This is not the first time that N Vittal has penned a volume on corruption. The first one was published in 2003 and aimed at highlighting how corruption was blocking progress (Corruption in India: The Roadblock for National Prosperity). As far as the title goes this one, therefore, gets to the next step — of how to end the rule of corruption.
N Vittal comes with the knowledge of someone who must have seen all facets of corruption — from his days in the state administration in Gujarat to the national level; within the government in his initial years, and then in public sector organisations when he chaired the Public Enterprises Selection Board. And he topped it all by heading the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) for four years, being the first person to do so. So, it is natural to expect more than the usual from him.
The way Vittal sees it, corruption has ethical and trust dimensions, and it has to be ended through better performing institutions. But institutions do not perform well by themselves; good institutional design needs the right kind of individuals driving them. And so the case of former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan underscores how an individual can turn around a moribund mechanism through his actions — actions that good institutional design allows him to take. India’s future, therefore, lies in the hands of institutions such as the judiciary, the Election Commission, the Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) and the CVC.
Beyond this there is little that is new in the book; the author, it seems, has continued to draw on his understanding of the early 2000s. India has since moved on, corruption is far more sophisticated, it has a stranglehold on all institutions and infiltrated the arms used by these institutions. Most politicians are unable to fight it as the whole structure of their past, as well as their future, rests on the corrupt practices of their colleagues. Bureaucrats cannot fight it because most of their colleagues are mired in it. The regulator bureaucrats cannot do much because the mechanisms they need to use, and the lower-level bureaucracy, are mostly enveloped in it. A few institutions and well-meaning and powerful individuals are important but we need much more. Today, corruption has permeated the innards of the state, it is a part and parcel of day-to-day interaction within the government and of people interacting with the government. And, therefore, we require a far deeper and nuanced understanding of the various inter-linkages between corrupt practices and career progression within the government and in the political space.
Vittal’s latest book offers no such perspective. Apart from a few interesting factoids, there is little else in the 264 pages that takes forward the arguments that Vittal has set out before and many others have written before and after. His innate caution gets in the way of deeper analysis. Or is it weariness?
A gentlemanly lament is one way this volume could be described. But thankfully there is optimism, too. Countries as diverse as England, Singapore, Hong Kong and even Botswana have been known to have largely won the battle. These countries provide very interesting parallels for India. In most of these cases, it was the politicians who led the fight that culminated in corrupt practices dwindling into insignificance in these countries. Unfortunately, the author does not dig deeper. Instead, he ventures into the importance of a few institutions. Maybe the reviewer missed something, but institutions such as the CVC, the CAG, the judiciary, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and so on are all designed, maintained and staffed by politicians. Change can only occur through India’s politics and the mechanism of that process is what this reviewer would have liked Vittal, with his extensive experience, to have revealed.
ENDING CORRUPTION? — HOW TO CLEAN UP INDIA
N Vittal
Penguin Books India, New Delhi
264 pages; Rs 499
