transparency and accountability

Transparency and accountability are very important in public life and persons holding any public office are obliged to adhere to both. Obama also mentioned something similar in his speech yesterday. But some of the recent news in India is quite contrary to this view point. One of them is by none other than the Chief Justice of India. He is of the opinion there is no need for judges to declare their wealth. In fact, it should just be the opposite. Judges should set an example in this regard. They are supposed to be the epitome of honesty and integrity. If they don’t come forward and lead by example then what can be expected from bureaucrats and politicians? Another is the revelation that the Rajus of Satyam fame have lot of properties and have diverted lot of money through benaami accounts. How can we have any asset in benaami account? It has to belong to some legal entity be it an individual or an organization. Apparently there is some legislation in this regard that is gathering dust somewhere. Isn’t it preposterous? Why don’t we just make it completely illegal or impossible to have anything in benaami account? I just wonder if a similar practice exists in any part of the developed, democratic world. It is time we had a unique identification number and all transactions should be linked to this number.

Not many months back there was also the issue of investment in stock market through P-notes. Even our finance minister supported this practice and it is completely legal as per SEBI. Should the government try to take the index to a certain level or lay down process and guidelines keeping fundamental principles in view and allow the index to find its own level as decided by the supply and demand? One of the fundamental principles that should never be compromised upon is transparency even if it means that investment by FIIs will reduce. In a country where there is huge black money and its citizens are vulnerable to terror attacks, it is preposterous to encourage such investments. When the stock market fell and the index started sliding our finance minister advised people to stay invested. It won’t be surprising if the government advised domestic institutional investors to support the market. Now that the market has gone down further who is going to make up for the loss?

Our passport office and RTA are also good examples of complete lack of accountability. Public institutions like these should have SLAs. That doesn’t mean that they provide a passport or a license to anyone who demands it, but there should be clearly laid down processes and system in place. This will not only help the genuine citizens but also will reduce granting passport or driving license to the non-deserving candidates. In the recent past I had applied for reissue of my son’s passport in which my name was mentioned as Tapas Panda instead of Tapas Kumar Panda which is my official name. This passport was made in Bareilly when I was in China on a project and normally we don’t use the middle name Kumar. I submitted an affidavit on stamp paper regarding this mistake. But I was asked to submit advertisements in two news papers that I had changed my name. I visited passport office to meet the PRO and explain to him that I had never changed my name. By the way all these queues at Passport Office in Hyderabad are in the basement. You can find old persons and mothers with infants standing in these queues for hours. Why can’t the ordinary citizen be treated with a little decency? After waiting in the queue for a few hours I was told that I had to take an appointment for meeting PRO which would be provided in the general enquiry counter that had much bigger queue. So next day I stood in the general line for half a day just to get an appointment with the PRO, who was not even prepared to listen and asked me to submit the copies of the advertisements. So I had no choice but to contact an agent outside the passport office for the necessary ads who charge you anywhere between 700-1000 for two ads in local papers that must have cost him Rs.100. Is there a nexus between insiders and outsiders? There are so many telephone numbers but no one answers any of these. There is also a mail id but no one replies to your mails. As ordinary citizens who have to work from day to night to earn a living you can’t do much from a practical standpoint.

To start with RTA should become RTS; authority should be replaced by service. Let us make an honest and sincere effort to come out of that British Raj mentality. The mindset should that of a service provider and not that of someone who has the power and hence can act by whims and fancies. When I was with Daewoo Motors one very senior Korean executive had expressed his opinion about Indian management style. His assessment was that the Indians in senior positions are very particular about their authority but absolutely unmindful about their obligations. According to him authority and obligations go hand in hand. When will our officers and ministers realize their obligations to this country and its citizens?

Anyone found guilty of betraying the public trust should be suitably punished and debarred from holding any public office in the future.