By invitation: Corrupt babus, forgiving janta we're like this only!

Karnataka has earned itself the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt state in a survey conducted across 20 others in India. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are the states that follow. It doesn't matter where we figure on that list, the fact that we're on it at all is shame enough. We could dismiss these findings or comfort ourselves with the idea that we are being intentionally maligned, except that would be a shame too. This is the time to ask questions and understand just how far corruption has seeped into our society.
Today, any work that has to be done through the government can be accomplished only after bribes are paid. During the five years that I served as the Lokayukta in Karnataka, we filed chargesheets against 750 offices, including those of the Chief Minister, other ministers, MLAs, bureaucrats, revenue inspectors and even constables. Corruption is widespread: it exists at every level of our administration. A poor man trying to get a khata or a caste certificate, must pay up. This has a very stark, dire effect on the poor, the affluent are simply better-insulated.

During my tenure, I even found government hospitals demanding money for treatment that is supposed to be free. In one instance, a family from Bagalkot approached the Lokayukta (it was a popular institution then), with a predicament. Their six-month-old daughter had been born without an anus, eating and defecating through the mouth. The local doctor suggested a multi-specialty hospital and the family, which wasn't very well off, went to a government-run centre, where payment was demanded for treatment that should be provided for free. The surgeons were earning, at that time, Rs 45,000 as basic salary and a similar amount in allowances. They had a disease too. Greed. These doctors had had the opportunity to give a child a future, but their own avarice got in the way. The Lokayukta approached Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru, which performed the surgery. It was a humanitarian effort on their part, based on a request we made. The child is six years old today and healthy.

The NGO, Center for Media Studies, appears to have conducted a fairly detailed investigation among the poorer sections of society, interacting with students and families to see how they suffer from corruption. And at the higher levels, it manifests as scams of outrageous proportions. Coal Gate set us back by Rs 1,86 lakh crores, the 2G spectrum case was worth Rs 1.75 lakh crore. The annual budget for Karnataka was Rs 1.61 lakh crore. The profits from a single scam are worth more than the annual allocation for an entire state. And we must understand that not all scams are brought to light. The public is made aware of very few.

I was interested in the mining inquiry and published the Justice Santosh Hegde Report in 2008, uncovering major violations and widespread corruption in mining in Bellary. My report mentioned three Chief Ministers, seven ministers and over 700 officers from top to bottom for being involved in illegal mining and transportation. We found that one metric tonne of iron ore was being sold to the government at Rs 27 and exported to China at anywhere between Rs 6,500 and Rs 7,000. Mining is controlled by five departments - Mining, Forests, Transport, Police and Commercial Tax. Not a single one of these had reported these discrepancies to the government, because everybody had an interest in the deal in one way or another.

Lokayukta officers raided 90 lorries in a place near Ankola carrying 2,40,000 metric tonnes of iron ore. We found that not a single vehicle had permits from even one of those departments. The ore was seized by Deputy Conservator of Forests R. Gokul and banned from being exported, stored instead at the Belekeri port. When Lokayukta officers arrived there, they found the place had been wiped clean. Charges were filed against dozens of people, including some of the biggest mining names in the country. And what has happened so far? Nothing. If one was to calculate the worth of the iron ore that was exported, at those prices, we could probably formulate a 10-year-plan for Karnataka without a single rupee being collected in tax.

What does this indicate? We live in a society that respects corrupt people. Those who go to prison are released on bail and then garlanded - this is our tragedy. If society respects the corrupt, everything collapses, the system crumbles. Things weren't always like this - in the 40s and 50s, a person who was even suspected of corruption, let alone been to jail, lost the respect of the community. Society was the punisher. That has stopped and when the court takes decades to give a judgement, nobody is really bothered.

In 1985, the PM Rajiv Gandhi said that out of one rupee the government gives to the poor, only 15 paise actually reaches them. In 2017, three decades later, the situation has only worsened. And I wonder, how far can we go?

I have realised now, after years of screaming from rooftops, that society is responsible for this. I have been to over 900 educational institutions to speak to students and I tell them that there are only two values they must inculcate: contentment and humanism. If you're not content, you will never be happy. This doesn't mean a young person finishes with a degree and sits around not doing anything. Ambition is a good thing - aspire, by all means, to great things. Make money, but do it right.

I know this change will not happen in my lifetime. For changing a collective attitude is a long-drawn out process and must start within, through conscious effort. Even so, that’s no reason to give up. I don't want the young people of our country to turn around one day and say, "Our elders didn't even try."

As told to Darshana Ramdev