It’s a question which is often posed on this page: is the function of India’s 18 million government servants to serve the people or vice versa? There’s a growing mountain of evidence it’s vice versa.
In the southern state of Karnataka (pop. 57 million) which until the early 1980s was perhaps the most well-governed in the Indian Union, but which in the latest assessment of Transparency International India is ranked among the country’s most corrupt states, the Lok Ayukta’s (ombudsman’s) office constituted by the state government’s Lok Ayukta Act, 1984, has unearthed hundreds of cases of official corruption, particularly of government employees in possession of assets disproportionate to their income.
According to a report in the Times of India (September 12), on September 11 the Lok Ayukta’s office conducted its 95th raid on nine modestly designated state government officials reportedly living well beyond their means. During the raids they seized assets including property documents, cash and jewellery valued at Rs.19 crore. Among the errant officials was one Chandrashekhar, an assistant engineer who joined government service in 1987 and averaged an annual remuneration of Rs.1.25 lakh over the past 21 years. However the value of his seized assets was assessed at Rs.10.59 crore. Among the others raided: H.A. Hafeez, deputy director, town planning. Average annual salary Rs.1 lakh, assets value: Rs.1.42 crore; T. V. Ramdas, joint director, watershed development, Rs.1.25 lakh and Rs.2.59 crore. Shockingly, although incumbent Lok Ayukta Justice Hegde’s men have conducted over 95 raids, since he took office in August 2006, not a single individual has been charged or prosecuted with most of them continuing in office, and some even promoted.
That’s because under the state government’s conveniently framed Lok Ayukta Act, prior sanction of the state government is required to commence prosecution proceedings against government officials. And given the well-known fact that politicians are invariably in cahoots with corrupt bureaucrats, the required sanction has never been granted, with the Lok Ayukta’s plea for suo motu powers to prosecute remaining a plaintive cry in the wilderness.
Quite clearly for the country’s cosy coterie of politicians and bureaucrats, the party on the public account never ends.