Anna Hazare is back in the news. He was instrumental in making Lokpal happen. He also partly contributed to the defeat of the UPA government. Then why is he back in the news again? The scams (if there were any) are not visible but corruption remains where it was. The common man faces the same challenges as he did a few years ago. Where did Anna Hazare go wrong? Was it his faulty understanding of the nature of corruption? Or, was the prescription faulty? Or, was it both? If yes, then what is the way forward?

Anna Hazare was really concerned about corruption in high places. Hence, his prescription was Lokpal. It took the government more than four years to put Lokpal in place. Only time will tell whether this institution will have the desired impact or will it also become an institution for “rewarding” retired civil servants and judges. Though without commenting on the quality of judges (for obvious reasons), one can safely say that the credentials of some of the officers (wo)manning this institution are well established. It has been more than 18 months since the establishment of Lokpal but no worthwhile movement can be seen on the ground except perhaps formulation of rules. It would be worthwhile to do some baseline survey or outlining some parameters to evaluate the performance of Lokpal over the years.

The sooner it is done, the better would it be. However, whether Lokpal will ultimately rein in corruption is a moot point. Similar institutions, like Lokayukta, created at the state level have had little or no impact on corruption. At best, they provided fodder for news channels. (Though some of these channels know what-the-nation-wants-to-know and they don’t need any such fodder. They are capable of “growing” their own fodder).

Anna Hazare’s intentions were right but he didn’t realise that even he could be ‘used’ because of his ‘visibility’ and then conveniently be dumped because the ‘desired purpose’ was served. It would now be very difficult for him to become visible again.

Corruption exists at various levels but, broadly speaking, it can be classified at two levels. The one at the higher levels of governance is seen (gets reported because of the high profile nature) but not felt and the other at the cutting edge of the administration where it is felt and not seen (rarely reported and, on occasions, even accepted). Anna Hazare focussed on the former part, little realising that those indulging in it are past masters at manipulations. This nature of corruption exists even in “clean” countries like Japan. Such corruption also needs to be tackled but it calls for reforms on a larger scale and by those that are themselves benefitting out of such corrupt practices. What impacts the common man directly is corruption in day-to-day life.

As pointed out in “Ethical Dilemmas of a Civil Servant”, “The shift from ‘Nazrana’ (a practice of giving gifts to emperors/kings as recognition of tutelage) to ‘Jabrana’ (extortion by state agencies, including bureaucracy) is a serious cause for concern and requires to be addressed”, it is important to address this form of corruption. This can be done as it is already being done in certain segments of administration.

What happened in the context of railway reservations many years ago can be a lesson for many in the government. Railway reservations were beset with corrupt practices. A single technological intervention took care of the problem. Technology and transparency can take care of corruption at the cutting edge substantially as is now being increasingly demonstrated. The approach should be to incrementally reduce and then eliminate, wherever possible, the physical interface between government officials and the public.

One of the biggest manifestations of corruption is “speed money” that is paid to expedite clearances. The Project Monitoring Group (PMG) was set up in 2013 when scams were happening thick and fast. Despite the vitiated environment, the PMG managed to fast track clearances of more than Rs 5 lakh crore in just 15 months. And, no finger was pointed. This could happen on account of transparency through the use of technology. Similarly, Samagra Foundation is assisting the Haryana Government in digitising all the processes wherein there is a physical interface between the common man and the officials.

Started in July 2017, over a period of one year, the Foundation worked with the State Government and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Government of India and NIC, Haryana to bring more than 500 schemes and services from more than 35 departments to an online portal called Antyodaya Saral. In essence, this meant that a resident of Haryana could apply to all these services and schemes on the portal itself without having to run from pillar-to-post in different government offices to avail them.

Besides the online platform, there are 117 government-run state-of-the-art service centres at the headquarter/tehsil level which provide the same schemes/services and 6000+ Common Service Centres at the village/ward level in Haryana. All relevant information such as documents needed, eligibility criteria, is available on the portal itself as well as at these centres.

A single state-wide helpline has also been established with the aim to resolve all service delivery related queries and grievances. Applications are expected to be processed as per designated timelines notified under the Haryana Right to Service Act 2014. To ensure accountability, a public dashboard allows department officials to view compliance with the Right to Service Act timelines at the state as well as district level. To bring in transparency, when a citizen applies on the portal, she receives a tracking number which can be used to check the status of the application at various levels of processing.

As mentioned earlier, it can be done because it is being done. What is required is to spread the ambit of use of technology and scale successful models (there are indeed many of them). Technology can eliminate corruption even at higher levels as was demonstrated in the coal sector a few years ago. However, the charity has to begin at home. It is indeed inexplicable why despite the emphasis by the PM himself, most of the Ministries in Government of India haven’t gone digital. Pendency and delays are still mind-boggling and technology can really help. The PM has to set an example. The PMO should receive only digital files. This will force the ministries to go digital. And, the PM will get to know about the pendency in the PMO itself on a real-time basis without asking anyone or without anyone having to complain.

—Anil Swarup is former Secretary, Government of India and author of the book ‘Not Just A Civil Servant’. The views expressed are personal

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