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For the Chinese, 2010 might have been the Year of the Tiger, but for India, it was

the Year of the Scams. 2G Scam, CWG


scam, Adarsh scam, Housing scam, financial /banking scam, media scam, mining scam, judges scam, land grabbing
scam, parliamentary scam, onions scam — you name ’em; we had ’em!

If we had statisticians follow scams with the same avidness as they follow cricket, we might have been told that the total
value of scams in 2010 probably exceeded the total value of all the scams since Independence put together. We might
also have been told that the 2G scam alone exceeded in value all the other scams of 2010 put together. The government
took a good drubbing on many of these counts. The Opposition didn’t come out smelling of roses either, particularly in
Karnataka.

Ah, but the end of the year perhaps should not be so much about the year gone by, as what we can hope for in the New
Year. So, let us see what 2011 could be like if India were to make a resolution to launch its war against corruption. What
steps may be required to initiate such a war?

Such a resolution will see Parliament pass a Bill for transparent state funding of all elections in the country — an issue at
the very root of rampant corruption and the blatancy with which it is practised. This will be followed up with a rigorous
regulatory regime with fast-track courts exclusively for corruption cases. This will also call for fast-tracking of judicial
reforms.

Most discretionary powers at lower levels of the government mechanism will be almost entirely replaced by transparent
web-based technology. How will rural India use the system? Well, internet kiosks manned by ex-servicemen or self-
employed graduates could be a good starting point, much like the STD booths of yore.

Taking a cue from online railway reservations that reduced corruption in railway reservations or various payments and
tracking systems at the municipal or electricity board level that are helping to reduce routine corruption in these
departments, the government will mandate most governmental payments, receipts and tracking of property taxes, tax
refunds, stamp duty, etc, to be online and simplified.

For example, in Scandinavian countries, property taxes are paid on the basis of the frontage of the houses, which entails
little computational complications. Having simplified and automated the systems thus, the government will ensure that any
official or member of the public misusing the system would be heavily penalised.

The New Year will see Parliament provide a constitutional status to the enforcement directorate and the Central Bureau of
Investigation along the lines of the Election Commission, so that they are not handmaidens of any government or political
party, and ensure that they shall have the freedom to act independently and speedily against the erring big fish. Along
similar line, the more enlightened states would place the state police force under the powers of a politically insulated
Lokayukta.

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