India has the highest bribery rate in Asia according to the Global Corruption Barometer published by Transparency International. The report released on the eve of the International Day Against Corruption, December 9, shows that almost 50% of those who paid bribes in India were asked, while 32% of those who used personal connections said they would not receive services. like health care and education in another way, without bribes. The findings are a scathing indictment of the ruling administration’s anti-corruption claims, which came to power at the table of a ‘Bhrashtachar mukt Bharat’ (India free of corruption).
It is widely recognized that, unlike in many countries, where corruption is restricted to the highest echelons, in India unrest descends to the lowest level of administration. While high-priced corruption attracts the eyes, it is the little everyday corruption that stalks the common person.
Decentralized corruption cannot be addressed through any centralized solution. What is needed is the empowerment of ordinary people to expose and report corruption at the local level, and systems that act promptly on these complaints to hold corrupt officials accountable.
RTI reduction
Perhaps the most effective tool available to ordinary citizens to expose corruption in the last 15 years has been the Right to Information Act (RTI). The law has been used by more than three million people in the country, especially by the poorest and most marginalized who have understood the tremendous potential of the law to empower them to access their basic rights and benefits such as rations, pensions and medical care.
A 2011 study from Yale University in India showed that using the RTI Act is as effective as paying a bribe to guarantee service delivery. The law has also been used effectively by public-spirited citizens to shed light on corruption and abuse of power in the highest positions.
Instead of strengthening the RTI regime, the last six years have witnessed a systematic attack on people’s right to information. The worst blow has come in the form of a persistent and concerted weakening of the transparency control bodies established by law.
File image of a protest against changes to the Right to Information Law (RTI). Photo: Facebook / Somnath SN
In 2019, despite strong opposition within and outside parliament, the government promoted the RTI (Amendment) Act that compromised the autonomy of the information commissions by allowing the central government to determine the tenure and salaries of all commissioners of information. The operation of the commissions has also been severely hampered by governments that failed to appoint information commissioners in a timely manner.
The record of the BJP-led government in the Center has been particularly abysmal. Since May 2014, not a single commissioner of the Central Information Commission (CIC) has been appointed without citizens having to go to court.
The Global Corruption Barometer shows that 41% of those surveyed in India paid bribes to obtain official documents, such as identity cards, and 42% paid bribes to the police. Addressing this type of corruption that people encounter in their daily lives requires an effective, time-bound mechanism at the local level to address complaints arising from corruption and wrongdoing.
Broken promises
The complaints redress bill introduced in Parliament in 2011 created an architecture for receiving and handling complaints close to people’s place of residence down to the panchayat and municipal district levels. It sought to hold the supervisory structure responsible for the resolution of complaints within a stipulated time, with criminal consequences for not doing so.
The bill, however, expired with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha after the 2014 elections. Despite its electoral promise to reintroduce the bill in parliament if it comes to power, the BJP has not done what is necessary. . Effective redress legislation would have helped to significantly reduce the arbitrariness and corruption reported in Transparency International’s report and would have ensured better access to basic services and people’s rights.
Giant cardboard cutouts of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Interior Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. Photo: Reuters / Cathal McNaughton / File Photo.
Indeed, even the Lokpal law aimed at tackling corruption involving top officials, which was passed after a long and arduous fight in 2014, has been subverted. In 2016, key provisions regarding mandatory public disclosure of the assets and liabilities of public servants were reduced through amendments. For more than five years after the law was passed, the president and members of Lokpal were not appointed.
Finally, the way in which appointments were made, by a selection committee dominated by the government and its representatives, raised serious questions about Lokpal’s independence even before it became operational. Subsequently, for almost a year, the government did not establish the necessary rules, prompting one of the Lokpal members to resign.
The anti-corruption ombudsman is clearly undecided, with a deafening silence from the institution on all recent allegations of major corruption like Rafael’s defense deal and the bank scams that have rocked the country.
Another significant finding from the Global Corruption Barometer is that while reporting corruption is critical to controlling its spread, up to 63% of those surveyed were deeply concerned about retaliation. This concern is not out of place. The brutal attacks against whistleblowers and RTI users in the country have highlighted the vulnerability of those who dare to show the truth to power.
In 2018 alone, 18 people were killed for reporting corruption based on information accessed under the RTI Act. Despite this, the government has not established rules or implemented the Whistleblower Protection Act enacted in 2014 to provide a legal framework to conceal the identity of whistleblowers and protect them from victimization. The law establishes a mechanism to receive and investigate complaints against public servants for crimes provided for in the Prevention of Corruption Law.
When the BJP came to power on the basis of fighting corruption and ensuring effective service delivery, the government was expected to immediately establish a robust anti-corruption and grievance redress framework.
In the last six and a half years, however, critical anti-corruption legislation has languished and the government, despite widespread opposition, has pushed ill-conceived programs such as demonetization and electoral ties as definitive solutions to the corruption problem.
The limitations of relying on technical fixes like Adhaar-based biometric authentication to combat corruption have been exposed through scams like the Jharkhand scholarship fraud. The Transparency International report should serve as a strong signal for the government to act correctly, provided it has the political will.
Anjali Bhardwaj and Amrita Johri are social activists who work on issues of transparency and accountability.
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