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The Oath He Took Was Sans
Conviction
WSN Network
 NEW
DELHI: Those who want to reform themselves, reform. Others set up a
commission on how to reform, and fight over reports of the
commission when they are not fighting to get more extensions for the
commission's work or to suppress its reports.
India, a classic
example of misgovernance, set up an Administrative Reforms
Commission under M Veerappa Moily of Congress. Now that Moily is a
minister in the Manmohan Singh government, one only wonders with
what kind of conviction could he have undertaken the Constitutional
oath of secrecy. The fact is that the Moily Commission had argued
against the same oath of secrecy, argued against the Official
Secrets Act 1923, and argued for an Oath of Transparency.
Will Moily now
stick to keeping things secret, or making them transparent is a moot
question. The Commission he headed submitted many radical proposals
in its 12 reports over three years to induce an element of modernity
in administration.
But Moily may
have gone back on his convictions, or may prove that he would rather
stick to them than to the Oath he was administered, it is pertinent
for us to look at some of the key reforms forwarded by the ARC.
Moily is himself
the Law Minister for
India, and it is
incumbent upon him to put his foot where his mouth is. Here are his
Seven Wonders.
(1) Kick
Criminals Out Of Politics: Acting on the ARC's proposal that
India
should make it harder for law-breakers to become law-makers. The
Representation of the People Act only disqualifies candidates who
have been convicted and sentenced to at least two years in prison.
The ARC recommended barring even those facing trial on serious
charges.
(2) Bring
Legislators Under RTI: Adopting the ARC's idea of making MPs and
MLAs answerable to citizens under RTI, the UPA government's
showpiece legislation.
(3) Have
Ministerial Code Of Ethics: Implementing the ARC's suggestion that
ministers have a code of ethics in addition to the existing code of
conduct. The ARC also recommended that the PM and chief ministers
submit an annual report on ministers' observance of the codes of
conduct and ethics. The report would include specific cases of
violation, if any, and the action taken thereon. Both codes and the
annual report would be in the public domain.
(4) Make The
Corrupt Pay: Adopting ARC's proposal that those convicted under the
Prevention of Corruption Act be liable to make good the loss to the
state or citizens and pay damages as well.
(5) Make Govt
Pay For Lies: Acting on the ARC's suggestion for a law along the
lines of the US False Claims Act. This empowers citizens and civil
society groups to seek legal relief against fraudulent claims made
by the government in terms of pollution or social costs. Once the
official claim is found by a court to be false, the agency
responsible for it would be liable to pay penalty equal to five
times the loss sustained by the exchequer or society.
(6) End Secure
Tenure Of Babus: Preventing conflict-of-interest issues for
government servants by incorporating the improvements suggested by
the ARC to the code specially meant for them. Repealing Articles 310
and 311 of the Constitution, the government should, as recommended
by it, do away with the security of tenure guaranteed to babus.
(7) Create
National Judicial Council: Implementing two pending pieces of
legislation fine-tuned by the ARC, which relate to the creation of
the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Rashtriya Lokayukta.
With due representation from all three organs of the state, NJC
would select judges and impose minor penalties on errant ones. Since
the Central Vigilance Commission has jurisdiction only over
bureaucrats, the Rashtriya Loka-yukta would probe complaints of
corruption against all MPs and ministers (barring the PM).
3
June 2009
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