During a debate on corruption in both Houses of Parliament, the Opposition alleged that the Centre was fuelling corruption.
Senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi led the charge during the debate in Lok Sabha saying UPA-II was a government of the corrupt, by the corrupt and for the corrupt. Pointing out that high FDI also led to corruption as indicated by a UNDP report, Joshi said the government should curb all the sources of corruption and there should be “zero tolerance for corruption”.
The senior BJP leader referred to the series of scams and told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he was not ready to believe that the Prime Minister allowed corruption deliberately. Joshi said it showed how much he had been misguided and urged the Prime Minister to take steps for bringing back the faith of the people on Parliament and its functioning. Joshi said gas prices were increased domestically to benefit RIL, even when there was no increase in global prices. "The government is helping the corporates at the cost of the poor," he said.
Countering Joshi’s charges, Congress member K S Rao said the Prime Minister had shown immense guts and courage by allowing action against the 2G scam accused, offering to come before the JPC and favouring PM’s inclusion under Lokpal. Rao said the government had taken a number of initiatives to fight corruption, including recommendations of a Group of Ministers (GoM) and proposed legislations like the Judicial Accountability Bill and Whistle Blowers Bill. In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of Opposition, Arun Jaitley said when de-licensing took place and controls were eliminated, he expected that with the role of the government coming down, corruption would be eliminated. Not only did that not happen, the expansion of economic activity, expanded the areas and quantum of corruption.
“Land became a major source of corruption. From acquisition to release, to change of land users, to sanction townships, discretions in relation to land became major source of corruption,” Jaitley said. He said the ‘First Come First Served’ policies in relation to mining, placed the resources in the hands of those who traded in minerals rather than use it for value addition.
“Allocation of natural resources like spectrum, oil and gas, allotment of tenders and contracts in relation to highways, ports and other areas became matters of government discretion. The exercise of discretion gave way for arbitrariness and corruption. Private sector education expanded the base of education but resulted in huge capitation fees, in disciplines where the capacity was scarce. Allotment of liquor contracts was another area where corruption flourished. In the environment of corruption and graft, dealing with revenue departments, municipalities, ration department became a nightmare for citizens.”
He asked a number of questions: How can the government alone have the power to remove the inconvenient Lok Pal draft? This power should be with the Supreme Court or through an impeachment process. Why should the whistleblowers not get protection? Why should there not be a special bench in every high court to deal with corruption cases? Why should the punishment to a complainant who makes false complaint be higher than the punishment accorded to the guilty for corruption? How do you include NGOs, which are not funded by the government in the ambit of the Lok Pal? Jaitley said there was a strong rationale to make the CBI and CVC independent.