Its not for nothing that Customs is the most sought after cadre behind IAS & IPS in Civil Services Examination. The department reeks of Corruption. Its has got an ever flowing stream of ‘liquid cash’ that beckons new recruits. Estimated average daily bribe collected by Customs officials range from Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh as per graft investigators. Three recent HT stories give us a glimpse of the rot with in the department.

Hindustan Times, 09 Feb 2010: DRI raids and seizes Rs. 1.75 crores from Ashok Gulati, a Customs House Agent (Private entity who provide services to importers and exporters). He confesses that apart from Rs. 40 Lakhs the rest belonged to 4 Customs Officials including a Deputy Commissioner. DRI transfers the case to the Customs & Excise Department who order an internal inquiry.

Hindustan Times, 11 Feb 2010: The CHA, Ashok Gulati retracts his earlier statement. He now claims that the entire money belongs to him.

Hindustan Times, 21 Feb 2010: The story gives a detailed account of pen drives, cryptic codes & collection agents used by Corrupt customs officials to conceal their activities.

While the stream of corruption flows unabated, vigilance agencies only end up covering up whatever little gets exposed. There are many questions that fill our minds begging for answers:

1) Why were the customs officials not raided immediately after there were enough corroborating evidence.

2) Why was the CHA not used as a decoy to entrap the corrupt officials.

3) Has any systematic effort been made to counter this entrenched web of corruption?

4) How many officials have been raided/caught and successfully prosecuted in the past one year.

5) Are new recruits who opt for Customs asked why they did so?

6) What is it that makes Customs such a lucrative cadre choice, if not Corruption.

I was forced to mull on this question by the runway popularity of a recent post by Fumiko Nagano on the World Bank blog regarding the efforts of 5th Pillar to fight Corruption in India with Zero Rupee Notes. Since then, it has taken the digital world by storm with several hundred twitterattis including @ShashiTharoor and @Gulpanag retweeting its link and several prominent websites including The Economist, CNN, Boing Boing featuring related posts. 5th Pillar is Chennai based, grass roots organisation that has been working against Corruption using RTI and Zero Rupee Notes. It encourages people to use Zero Rupee Notes distributed by them to counter requests for bribe. This is akin to ‘Gandhigiri’ as it tries to shame the Corrupt officials into giving up Corruption instead of using punitive measures. For the uninitiated, the concept of Gandhigiri was introduced by a 2006 Hindi film, Lage Raho Munna Bhai. It consists of confronting the tormentor with moral force, kindness and non-violence in true Gandhian tradition. Since the release of the movie, strikers, protesters and activists have begun to distribute roses or flowers to draw attention to their cause. Even powerful Politicians & Police have sometimes resorted to  Gandhigiri in an attempt to educate the public and convey their message.

Like Gandhigiri, the Zero Rupee note idea too is fairly simple and does not require much resources to implement. The idea also finds so many takers because it promises to fix a vexatious problem without too much turmoil. The real question is how effective the solution is? To my mind, there are three chief ingredients that can cause Gandhigiri to succeed:-

1. The foremost factor behind the success of Gandhigiri is the shock value associated with it. Since the tormentor does not anticipate such a response from the victim, he is shocked into compliance by the act of Gandhigiri. This factor is largely responsible for the initial success of Gandhigiri. However as the novelty fades and things fall back to normal, its effectiveness reduces dramatically.

2. The second chief ingredient of Gandhigiri is its viral nature. Nothing succeeds like success. The success of a few individuals can drive others to follow suit. If a million people who have got the Zero Rupee Note, start using it to pay the corrupt, the impact will be huge. The impact will not just be due to the ’shock value’ but also due to to the collective strength of the effort and the inherent weakness of the corrupt.

3. The third ingredient which is always latent is the threat element. Ironically it is diametrically opposite to what Gandhiji preached. For example in the two recent cases of Gandhigiri – MNS distributing elementary Marathi books to North Indian Taxi Drivers and RJD workers distributing roses to shopkeepers a day prior to ‘Bihar bandh’ requesting them  to keeps their shops closed – both had unmistakable elements of threat. Even in the movie, Gandhigiri succeeds largely because it is done by ‘Munna Bhai’ who is a gangster. The lurking element of threat and power is what makes Gandhigiri potent. It is debatable how effective it would be in the hands of the weak and the helpless. None have said this better than Ramdhari Singh Dinkar in his masterpiece ‘Kurushetra’  :-

क्षमा शोभती उस भुजंग को, जिसके पास गरल हो,

उसको क्या, जो दन्तहीन, विषरहित, विनीत, सरल हो

(Forgiveness only adorns a serpent who has venom,

It does not behove the toothless, poison-less and the imbecile.)

To set the record straight, this post is not meant to deride or debunk the idea of a Zero rupee note. It is meant to put things in perspective and set the expectations right. At the very least it is an idea that takes the fight to the doorsteps of the Corrupt officials. It gives even the poorest of the victims a tool to register their protest. Yet it is a desperate tool for desperate people. Anyone who can afford bribe is highly unlikely to use the Zero Rupee Note. Ironically, those who can’t afford bribe are also the most vulnerable in the face of any possible retaliation from the corrupt. This is where the ground operations of 5th Pillar play a crucial role by providing support, succour and advice to the hapless victims. There is also a strong case that can be made of a possible co-operation between the 5th Pillar and  the Legal BPO of the kind proposed by @Shaffi Mather to assist the victims of Corruption, if Gandhigiri alone does not work.

The real purpose of this post however, is to emphasise that Corruption is a serious issue just like Health, Education, Infrastructure, Poverty and Population. It requires similar allocation of resources not just from the government but also from all stake holders and well wishers. It requires us to institute academic studies, aggregate knowledge that already exists, monitor and measure progress over time and place, spread awareness, expose, control and eliminate Corruption. Like any other serious problem, it deserves a serious response. Mere symbolism will not be enough.

The beginning of a new decade is a time to look back and set new strategic goals for future. A decade is a definitive period in a country’s history that can shape its fortunes for a long time to come. So let us review the progress of our fight against Corruption and resolve for a decade of concerted actions culminating in a Corruption Free India.

After I started this blog in May last year, I have seen the issue of ‘Corruption’ rise up steadily in public consciousness. Earlier Corruption used to hit the headlines whenever there was a new ‘expose’ only to fade away in oblivion after that. A lot seems to have changed in the past few months with Corruption being recognized as the key bottleneck inhibiting India’s progress. Several key opinion leaders have in unison thrown their weight behind the issue of Corruption in India. Some people might say that this is just a storm in the teacup. It might well be that. Yet many a cataclysmic change have started on more insignificant notes.

One such storm in the tea cup happened when ‘Jaago Re’, the much acclaimed campaign of Tata Tea, decided to adopt ‘Corruption’ as their next focal issue after running a successful voter turnout campaign for several years. The credibility of their earlier campaign as well as the strength of the Tata brand together promise a sustained campaign against corruption. It began with new TV spots Khilana Band Pilana Shuru as well as a brand new interactive website www.jaagore.com .

Several prominent bloggers too have zeroed in on ‘Corruption’ as being the key to India’s future. Atanu Dey has been most incisive of them all. He has written several posts on the issue of Corruption and how it inhibits economic development. At the end of one such post A Digression on Corruption… , he aptly concluded that India is poor because it is Corrupt. Another regular blogger, a Delhi based foreign correspondent, John Elliott wrote The Blight of Corruption in India . It explores how corruption at state levels have risen by leaps and bounds and it often forces the hands of the Central Government in the federal structure of our democracy.

Rajesh Jain, India’s numero uno Internet entrepreneur,too spelt out his thoughts on Corruption in a 5 part series Corruption in India declaring that fighting Corruption could be the next game changer for India. Gurcharan Das, the famous author of ‘India Unbound’ too emphasized the need to wage a war against Corruption in his new year post Future is ours to seek .

The ‘Corruption’ expose of the year was undoubtedly the Madhu Koda scam where almost a Billion Dollar graft by the ex Chief Minister of Jharkhand was unearthed Outlookindia – Cover Story on Madhu Koda . The sheer size of the scam has put the spot light back on Corruption. Our effort now should be to keep it there.

On my blog, I started by laying the groundwork for a greater role of Social Media in fighting Corruption. I followed it up in a 3 part series starting with Gods of Corruption detailing how easy it was to find Corruption in India. My regular activity on Twitter can be followed at nobribe . A Facebook Fan Page Corruption Free India was launched a few months back to facilitate interactivity among the support group. At this stage however, there are many more questions than answers – Why are we corrupt? ; Is Corruption in India inevitable? ; How can we tackle Corruption? ; What is the extent of Corruption? ; Why do we need to measure Corruption? ; How to measure Corruption? ; How can Social Media fight Corruption? and many more such questions. I do not claim to have all the answers but I am sure we will find our way if we keep looking for the answers together. A lot of you have encouraged me in my journey to unravel this mystery and offered your active support. I propose to take up some of the questions (not in the same order) in the weeks and months to come. Also working on a ‘wiki’ based solution that will allow for greater collaboration.

Recently the most influential management guru in the world, C. K. Prahlad dwelt at length on the issue of Corruption in India while delivering the Nani A Palkhivala memorial lecture Business Standard – Corruption Costs… estimating its cost to the Indian economy to be $54.3 Billion. He exhorted the nation to confront this issue with all the resources at its command. On a similar wintry, cold Delhi morning at the start of the previous decade Prahlad had boldly suggested that India should target 10% GDP growth rate . This was the time when India was just coming out of its customary slow growth rate and even a 7% target seemed awfully ambitious. Yet there he was,fresh from his success of the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid theory’ propounding a bold path forward for India to move on. Many people felt at that stage that he might just be shooting from his hips, yet by end of that decade, even though we didn’t actually attain 10% growth rate, yet the number does not raise any eyebrows anymore. Here is hoping that this new decade will mark the beginning of the end of Corruption in India. Let’s all work for it.

One of the most redeeming qualities of Nitish Kumar is persistence. Most politicians have a tendency of launching something with much fanfare, only to fade away in a whimper once the public gaze shifts. Nitish on the other hand has an inclination for following up on his initiatives. One of the best examples of his persistence is the ‘Janta Durbar’ program. Every Monday morning, he along with his key ministers and top bureaucrats meets complainants who approach him.

Such programs had been in fashion with earlier administrations too, but then they were primarily used for either dispensing favours to select groups, patronizing sycophants (ala ‘Lalu Chalisa’), or most importantly for earning useful publicity news bites . However, more often than not they quickly lost their utility and were slowly relegated to the back burner. One of the first significant changes that Nitish made to this program was to change its name from ‘Janta Durbar of Chief Minister’ to ‘Chief Minister in Janta Durbar’. The change though symbolic, epitomizes Nitish’s approach to governance. Another important improvement that he brought in was to connect all the complaints to an online tracking system. This online system assigns a ‘ticket number’ to every complaint that is logged in. The complaint is then followed up through the maze of bureaucracy till its resolution. He also experimented with ‘Janta Durbar’ on specific topics such as cases related to Police or to other departments and schemes. After assuming Office, Nitish Kumar has meticulously stuck to his ‘Monday morning’ schedule of ‘Janta Durbar’. The only time he makes an exception is when he is unwell, away for some important business or any other extenuating circumstances ( like the period of mourning after his Wife’s demise). Another time when he changed his schedule was when he took the program to the electorate’s door steps during his ‘Vikas Yatra’ while campaigning for the Parliamentary Elections.

This is not to suggest that all the complaints that land up in the ‘Janta Durbar’ get redressed. While many complaints are frivolous in nature, many seek personal favours and some are even antagonistic and require investigation of the contrarian point of view also. However still many genuine problems too face bureaucratic resistance in spite of the direct intervention of Chief Minister. Moreover one of the unfortunate offshoots of persistence has been that that those whose problems get redressed are less likely to return for expressing their thankfulness than those whose problems do not get redressed. This has led to several publicity disasters with complainants turning to the Janta Durbar multiple times unable to get redressal even after repeated attempts. Anyone else would have given up on this program if not for anything else, then for the bad publicity it generates when complainants recount their horror story of bureaucratic apathy and expose the inability of even the CM to cut through the red tape. Yet he has steadfastly stuck to his guns and refused to shut the program down. Four years down the line, different people may have different take on the efficacy of the program, still its regular continuance is an achievement in itself. That people continue to flock his Monday morning sessions and are allowed to approach repeatedly if their problems are not resolved, is no mean achievement at all.

In conclusion, Nitish Kumar has turned out to be an honest politician who has sincerely worked hard to put the state back on rails. He however, does not just bring good intentions and hard work to the table but also actively engages in realpolitik to ensure his political survival. He may not be a perfect politician, but his persistence scores well over his lack of perfection. Yet it may not be desirable to have him at the helm in perpetuity. On the contrary, we need many more such politicians so that we can rotate power among them and be sure that one takes off from where the other left. Only then, the people’s work can finally get done .

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It is for not for nothing that Nitish Kumar was called ‘Chanankya’ of undivided Janta Dal in the early ’90s. In his present avatar too, he has mixed up a fair dose of realpolitik with his developmental plank. From the very beginning of his term he strategically targeted the vote banks of his two chief opponents in the state – Lalu Yadav (RJD) & Ramvilas Paswan (LJP).

He began by assiduously wooing the Muslim Community to break the Muslim-Yadav (MY) axis of Lalu Yadav. Apart from symbolic gestures of admitting a large number of Muslim Leaders to his party (JDU), attending Muslim festivities, drafting a Muslim bureaucrat for the critical Home Secretary position ( rarity for a BJP ruled/partnered state) etc., he also has also launched several schemes for the Muslim community (such as ‘Hunar’) and recruited ‘urdu’ teachers in bulk . He took credit for finally convicting the main accused of Bhagalpur riots of 1989 and distributing relief to its victims on the lines of Delhi 1984 Sikh riots. He has cleverly positioned himself as a ‘doer’ versus Lalu who he says, only provided ‘lip service’ to the community. His recent decision of allocating 250 acres of land for establishing a center of Aligarh Muslim University in Bihar too, has been a step in the same direction..

At the same time he also targeted the ‘Dalit’ vote bank of Ramvilas Paswan. He first broke off a large chunk of the community by branding them as ‘Maha-Dalits’ as they had not received the benefits due to them while all their benefits were being cornered by the more well off communities among Dalits. A separate “Mahadalit Vikas Mission‘ was founded under his supervision and a flood of schemes have been launched to directly target succour to this community. To add injury to salt, he has slowly expanded the ambit of ‘Mahadalits’ leaving only the ‘Paswans’ in the dalit community. This move has been greatly resented by Ramvilas Paswan who has seen his electoral fortunes dwindle.

He has even tried to neutralize Congress with his demand for a special state status for Bihar. He strategically voiced this demand just before the declaration of the results of General Parliamentary Elections, at the time when Congress was fishing for more allies. The Congress was initially sympathetic but backtracked later after they were able to cobble up a comfortable majority on their own. Nitish now periodically uses this demand as a stick to beat Congress apart from his usual lament of insufficient central assistance. He has not even spared his partners in the government – BJP. Starting off as junior partners with BJP in the undivided Bihar, he has slowly pushed them to a corner and assumed the role of big brother in the state. He also asserts his authority clearly in matters of protecting his secular credentials such as the recent land allocation to AMU.

Internally he has moved swiftly against detractors in his own party. Early dissenters like Upendra Kumar Kushwaha were promptly shown the door. ( He has recently rejoined Nitish after unsuccessfully trying his luck with NCP for past 4 years). Even the party patriarch, George Fernandis who was also the convener of NDA, was kept at bay. Fernandis was denied a Loksabha ticket on grounds of ill health, though he was later accommodated in the Rajya Sabha. Other detractors such Nagmani were thrown out or the ones like Prabhunath Singh were neutralised through election defeat.

However despite all his brilliant strategies, Nitish received a body blow in the last bye-election for 18 assembly seats in September 2009. He along with BJP could only manage to win 5 setas whereas RJD+LJP won 9 and Congress 2. This has exposed his razor thin lead in the deeply divided caste equations of Bihar. While the marginalisation of Ramvilas Paswan has pushed him firmly into the Lalu camp, the rejuvenation of Congress nationally and the decline of BJP (his partner in the state) together have the potential of stinging him badly in the next assembly elections slated for late 2010. Only saving grace for him is that there is still another year to go and if he heeds to the warning signals of the recent bye-election defeat, he can still re-work the magic next year.

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