Skeletons are tumbling out of closets every other day in Punjab and elsewhere. Wherever you touch, the skin erupts with hidden tumours. It is an epidemic of cancer, if corruption could be described as a kind of cancer and if cancer possessed the characteristics of an epidemic.

Previously people were only vaguely aware of the rampancy of corruption. What they are now witnessing is the instantiation of that incredible rampancy. The man who is not a frequent lurker in the corridors of power is overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the evidence. If he yet mumbles cynically that nothing will eventually come out of it, it is because he doubts if the political leadership has the stature, the will and the statesmanship required to conduct a decisive war on this Matrix-like evil that has insinuated itself into every pore of the society.

The common person's scepticism is understandable. Too many false starts of a war on corruption and scarcely any substantive gains could not have induced optimism. The public memory is littered with the remains of shattered dreams awakened by exposures too numerous to recount. In such a situation, it is exceedingly difficult to evoke the trust and confidence of the public.

By breaking into Ravi Sidhu's long-impregnable can of worms, Captain Amarinder Singh has surely made the right entry into the labyrinth of corruption. But in order to be sustained the operation will require a long-term anti-corruption strategy and a proper sequencing of actions. The climate for reform cannot be built overnight. It will require a set of mutually reinforcing actions and reforms designed to tackle corruption at all levels. The Vigilance checks of schools and hospitals seem to be aimed at inducing discipline in public servants at the level where its absence hurts the public the most. The effort is well intentioned, effectual and popularly supported, but Vigilance checks cannot be carried on indefinitely. For one thing, the risk of the abuse of authority cannot be ruled out. Secondly, grassroots touts posing as party workers are already stirring to reduce the "injury to the public". Such persons will try to prevail upon the government to go easy and relax its onslaught. Consequently, the anti-corruption juggernaut will screech to a predictable halt when the fabricated public opinion meets the in-house sensibilities of the ruling party on the threshold of self-interest.

Hence, at least one lesson that one hopes the government has learned from its experience in the past few days is that there is a long war ahead. A mere campaign, with its connotations of short duration and limited objectives, will not serve the purpose that may not have been foreseen but that has inevitably imposed itself. Should the government prove itself inadequate for a decisive dharma yuddha, it will have let go a historic opportunity.

The time is running out. The gains of the Sidhu breakthrough will soon dissipate and the demonstration effect too wear out unless the government charts a concrete and complete programme without more delay. News fatigue sets in early in this age of overflowing information and excessive media. Outside the media, in the world of the reality itself there is a hallucinatory, almost psychedelic montage of rapidly shifting events and objects in place of the stable focus and the easily manageable sequencing of the past. Hence, what the government must do urgently is put together a comprehensive long-term programme. Strategic improvements and additions can follow by and by.

Fortunately, there is today no scarcity of resources on how to grapple with corruption. Both the United Nations and the World Bank are already seized of this grave and complex problem. That corruption undermines the rule of law, erodes human rights and democratic freedoms and perpetuates poverty is now universally recognized. While the United Nations is in the process of negotiating a Convention against Corruption, the World Bank already has to its credit over 600 anti-corruption programmes and governance initiatives in different countries. The Transparency International, which has comprehensively examined the global ramifications of corruption and brought the international attention to bear on it, has published a Sourcebook on corruption as well as a Tool Kit for the corruption-fighter.

India, and particularly Punjab at this juncture, should find the success of Singapore in eliminating all syndicated corruption especially instructive and inspiring. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) of Singapore did find it hard initially to win the trust of the people. Over a period of time however, perseverance paid with the result that today the country has a cleanliness score of 9.2 out of 10 in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of the Transparency International. The service standards of the CPIB are exemplary. It endeavours to attend to the visitors within five minutes and answer a telephone call by the fourth ring at the latest. Whether a complaint is pursuable is decided within a week if it is received through mail and immediately if the complainant approaches the Bureau in person. There is action within 48 hours of a complaint being assigned to an investigating officer and immediately if it is about an "offence in progress". The investigation is completed within 3 months or less, unless the nature of a case demands a longer period. Another important thing is that the CPIB looks into all anonymous complaints as well, although the law provides that the complainant's identity will be protected at all stages, including the stage of court proceedings.

It is significant that the other countries that have successfully brought corruption under control, like New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Canada, have a very vibrant civil society. This is something that India, with its massive illiteracy and other basic problems, does not yet have. The civil society organizations (CSO's) have a crucial role to play in any sustainable offensive against corruption. Their potential may be estimated from the fact that thanks to the monitoring done by them Zimbabwe had a fair election in 2000. In India the media which is just one component of the civil society has shouldered a disproportionately heavy burden of the offensive against corruption. Within Punjab, the current leadership of the ruling party is the first to have given any serious indication of dealing earnestly with corruption. The lawyers' organizations in Punjab and Chandigarh are also the first among the professional components of the civil society to have acquitted themselves so gloriously on this issue.

This trend towards a more activist civil society should be encouraged. Where the civil society is weak, the government has a duty to empower and nurture it with the help of appropriate legislative and executive measures. The right and access to information, tax exemption on donations to the CSO's, convenient registration procedures and the incentives to induct talented persons can go a long way in strengthening the civil society.

In addition to a strong civil society, the success of an offensive against corruption would depend on a number of other factors. These would include an accountable political leadership, a better managed public sector, a competitive and socially responsible private sector, a truly unshackled academia, socially enlightened professional bodies and business interest groups and independent institutional structures to keep tabs on the exercise of power. In other words, a broad coalition against corruption is necessary; for this alone can create the environment in which the institutions of the state can function fairly and justly. Without that environment the enforcement and investigation agencies, even when these have a free hand, are inadequate. The judiciary too may be sucked up into the Evil Matrix and even the civil society organizations co-opted by powerful businesses. The watchdogs of freedom and equality must be themselves subjected to a high degree of constant public scrutiny, something that a self-transparent and fully accountable civil society alone can guarantee.

A few specific suggestions relevant to the current assault on corruption would be in order here. The first of these is to empower the professional bodies, such as the Bar Council and the Editors' Guild, to receive complaints of corruption against public servants through their members who would authenticate the complaints. The member would conceal the identity of the complainant and recommend the complaint for investigation or judicial intervention. The second suggestion is to make all anonymous complaints investigable. This is necessary in view of the inability of the law-enforcement agencies of the "soft" Indian State to protect ordinary vulnerable complainants. The third suggestion is to amend the Constitution to make the right to information a fundamental right and to simultaneously incorporate a fundamental duty to disclose information on corruption. If implemented, these measures have the potential the break the nexus between the corruption syndicate and the state machinery that is at present the single most important impediment in the way of system's ability to heal itself.

Corruption thrives when it involves low risk but yields high profit. An anti-corruption strategy should aim at reversing this situation. The reversal is difficult, but it is surely not impossible. Imagination, resourcefulness, firmness and perseverance are needed. The government should overcome the temptation to be satisfied with the theatrical extravaganza of the sleaze and earnestly address itself to the fundamental causes of corruption.
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