editor speak

Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh can use his carrot and stick policy on ministers from his own party (take a cue from the not so fateful exit of Shashi Tharoor) but he finds it difficult to prick at his allies. Putting up a good show of a stable government is more important than good governance posing a question on the clean and honest image that Mr Prime Minister has.

It would take long for Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to put his house in order and declare it to the world that the government is putting up an upright and transparent show till he takes head on at his allies. Clear examples are the anomalies in the Telecom Ministry headed by DMK ally A Raja and the Agriculture Ministry headed by NCP ally Sharad Pawar, to which the PM has always closed his eyes. This time over the rot smells in the Agriculture Ministry again.

In a letter dated October 23, 2009, the PM lauded CVC of its efforts to annihilate the rampant corruption. Bureaucracy Today in its drive of exposing the crooked minded officials and their anti-thesis methods of governance has been proving that it’s too early to make a declaration as such.

But the mass recruitment scam in State Farms Corporation of India (SFCI) under Ministry of Agriculture tells a different tale altogether. The case was in the knowledge of CVC lying unattended since 2007. CVOs bounded by administrative constraints have become constants in every corruption case unearthed. Is CVC really worth a pat on the back yet?

Yes it is. For its ability to increase the plight of the whistle blowers, for the ever increasing piles of vigilance complaints catching dust in the cold shacks, for refusing an assurance of a concealed identity to the whistle blowers.

While the PM assures that those in authority are not above the rule of law and are accountable, the dirt in the system keeps surfacing and the rot deepens with every such case.

It may be noted that small PSUs which were once called the temples of growing India by former prime minister Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru, are now the bustling hubs for people who seek appointments on the basis of fake certificates of qualification, moolah and political recommendation. The posts do not exist but are created through clandestine appointments.

SFCI may be one small PSU that are violating recruitment norms and policies to abolish old posts to create a vacancy and a recruit not required at all. As far as CVC is concerned, the cat is out of the bag, praises are all in airs. As CVC celebrates Vigilance Awareness weeks, it should remember that it must not become an annual formality, for the body it is it must keep its dignity and nail down corruption. The government should finally open eyes to the menace created by it allies in the name of UPA support as these numbers will only come handy once the government is voted back to power. Twice it might have gone unnoticed but the voter is increasingly becoming aware to take a cue from all this and vote the government out of power.

Suhaib A. Ilyasi
Editor-in-chief