Dr. Daleep Pandita
Like every year this year too Government of India through its Central and State vigilance commission issued instructions to their departments for celebrating vigilance awareness week with full enthusiasm. This mere symbolic tokenism for such a short period has been continuing for the past several years but without sustained efforts all along the remaining year. Why it is happening time and again and does this short period exercise produce the desired results at ground level remains to be seen?
Normally we give mandate to the Governments on important issue of eradication of corruption menace from our society. Addressing this vital issue seriously, that is actively eating our nation at all levels, assume utmost and urgent importance. Counting on accountable governance, public at large expect result oriented concrete steps, at least to have mass awareness against this evil, so as to present its deterrent effects rather than to have its punitive results.
Combating corruption by creating sustained public awareness is a campaign where not only Government departments need to be involved in toto but people enmasse should play their responsible role for ending up this exercise with a great success. Zero tolerance towards corruption is the need of hour, which must be strongly activated immediately at all levels. Thus corruption free environment at ground level will not only reform our country but built it as a strong vibrant Nation.
Government need to be serious in its commitment towards the implementation of anti corruption measures. It must regularly sensitise its employees continuously throughout the year. Departments associated with vigilance must be supported with complete infrastructure and equipped with well trained honest manpower, who are sincerely dedicated towards the cause. Stress must be laid on granting them adequate judicial powers rather than empowering them with vast administrative jurisdiction. They should be made accountable and must be result oriented so that people have faith and confidence in them and in such institutions. At the same time, there is need to have proper check and balance on their functioning, so as not to misuse these agencies for settling personal scores and taking political vendetta. Such credible caretakers must not succumb to undue tactical pressure of their Governors for petty benefits for goofing up the facts that send wrong message to the masses and encourage law breakers.
All related agencies need to identify the seriousness of this malignancy and establish a connect with the people for not only to expose this menace completely at the grass root level but to create sufficient knowledge about its consequences especially among the uneducated and rural poor. Voluntary citizens and Non governmental organisations, who work with limited resources and strive for creating awareness against corruption, need to be recognised and encouraged. Sufficient examples of discouraging such front runners by the rulers have been seen in the past. It not only reflects unexpected attitude of authorities but waste public money and inturn conveys the message of inefficient governance.
Before combating corruption, it is also important to understand the genesis of corruption, so as to tackle it more specifically rather than holistically. Normally corruption in our society is perceived to be financial fraud or economic crime. Actually corruption is much more broader term with wide ambit and different ramifications. It ranges from intellectual corruption to physical corruption, to sexual corruption, to moral corruption, to social corruption, to religious corruption, to ethnic corruption and very many types of corruption, all having negative implications on development and progress of our society. Basically corruption comes in to existence either by need or by greed and both these modes are directly related with the mindset of an individual. It is fundamentally connected with moral and ethical values those develop during the upbringing of a person and society only shape up such ethos.
Vigilance functioning mainly adopts two way approach in fighting corruption. One aspect is punitive vigilance that deals with creating much needed awareness so as follow thumb rule of ” prevention is better than cure “. It not only creates fear in the mind of corrupt due to horrible consequences of corruption but also builds morale against unfair and illegal practices that ultimately lead to self satisfaction of a person. All actions under this exercise are aimed to create deterrent effect in the mind of a common man that creates sense of discipline and responsibility in him. This approach is purely educative, informative and propulsive in nature.
The other method is punitive vigilance that provides punishment after committing the crime or acts of commission or omission. It is reformative that corrects human aberrations and serves lesson for others. Having major drawback that it can be used as a tool for victimization and vindication, so in practice it is less encouraged to preventive vigilance. Chances of its misuse are comparatively more that punitive vigilance.
Conclusively, together with the government we need to change our mindset, feel consciously responsible and fight for our rights by creating much needed vigilance awareness to fight against corruption menace, in order to rebuild our great India. Compromising with our moral and ethical values by succumbing to our petty gains, in turn destroy us and our nation, which we can not afford at any cost.
(The author is Regional Manager with Government of India General Insurance PSU)
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