We may not see end of corruption, says Nariman

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 23 

Lamenting that the campaign against corruption has not succeeded in India, noted jurist Fali S Nariman on Saturday said the tidal wave of corruption has become tsunami.

Delivering the Admiral RH Tahiliani (retd) Memorial Lecture on ‘Campaign against Corruption: Has it Succeeded?’ organised by Transparency International India (TII), Nariman, however, said the fight against the menace of corruption must go on.

“I am not at all sure it has,” the noted jurist said in answer to the question posed in the topic of the memorial lecture. 

“I am afraid we may not see end of corruption…I doubt anyone present here, howsoever young, would ever see the end of corruption,” Nariman said.

“There is a visible degree of tolerance of corruption. We have to come to tolerate more and not less and less corruption,” Nariman said, adding corruption was not at all an issue in the Lok Sabha poll.

“It is impossible to know when and how much water a fish drank. Similar is the act of officials stealing government money,” he quoted Chanakya as having said more than 23 centuries ago.

Maintaining that certain good things had also been achieved through corruption, Nariman narrated how President Abraham Lincoln managed to get two-thirds votes to pass the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution that abolished slavery by “satisfying” three Republican members of the Congress.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Governor and President, India International Centre, NN Vohra, who chaired the function, recalled how the PV Narasimha Rao government survived a no-confidence motion in 1993 by bribing JMM MPs.

“I don’t suggest we can eradicate corruption…but definitely we can work towards containing corruption,” said Vohra, who has served the nation during the tenure of all Prime Ministers in various capacities.

Vohra emphasised the need to fight corruption, saying, it affected the poor the most and led to increase in inequality in society.

He said four crore cases were pending in courts while witnesses and victims were dying waiting for justice.

During his lecture, Nariman recalled how the then Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal had posted the names of 94 senior bureaucrats on the CVC’s website after the government refused to grant sanction to prosecute them for corruption. None of the bureaucrats had the courage to file a defamation case against him, Nariman said.

Both Nariman and Vohra said it was important to carry on with the fight against corruption as it has a trickle-down effect. They praised the work done by Admiral Tahiliani. “Let’s not give up,” said Vohra.

TII chairman SR Wadhwa and TII vice-chairperson Madhu Bhalla also spoke on the occasion. Bhalla highlighted the challenge posed by new technologies that were being used to perpetrate corruption and evade law enforcement agencies.