In Quest of Transparency

Years back, the founding fathers of Indian Democracy in a bid to ensure good governance drafted the constitution. The historical document was meant to let the people of India understand their rights and limitations to sustain a true democratic set up Looking back now after decades, we may comment that the noble intention of the initiators was only partly fulfilled.
Why partly? While the people of India have by and large understood the importance of their mandate in electing successive Governments in power, they could hardly contribute much beyond that. Politicians, irrespective of their color and creed, taking advantage of absence of mass awareness and abject poverty of majority developed the habit of thinking themselves rulers instead of entrusted public servants. Once in position of power they have taken the people of India, who have given them the mandate to govern, for granted. Transparency and accountability which are the true ingredients of a democratic government remained hidden in books for years. Public offices turned into enigma to the people at large and corruption became rampant there. Even during late sixties the noted Swedish economist and Noble laureate Mr. Gunnar Myrdal, who wrote the famous book "Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations" diagnosed that the root cause of India's economic malady lies in the fact that the Indian people by then accepted corruption as a social practice.
Over the decades, while the less developed economies have been striving to improve the living conditions of their people by rightly emphasizing on the need for transparency, accountability and better governance nothing much has been done so far in our country. Recently, the UNDP report on Human Development (1999) on South Asia estimated that if the corruption level in India went down to that of the Scandinavian countries, the growth rate of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) would increase by 1.5 per cent and foreign direct investment would go up by 12 per cent. It should be well understood that a 1.5 percent increase of the long term growth trend can, if garnered in an equitable manner, generate substantial benefit to the general economic well being of the people.
In reality, corruption through non-transparency and non-accountability causes a cumulative erosion of the ethical and social values which are integral parts of productive labour. Any success in the removal of corruption through entrenchment of procedural transparency, accountability and good governance would surely enrich the general social environment by fostering a climate of trust, human dignity and self-reliance and cause an upswing in productive labour with its concomitant positive effect on the growth of GDP too.
It is worthwhile considering the relative gravity of the malady of corruption in a country like India. According to the August 2008 corruption perception index released by the by the Berlin-based Transparency International in collaboration with the University of Gottingen in Germany , India came down from the 72nd position held in 2007 and in the 85th position in a list of 180 countries. India's integrity score this year is 3.4, down from 3.5 in 2007, says the survey. Its score in 2006 was 3.3. India's performance was worse than that of China (72nd position), Ghana (67th position), South Africa (54th position) and Mauritius (41st position)


In this context, do we have anything to do? Yes, of course. There are three alternatives.
We may accept the situation with a half-cynical and half-helpless shrug.
We may cast our votes for the opposition to the present Government only to conclude after a few days that all are same and nothing can be done about it.
We may find a forum through which we may raise our voice against corruption and insist on transparency in public administration.
We have been doing the first two religiously over the years as most us failed to find a suitable forum through which we may contribute. The Transparency International India (TII) is one of the forums perhaps we all are looking for. TII is the Indian part of an international organization devoted to striving against corruption. An autonomous West Bengal branch of this body has been set up with a goal of making active contribution to this movement and has been active for some time.
I hereby reproduce the way the initiators of TII, West Bengal described the organization and narrated its objectives.
"TII- West Bengal is a non-Government, non-party and not-for-profit organization of residents of West Bengal or expartriates from West Bengal resident elsewhere, with professional, social, industrial or academic experience, joining together to promote transparent and ethical governance and to eradicate corruption, defined as misuse of public office or resources for public benefit.

Among other tasks,TII-WB will uphold and promote the core values enshrined in the Preamble to the Constitution of India, namely Justice,Liberty,Equality and Fraternity. It will take all steps necessary to bring about transparency and integrity in West Bengal's public life and to eradicate corruption from all spheres,thereof.It will also function in co-operation with TII and other like-minded organizational bodies interested in fighting corruption and will support Governmental efforts in this regard while remaining independent of any political party. Being located in West Bengal, it will also give some priority to corruption and non-transparency issues that may be found typical in the State and about which our members have some knowledge or expertise."
This organization has already been working with a number of specific issues successfully.
TII-WB has been presently trying to augment the roll of membership with like-minded individuals and groups. I would suggest all who may find the mission beneficial to the society to contact:
Dr.Ajit Banerjee,Secretary,TII-WB,
9,Greek Church Row Extension,
Kolkata -700 026
Phone: 033-24642918/24642386
E-mail: akbanb@vsnl.net, ajitbanerjee2@gmail.com