a system without corruption

d) Enact laws to investigate quickly and severely punish such incidents.

The concerned ministers, secretaries, will have the mandate to help us create this system, Regular anti-corruption audits to be carried out.

14. That brings us to the reforms; Information Technology will play a very important role in bringing reforms, the organization system has to accommodate the IT to minimize corruption or completely make it completely transparent.

15. Urban, rural divide is creating lot of opportunities for corruption. The local self governing bodies should generate their own employability programs, create rural engagement opportunities, the state and central government should give additional fiscal incentives for industries to be established in rural areas.

16. Industry, The single window schemes of the industry have created some transperancy but not accountability. My recent discussions with Mr.Ratan Tata and Mr. Rahul Bajaj came as shock, Mr.Tata has shown his patience with corruption, a way too much to his stature as an Industry leader. There has to be a common ground between Industry, Commerce, State Government’s industry policy, land acquisition for industry etc. Every district has an Industry Director, one of objectives will be bring about Zero corruption among the industries. The industry bodies have to be stronger in their right to be part of an economy that is bribe free.

17. International conglomerates need access to markets, the ones who have access need penetration into the markets. The intent to expand markets, find lower cost locations create opportunities to create friends in the political and bureaucratic circles. MNCs do business, they will engage local people to do the lobbying work and stay away from the corruption and hence the intent is served without soiling hands. The allocation of resources needs to be projected and be processed through a transparent system. The state resource allocation needs to match with the corporate's contribution in terms of taxes, generation of employment and fairness in their dealings with the state. 

18. Few social aspects create enough opportunities for corruption, education, marriage, house/property are issues that tend to find personal favors and treated as a better and easier way to deal with it is to pay the bribe. The social acceptance of rich/poor, educated, status symbols are acquired by corrupt means without any ill feeling.

19. Some people I met mentioned positives about the concept launched by Shiv Khera. I will surely meet him and take his valuable inputs to eradicate Corruption.

20. The frustration among people regarding corruption has reached pinnacle, I will reach out to get their opinions, organizations, NGOs similar to Janagraha will be used to collect information, through their multiple initiatives like, “Ipaidbribe.com”

21. There are voices which talk about alternate forms of government like Military should take over the country, the government will be made aware of the people’s anger towards corruption and appropriate advantages of democracy to fight corruption will be highlighted. It must be brought to notice of people who are seeking an Armed Government, what is happening with our neighbors. Public discourse towards a serious issue like corruption has to be anticipated and ongoing communication of the possible reforms along with time lines will be communicated to the citizens.

22. UID project  The unique ID project will perhaps help in tackling corruption to a great extent. Availability of information has always been the strength, how it is utilized, how practical to access, integration of data with all departments mainly, Education, elections, passport, driving licence, ration card, gas connection, telephone, blood group, healthcare access, Income tax, all of thses are challenges that I am sure my good old friend Mr. Nandan Nilekani would have considered. I will consult him and his team to see the help that originates from UID project to fight and eradicate corruption.

23. The press has played their role in exposing corrupt officials; there will be clear press and media policy and directives on how corruption cases should be monitored, exposed etc.  The TV media has played to collect their revenues instead of serving as a source of information. While free media is essential for functioning of the democracy, the sensitization of issues affecting the nation should be briefed to the media.   

24. Dr. Manmohan Singh, Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Mr.Chidambaram, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee and few others will be requested to spare one day in a month to discuss and work towards eradicating corruption. The agenda is only to eradicate corruption, there are no formalities, no press, no band baaza of the government machinery, they will sit together like family members and discuss one point “How can we eradicate Corruption from India”

25. The international implications of growth, slow down, GDP,international relations, currency changes, foreign exchange changes if any should be central monitored to ensure that we are able to absorb any shocks on account of eradication of corruption in the country.

26. Mr.Veerappa Moily or whoever is in incharge of bringing out administrative reforms, has to be more accountable in a way that it has impact on people, I will have a detailed talk with him. There has to be agenda and set timeline to achieve the desired results.

27. The defense ministry has been accused of corruption in buying armory, weapons, combat aircrafts etc, the budget should be appropriately reduced, the defense budget reduction is the job of defense and the External Affairs ministries. How can we have external ministry responsible for nothing.  It is responsibility of the Ministry of External Affairs to minimize the defense budget, increase trade agreements. The Service Level agreements are to be signed with every minister, interdepartmental ministries and should be published. Progress should be reported to the Citizens.

28. Specific Export-Import, Duties, levies, cross-border movements of materials all should be monitored through surveillance cameras and recorded. The custom officials have a great bribe haven from the time they join service. Strict service guidelines to police, customs, officers at corruptible positions should have a separate collection targets and incentives to fill the state reserves. All taxes, levies, penalties, duties should be collected. Impact on such collection and effort to minimize trouble to citizens should be kept in mind.

29. Wherever there is a possibility of creating artificial scarcity, scared demand, such areas should be monitored and appropriate precautions to avoid corruption on account of these. Scarcity creates fear in the minds of the citizens and leads to frantic approaches. The real estate market is an example of how scarce resource has led to demand and laws have not been able to protect green belts. The tank areas in cities have led to various unauthorized occupancies by powerful people. There needs to be a law to curb these practices.

30. Income Tax, sales Tax, Service tax, banking transactions, large scale transactions of anyone, should create a network of integrated monitoring in such a way that, if there is black money, there should be an alert.

31. Last but not the least, all temples, churches, mosques, gurudwaras and all religious institutions should create a honest environment for every individual. These institutions can help in cleansing a system from every individual. It is a national drive, movement, religion can support this, that will be biggest contribution for their community and human kind.