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On Corruption-II
By Chongtham Manihar
It is a pity that at present, there are few senior administrative and police officers that can stand up to the erring Minister and people representatives. Majority of them turn out to be weak-kneed ready to dance to the whims and fancies of the legislators (who are only birds of passage) keeping in view, perhaps, of personal advancement or of a share in the booty. Here a judgment of the Supreme Court in the K. C. Sareen Vs CBI Chandigarh case dated
August 2, 2001 is worth recalling; Corruption among public servants has now reached monstrous dimension in India. Its tentacles has started grappling even the institution created for the protection of the Republic.
Unless these tentacles are intercepted and impeded, corrupt public servants could even paralyze the functioning of such institutions". The rot which originally seemed to be confined in two or three important units of the Government have sprawled over the Education Department and teaching institutions
(where apart from fake appointments, teachers only to encourage private tuitions), the judiciary
(where the nexus between the lawyers and the judges and the malleability of the latter are now an open secret), the hospitals
(where the surgeon will not raise his scalpel if not duly proffered in advance and the patient is not likely to get a seat in the ward if he or she doesn't hail from the concerned doctor's private clinic) , respectable temples of learning (
where examinations are conducted , turning themselves into sprouting centers of manipulated mark sheets ) and financial concerns, adulteration in daily
food items and traders' hand in the artificial rise of prices are matters well acquainted .
One may ask, " What sort of people is more prone to corruption? Is it out of congenital trait or social contagion? " While much can be said on either side, this at least can be said with a degree of certainty that corruption like talent knows no social background. Were not these depraved souls brought up without differentiation on the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Gita, the Bible and the Koran. They would also have definitely read the life of M.K. Gandhi who identified truth as God. There is a story as narrated by Louis Fisher in his celebrated work Mahatma Gandhi, how the Mahatma drove his wife Kasturba out of the house and locked the gate while they were staying at
a Phoenix farm in South Africa. Since Mohan Das was no longer a bread-winner and there was nothing in the family to keep the pot boiling, she touched a little amount of the sum kept entrusted with her husband by the public.
Despite all these, many cannot shed the passion for lust, greediness and inordinate ambition generally taken to be the nidus of this obnoxious disease.
So, the Bible says: Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. (St. Mathews, 26, 41)
On which Chanakya improves: Just as it is difficult not to taste honey or poison on the tongue, similarly, it is difficult for one handling the ruler's money to refrain from tasting it in at least small quantities. (The Arthasastra, 84)
He further adds: Even the path of birds flying in the sky can be found out but not the ways of officers who hide their intentions. (86)
So he imperiously
warns: In case of misappropriation involving a large amount of money if a Government servant is proved to be guilty of even a small part he shall be liable for the whole amount. (94)
In Andhra Pradesh, which is fast developing into the number one State in thecountry, the General Administration has issued an order on Nov 26 2001 to dismiss Public Servants convicted of corruption without waiting for appeals. This was based on the Supreme Court judgement cited above. But which among the Indian states should have toed the line of Andhra Pradesh, let alone the backwoods state like Manipur?
Then what is integrity? Here is an acceptable answer:
It means having a personal standard of morality and ethics that does not sell out to expediency and that is not relative to the situation at hand. (Dennis Waitley, " How to Be True to Yourself ". Reader's Digest, Sept 1999).
Again who can be the possessor of such a rare quality? Yes, those who often listen to the still small voice, that is conscience and those who greatly value self-respect nurtured with the refined taste of culture as conceived by Poet Arnold. As such society throws up now and then persons of such virtue.
Unlike Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and President Nicolae Ceauseseu of Romania, President Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam led a very simple life staying in a modest house while the palatial mansion kept reserved for visiting dignitaries. Joseph Stalin used the same woolen overcoat for 30 years and ate amidst books pushing them aside if no visitors dropped in though politically he was taken to bediabolice. But his successors began to lead a life of luxury and ostentation reminding one of Orwell's Animal Farm. So Leonid Brezhnev, the powerful ruler of the then Soviet Union once showed his newly built dacha to his mother at whom she curiously asked, "But Leonid if the Bolsheviks come back?"
In post-independence India the leaders I admire for their integrity and dedication to the country are Kamraj, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Dr B.C. Roy and Jay Prakash Narayan.
In Manipur, those non-Manipuris who left a good account of themselves, apart from the British officers who, over and above their innate honesty and sense of duty strove hard to set an example of unquestionable character as rulers, are one Sharma (Assamese) as Deputy Commissioner, one Bahuguna as Director of Education, one Captain Basi as Medical Superintendent of the Civil Hospital, one Nair as Chief Secretary and one Mathur, sometime acting Chief Secretary.
Among the natives whom I place on a high pedestal are the late R.K.Setusana Singh of the Land Revenue Dept., the late Mayengbam Radhamohon Singh of the judiciary, the late Dwijamani Dev Sharma, the educationist and politician, L. Gopal Singh retd. I.G. of the police (still alive) and the late A Brajamani Singh, Director of Education. But regrettably, they are only stray sands not cohesive enough to form a viable system. We fully understand the maxim. "The more corrupt the State, the more the laws". So if there be no change of heart in all concerned, there shall be little amelioration of the present malaise in the State. I do not, however, lose hope yet. If a few in the top hierarchy of the political executive dare come out to be the bell-wether to tread the straight and narrow, it will not be long to establish a good tradition and everything will be back on the rails.
Finally, we have to warn ourselves in the words of Edmund Burke:
Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist. (Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, 1777)
(Concluded)
(Courtesy:
The Sangai Express)
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