1. Who wants corruption free India?
By Joginder Singh
There is some magic in wealth which makes, even well off people to do the
unthinkable for amassing it. How strange it is, that a fool or knave, with
riches, should be treated with more respect by the world than a good man or a
wise man in poverty.
Unfortunately, this state of affairs has made, corruption and scams, easy in
our country, A large number of people, in the position of authority, never
loose an opportunity to encash their power.
The more corrupt are caught, the more such people take their place.. It is a
multiplication going on both sides.
Apart from the politicians, Government officials, who are in a position to
disburse favour have been caught by the Anti Corruption Agencies.
Deceased Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy‟s populist schemes kept
him comfortably in power from 2004 to his sudden death five years later, but they were also
conduits for massive corruption, US consul general David Hopper, then based in Chennai,
wrote in a confidential cable newly released by WikiLeaks.
Hopper‟s damaging cable comes on the back of a CBI inquiry into the wealth amassed by
Reddy‟s businessman-politician son, Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who is the leader
of the YSR Congress Party. Last month, the Andhra Pradesh High Court ordered a wider
CBI probe into alleged kickbacks Jaganmohan Reddy received from some 30 companies,
including Emaar Properties, Ramky Infrastructure and Pennar Aluminum for sweetheart
deals he wrangled for them from his father‟s government.
The cable says Reddy’s big-ticket social programmes to do with irrigation and building houses for the poor were
mired in nepotism, shadiness and profiteering. Screen grab from ibnlive.com
Corporate and political India have long benefited from each other in navigating a business
climate rife with deep-rooted patronage systems, but Hopper claims the Reddy-led Congress
government indulged in an unthinkable level of corruption which defied even “the norm for
India.”
The cable dated 22 October 2007, gives the diplomat‟s frank assessment of allegations of
widespread corruption among Andhra Pradesh‟s ruling elite. He says Reddy‟s big-ticket

2. social programmes to do with irrigation and building houses for the poor were mired in
nepotism, shadiness and profiteering. The diplomat puts the cost of Reddy‟s ambitious Rajiv
Swagruha Programme aimed at building 16 lakh low-cost houses in the state at $4 billion to
$6 billion. The 26 new irrigation projects he envisaged were expected to cost the state nearly
$11 billion.
“There is consensus in Andhra Pradesh that irrigation and housing programmes are beset
with corruption. On separate visits to Hyderabad, we heard allegations of widespread graft
from several neutral observers,” said Hopper‟s cable.
“An economist, who is studying the effectiveness of the state government‟s programmes,
said with only four to five companies executing the projects through numerous
subcontractors and little oversight, there are many opportunities for graft in the irrigation
schemes.”
The US cable also pointed out that the chief minister and his party took a bigger cut from
promoters wanting to put up multi-crore projects in the state. “Typically, five to seven
percent is lost to corruption, but in Reddy‟s irrigation programme that figure is more than
15 to 20 percent,” said the cable. “The sheer size of Reddy‟s signature programmes, with
literally billions of dollars at play every year, leaves much room for „leakage‟ to Congress
party officials and their allies.”
“We thought Naidu was bad, but that was child‟s play compared with what is happening
now.”
Hopper told his bosses in the US state department that widespread corruption in the
Congress government seemed to be an “open secret” in Andhra Pradesh.
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A day after UP Lokayukta recommended his dismissal on disproportionate
assets charges, the UP Chief Minister on 5th October, dismissed the two
Ministers, of her cabinet, for graft cases. Earlier on the basis of the same
Lokayukta report, animal husbandry minister and religious endowment
ministers had also lost their ministerial berths.
Chairman of Public Accounts Committee of Goa Assembly ( Since removed)
has held that “The chief minister does not want to change the situation in the
mining department and does not want to punish anyone who is guilty. A third
person will infer that he is involved… He held the state‟s mining department,

3. led by chief minister since 2000, responsible for inaction against illegal
mining.
“Of the 54 million tonne (of iron ore) exported this year, 30 million tonne is
legal, and the rest — more than 20 million tonne — illegal… He said there
were details in the report that established the collusion between the mines
department, the Indian Bureau of Mines, the forest and environment
departments and the Goa government with mining companies.
He said a mine that had got environment clearance (EC) in 2008 showed
excess mining as originating from old dumps. “How can there be dumps
when the mine got EC only in 2008.
However, the majority of members belonging to the ruling party did not sign
the report. It is exactly a repeat of the 2 G PAC of the Parliament, as
obviously no ruling party anywhere would like to be seen in bad light.
Forget about the corruption in high places, in day to day‟ working some
public servants, have become extortionists. If media reports are to be believed
a Woman Transport Officer in UP beat a driver to death, because he refused
to pay bribe in September, 2011. A woman DSP and her reader were arrested
by the CBI in Chandigarh, for settling a complaint for Rs, one Lakh again in
August, 2011. This probably will make the few protagonists of women‟s
rights happy, that they are no less in indulging in corruption as compared to
the men folks occupying position of authority and power.
A total of 1,303 Delhi Police officials were punished for their involvement in
criminal cases and other complaints in 2010, with constables topping the list
of ignominy with 474. This number is 18 times the 2009 „s figure of 74.
Thirty-five policemen, including 23 constables and five head constables,
were dismissed from service after they were found involved in criminal or
corruption cases in 2010 .
Official statistics say that only 74 personnel were punished in 2009, 102 in
2008 and 197 2007. Two ACPs were given minor punishment. A total of 145
inspectors and 112 sub-inspectors also faced action last year. At least one
thing should be said to the credit of the police is that most of the time, the
Senior officials do take action on complaints Other departments have been
indifferent to the problem of corruption, if not exactly collusive. In the case
of senior officials, we believe in tokenism, rather than exemplary retribution.
Raising the issue of non-compliance of its recommendations, the Central
Vigilance Commission (CVC) has named the Department of
Telecommunication (DoT), Central Reserve Police Force and Indian

4. Railways among those over¬ruling it.
We have the lowest judges to population ratio of approximately 9.5 per
million population, where as, as per World norms as well as our law
commission recommendations, it should be 50 judges per million population.
All high profile cases of corruption require investigation, as in such cases, ill
gotten money is stashed abroad in tax heaves.
The Letter Rogatory is a formal communication sent by an Indian court to a
foreign government, where action is pending in that country‟s court, or
requesting the testimony of a witness residing within the jurisdiction of the
foreign court, or collection of evidence. It is an important tool used by CBI or
Income Tax or Enforcement Directorate to seek information from abroad. At
present, it takes 6-8 months to send it as a large number of Government
departments have to vet. CVC, in its latest annual report, issued in September
2010, has asked the government to empower CBI to send its team of sleuths
to any place outside the country and post special police officers in missions.
It added that “On a review of the existing procedure/methodology followed
for investigations abroad, it is observed that the system requires certain
improvements both for speeding up the process and for delivering qualitative
results”.
The Union Home Ministry, is set to add a chapter, in the Indian Penal Code
(IPC) to check corruption in the private sector. It will soon be a crime for
private companies and their officials to give and receive bribes.
The rule applicable to mal-practices in granting and securing of government
contracts will be extended to private sector contracts once the new chap¬ter
is incorporated into the IPC.
At present, the law is focussed exclusively on corruption with¬in the
government and among public functionaries.
The move is a follow-up to the UN Convention against Corruption, ratified
by India recently, that requires member states to address the supply side of
cor¬ruption involving government functionaries and corrupt prac¬tices
within the private sector.
Fighting corruption should be the highest patriotic duty. Mark Twain Once
said about American Congress ( Parliament) “It could probably be shown by
facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class
except Congress.” It is for each one of us to assess, as how much of it is
applicable to Indian Scenario.