A Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Punjab Police in India has been arrested in a case of corruption that boggles the mind – audacious, obscene and grotesque all at the same time. That this officer could amass such loot and live a normal working life in the top echelons speaks of the extent of collapse and its normalisation within a bureaucracy that once was referred to as the “steel frame of India”. The rapaciousness could not be unknown to his peers and to the government, revealing the extent to which deviant behaviour is accepted in the force. The case quickly turned complicated with a tussle between the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which effected the arrest on Oct.16, and the State’s Vigilance Bureau, for custody of the accused IPS (Indian Police Service) officer Harcharan Singh Bhullar. The reported seizures in the case are eye popping – cash worth Rs 7.5 crore, a collection of luxury cars, gold jewellery weighing 2.5 kg, 26 luxury watches and documents on about 50 immovable properties in the names of family members and suspected benami entities. 

At one level, this is an open and shut case of loot and plunder, but at another, the CBI-state tussle points to a deeper rot, a complicated set of connections, and motives with political implications. Whatever emerges, the officer in question will be hard put to defend himself with all that the CBI has already got against him – including a voice call in which the accused discusses further steps about a bribe paid to his middleman.

The case here is unusual but not unique. The system protects many, but scandals emerge at regular intervals, sending periodic shocks that reveal to us that corruption is endemic in the Indian system and thrives in the bureaucracy. The disease is complex, given that it comes in various forms and flavours and is fuelled by patronage politics. Bribery is but one part of a larger canvas of corrupt practices that include (particularly in the current Indian context) cronyism, misuse of investigative agencies or that uniquely Indian coinage called “wilful default”.

Axis Of Corruption

Yet, complexity is no reason for allowing the disease to continue unchecked. The late academic and founder of the Management Centre for Human Values at IIM Calcutta, S K Chakraborty in a seminal paper in 1997 spoke of the difference between “gross corruption” and “subtle unethicality”.  Even if the latter is challenging to recognise and fight, the former is easily spotted and deserves to be guillotined. If corruption is a hydra-headed monster, then cutting the more visible head is more important than discussing which head to cut first. The reluctance to take strong steps breeds deep cynicism and a sense of helplessness. As Chakraborty put it: “Are we heading for a sick-and-cynical society? Will future generations be grateful for such a legacy, even if material prosperity were to increase?”  Material prosperity, of course, has not increased for most Indians. Some of the key arguments in favour of liberalisation – that the corrupt license-permit raj will be demolished and corruption will be checked automatically when the market takes over – have proven hollow. Gross corruption has stayed, and the nation has been burdened further by a subtler form of a business-political axis of corruption that plunders State resources and tilts the rules at the cost of the common man.

It is easy to argue that the case of the DIG in Punjab and the other sensational ones that keep emerging are a small part of a system that otherwise works. But to buy that complacency is to shut the eyes to the devastation caused by what others have called the curse of Indian democracy.  The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which recruits the nation’s top ranked bureaucracy including the IAS and the IPS cadres, recently completed 100 years. The body would do well to reflect on the ask of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar from it: “The function of the public service commission is to choose people who are fit for public service”.

Is the recruitment process wrong or does the system have a way of co opting new candidates into its club and its instincts of self over the rest of India? Some of these are difficult questions that are not helped when the UPSC is more in a celebratory mood with a new logo rather than raising deep questions on the meaning of merit, how this merit is evaluated, or the meaninglessness of some of its old-world testing systems in a rapidly changing environment.  The terms of appointment of officers in themselves are cushy and non-demanding. They encourage the mentality of a life-long club membership from which it is difficult to be evicted. The tenure system at the outset encourages candidates who prefer the safety net of a life-long employment at the highest level in government, the perks that come with the appointments and a wide range of privileges rather than curiosity, creativity and the idea of public service that Dr. Ambedkar spoke of. It is possible to argue that the service attracts candidates for all the wrong reasons so that the pool itself is a kind of corruption. 

Character Of Bureaucracy

While political interference is a valid reason for the decline, there is also the question of character of the bureaucracy as a whole when no voice is raised against such wild violations as encounter killings, bulldozer justice or indeed the grave violations of the Election Commission alleged by the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and independent observers like Yogendra Yadav.  Instead, the IAS Officers Association thought it fit to come to the defence of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar while the body remained silent on the dissent of Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa, who in 2019 had opposed clearing the Prime Minister and Home Minister on charges of violating the model code of conduct during the elections, and saw his family members targeted with income tax notices. Lavasa was a rare officer with high integrity.

Independence and integrity have become myths. Bent spines are the norm. The oft-heard cry to stop political interference is a meaningless sidebar for a bunch whose signature call is to bend for self-preservation and exploit at the first opportunity. Experience confirms the rottenness that thrives. The failed system may be beyond reform. 

The bureaucrats who helped craft the Agniveer programme for the Indian Armed Forces so that soldiers leave after five years need to be told that such a programme must be applied to the IAS and the IPS.  Instead, time-scale promotions are the norm.   Officials must be held to account for their KPIs, not time spent or positions held. We may need many other shocks alongside to check the corrupt and demand performance in the mould former prime minister V P Singh once saw it: “What have I to do with your so-called merit when you don’t have a heart for the people you serve?”

(The writer is a journalist and faculty member at SPJIMR, Mumbai. Views expressed are personal. By special arrangement with The Billion Press)