Who Nurture the Roots of Government Corruption?
The Right To Information means the right to know the truth about the government. Before 2005 this right to information was limited only to the Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly. They could stand up in parliament and ask direct questions, and demand an answer from the government, but the common man was unable to do so. If a common man required some kind of information from any government department, he could not get it so easily. All the government officers would ignore or neglect him, as they were not obliged to answer the questions of a common man. He would even be ridiculed for asking such questions, as the decisions and information about the government office were none of his business.
This means the government was answerable to only MPs and MLAs. They did not have any responsibility or liability towards the general public who elected these MPs and MLAs. This means the government was not required to answer to the real proprietors of the Republic. But it all changed in 2005. From 2005 the Right To Information Act required the government to appropriately respond to the questions of the common man.
Under Right To Information Act any citizen can demand to know about the working and functioning of the government. All he has to do is write an application and deposit a small amount of 10 Rupees. He will receive his answer within thirty days. If the responsible officer failed to provide the information, he could be fined for that.
Right To Information Act gave the power back to common people where it actually belonged. This act made the government more responsible and transparent. The ministers and bureaucrats became more careful about their dealings. Now whenever a minister or a bureaucrat makes a deal they are extra careful about its effects and consequences. They are afraid that the public could know about it through the Right To Information Act.
Corruption is still rampant. Biased and wrong decisions are still made. But now they have to take special measures to cover them. They could still find a way to bypass the Right To Information Act. First they find loopholes in Right To Information Act itself. Sometimes they make excuses about confidentiality, national security or privacy to cover the information. Apart from this Right To Information Act still hasn’t made a large impact on public consciousness.
Indian citizens are still not active enough to go into such minor details to expose the government follies and misdeeds. We haven’t yet realized the true power of Right To Information Act and the impact it can make. In spite of all this many government ministers and political parties consider Right To Information Act to be the biggest achievement of Indian Republic.
If the real meaning of democracy is a government by the people and for the people, then why can’t people get the right to question the activities of not only government but also the political parties. The government is just an extension of the ruling political party. The government ministers follow the commands and decisions of their party. The real rulers of the government are the political parties and their leaders. Do the common people have the power to elect the Prime Minister or Chief Minister? No, they are nominated and selected by their party leaders. That’s why party is held responsible for their good or bad decisions. It is the party that wins or loses an election.
Government ministers and bureaucrats commit acts of corruption for their parties. It requires millions and billions of rupees to run and operate a political party. They also require a huge financial reserve in order to win an election. Who is fulfilling these financial requirements? Where and how is the money coming from? Of course it comes from the government, through secret and confidential deals. When any minister is caught red-handed taking bribes, they say it was for party funds. And later when there are talks about removing these ministers, they beg their party leaders for their positions on the basis of the services they had done for the party.
They also commit the acts of corruption for personal gains. But when giving explanations or excuses about their allegations, they say that they were doing it to fulfill the demands of their party members. In the name of party funds, numerous bribes are taken. The person or organizations that bribe them are given lots of government favours. The person giving the bribe is more vile and guilty than the minister taking it, because they take ten times more than what they gave. This is the reason why there is rampant and unrestrained corruption in the government.
The tree of government corruption is deeply rooted in their political parties. Party corruption nurtures the government corruption. Party corruption is not so widely known or discussed because no one keeps its records. No one is given a receipt for the money they paid. And also they don’t leave any paper trails during its distribution. Everything happens through word of mouth. Some parties show the income of one thousand or two thousand and big parties show the income of one hundred or two hundred crores to the Income Tax Department. This is what they are showing, so think about the huge financial reserves they are hiding in their foreign accounts.
This huge financial corruption is hidden and concealed from the public because most of our political parties have become private limited companies. What is the real face of our political parties? Some are mother-son or father-son parties, while some are husband-wife or father-daughter parties. These party owners gain hefty amount of money from selling their party tickets.
This greed for money also destroys the internal unity and democracy of the political parties. There are no rules or procedures for the nomination and election of their party members and candidates. Only those members receive preference that have deep pockets, and would generate a lot of money after becoming ministers. These candidates openly violate the money-expenditure limit set by Election Commission of India. They spend hundred or two hundred times more than the allotted amount. After winning the election and becoming a part of the government, they earn that money back with interest. This is the root of government corruption.
That’s why Right To Information Act should be first implemented on political parties and it’s leaders. The ruling political party play a more significant role in the governance of India than the government. It is more important to know the hidden truth of these political parties than that of the government. If we could make the working and dealings of these political parties more transparent, the government corruption would resolve itself.
But the real question is do our politicians want a pure, corruption-free government? If they really want to end the government corruption, then why do all these opposing political parties stand united on the issue of keeping the political parties out of Right To Information Act? The party-secret is more important than the government-truth.
Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_Information_Act
Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_corruption
Photo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupees
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