Scams in India....It Never Ends

Today's morning news broke the arrival of new scam – food scam in UP and Land allotment irregularities in Tamilnadu. The news reader referred to the UP Food Scam as “Mother of all Scams”. I am not sure whether the news reader recollects that the same term was used for 2G Spectrum allotment irregularities about a week ago in the same news channel.

Two weeks ago, there was 2G, before that Commonwealth and Adarsh. In about 10 secs, I was able to note down the following scams; Satyam Computer Services Fraud; Justice Dinakaran – land grabbing case; Mining Scam – Jharkand; Mining Scam – Bellary; IPL ; Karnataka Land Allotment; Adarsh ; Commonwealth Games; 2G Spectrum Scam; Food Scam in UP; Land Allotment Scam in TN….It Never Ends.

Gone are the days when a person involved in corruption was looked down upon. Instead of social stigma, there is a wide spread social acceptance.

After seeing these scams, I myself realize as to how we are used to ‘palm greasing’ even for basic things – Gas connection, Drivers License, and many more things for which we have the Right to access and demand, still we need to go the extra 'penny' to get things done.

Transparency International, the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, ranks India at 87th position in Corruption Perception Index with 3.3 points.

The case of despair becomes even stark when the ex-boss of an anti-graft commission, Pratyush Sinha, threw his hands up in despair, saying his job was thankless and lamenting that increasingly materialistic Indians were becoming “utterly corrupt”.

Global Financial Integrity, an American think-tank, in a report suggested

From 1948 through 2008 India lost a total of $213 billion in illicit financial flows (or illegal capital flight). These illicit financial flows were generally the product of: corruption, bribery and kickbacks, criminal activities, and efforts to shelter wealth from a country's tax authorities.

Two points that need attention in the report are related to growth of economy and income distribution.

In the post-reform period of 1991-2008, deregulation and trade liberalization accelerated the outflow of illicit money from the Indian economy. Opportunities for trade mispricing grew and expansion of the global shadow financial system—particularly island tax havens—accommodated the increased outflow of India's illicit capital flight.

There is a statistical correlation between larger volumes of illicit flows and deteriorating income distribution.

There is a lot of simmering in the public on this raging issue of scams. These scams could plague the nation’s development. There are some NGOs formed to fight for anti-corruption. I for one believe, it is not for an NGO or any group to stop corruption (I am not demeaning the work done by them).

It is for the people to take collective responsibility. Most importantly, offenders should get punishment and this will bring in a sense of social correction. Judiciary and other Government agencies should bite and not merely bark.

“Right to Know” Vs “Right to Privacy”

There is enough written, discussed and debated on the Wikileaks in every possible forum. I am no pundit to comment on the implications no more than what is already been done to death. But the development over the last couple of days on handling the leaks is something that requires attention.

Everyone is gunning for Assange’s head, typical reaction we see from our politicians and bureaucrats, to bring an end to this leak menace. Servers were traced and shunted out, Interpol notices were issued against the Wikileak founder; so in essence, there is a massive hunt for human and physical infrastructure that helped created these leaks. Is shutting down the servers or finding Assange going to solve the problem? What if Assange is murdered tomorrow? Is anything going to change? I have my sincere doubts.

I think it is a classic case of missing woods for the trees.

The fundamental is – Wikileak has shown that technology exist to allow individuals to leak data while maintaining anonymity. With or without Assange, this model can survive. Assange has planted an idea – to enable anonymous leaking and make information public.

Technology made it easier for the Government and their agencies to snoop around the lives of individuals; the reverse is what we are seeing now. Individuals, alone or working together are snooping around the offices of the government. So, going forward government’s functioning should take into account the “secret-keeping” strategy as part of its functioning. From now on, this is going to be the situation that the government has to live-with.

Basic question is – Can such leaks be prevented? Yes. Those with the permission to access the sensitive materials refuse to divulge any information, this can be prevented. But this is highly unlikely. As long as individuals have their own moral and social sense – these leaks and scandals will continue.

To cap such leaks, the Government might lay severe restrictions on the flow of information and restrict few people to the sensitive data and information. This will constrain the information sharing between different governments agencies for the fear of leaks. This can hamper the normal functioning of the government.

There is always going to be a dilemma when "right to know" starts interfering with the “right to privacy”. For instance, medical records or transcripts of individuals are under the ambit of “right to privacy”. What if an individual is having some ailments is also the ‘Head of State’? Should this information get reported? That is where the challenge comes as to how are we going to interpret the data and information.If we have to stop any such leaks, our debate should be centered around things that determine leaks and not on the leaks.