[www.keralites.net] KLEPTOCRACY - WILL INDIA SOON EMERGE AS A "FAILED STATE" ???

 

A thought-provoking Article, worth pondering for all Indians.
No True Indians should allow it to happen. Wake up, Unite ...
and defeat this Kleptocracy, ("rule by thieves")

VERY SOON INDIA WILL EMERGE AS A "FAILED STATE"

                                              -By MG Devasahayam Ex DC Chandigarh IAS

Kleptocracy, alternatively cleptocracy or kleptarchy, ("rule by thieves") is a form of political and government corruption where the government exists to increase the personal wealth and political power of its officials and the ruling class at the expense of the wider population, often with pretence of honest service. This type of government corruption is often achieved by the embezzlement of state funds.

The existence of an octopus-like MAFIA in the financial arena is no secret. That it has gone to kleptocratic extremes has been vividly brought out in the g-files cover story of September (Loot in name of the farmer).

The 'embedded bureaucrats' listed in the write-up have been conspiring to sell 'bloated air' to the farmers and small investors, and fleece them of their flesh and bones. It is extremely distressing to see that some of the names, including of senior civil servants, are well known and even well regarded.

Is it because this conniving carpetbagger "deals with tons of money every day by dominating all of India's assets: equities, currency, commodities, derivatives, power and precious metal and the forex trade," makes billions in the process and throws some crumbs at these worthies?

Why have governance standards in India, with one of the finest civil service structures in the world, descended to such deplorable depths ??

We need to seek the answer by going back four decades. Being from the pre-Emergency vintage of the IAS, I was the District Collector as well as the District Magistrate of Chandigarh, then the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, before, during and after the Emergency. Both these States enforced Emergency rules with rigour and ruthlessness. Therefore, I have grass-roots knowledge of what happened during that period.

Later, as an OSD in New Delhi, I dealt with the Delhi Administration, Union Home Ministry and the Prime Minister's Secretariat (PMS), and, therefore, had a macro-level view of the functioning of Delhi's 'power centres'. The collapse of democratic governance and its institutions that we witness. Tragically, several AIS officers have willingly entered into this kleptocratic pact in return for plum 'commercial' postings during service, coveted 'independent directorships' and an ever-multiplying government sinecure after retirement !

Today had its origin during that period, starting with the breakdown of the elite All-India Services (AIS).
The strategy adopted by the rulers then was akin to the 'Trojan Horse' described by Homer in his legendary epic, Odyssey. It is a tale of deceit and subterfuge that the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy and end the conflict, which they could not win otherwise. For centuries and generations, this episode is remembered as the epitome of 'betrayal of trust'!

A similar thing happened to India's democratic governance during the Emergency. The Indian version of the Trojan Horse was set in motion on the fateful night of June 25-26, 1975, as top leaders of the opposition, including JP, Morarji Desai and AB Vajpayee, were triumphantly returning from the massive rally at the Ramlila Grounds, Delhi, after sounding the ultimatum to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, indicted for electoral corruption by the Allahabad High Court, to resign forthwith.

By that time the Trojan Horse, filled with a 'committed' bureaucratic- police coterie, had been smuggled into the Prime Minister's Household (PMH) and positioned in the Home Ministry, Delhi Administration and Police. On a signal from the PMH, these wolves pounced on and arrested the opposition leaders and shut down the newspapers by cutting off electricity so that the news of the Emergency was unreleased. Within hours, they formalised the Emergency and proclaimed draconian rules and regulations to choke the media and extinguish people's freedom and liberty.

The Emergency thus ushered in, ripped apart India's delicately crafted and carefully nurtured democratic fabric and the institutions of governance. A new type of regime and new criteria of allocation of rights and obligations were sought to be legitimised. The real issue was the abrogation of any sense of boundary or restraint in the exercise of power, and the striking arbitrariness and arrogance with which citizens were turned into subjects. Democracy was replaced with a crude form of autocracy. Most of those who facilitated and abetted this, unfortunately belonged to the covenanted services of the IAS and IPS, meant to defend and safeguard our democratic republic!

Today, things are worse. In its judgement in the 'Blackmoney Case' (July 2011), the Supreme Court talks of the "unholy nexus between lawmakers, law-keepers, and lawbreakers", clearly indicating that a State-sponsored kleptocracy runs the country. A kleptocracy is a deviant system wherein government departments and public institutions are commandeered for the benefit of carpetbaggers and packed with their loyal retainers. Tragically, several AIS officers have willingly entered into this kleptocratic pact in return for plum 'commercial' postings during service, coveted 'independent directorships' and an ever-multiplying government sinecure after retirement!

This has turned Delhi into a kleptocratic den with loots and scams galore. These have been cropping up like mushrooms in recent times —Commonwealth Games, ISROAntrix- Devas deal, 2G Spectrum, Godavari basin gas, National Spot Exchange, imported nuclear deals, thorium loot, Air-India mega purchase, and the biggest of them so far, Coalgate, where crucial files have gone missing ! This can happen ONLY in India !! I

In all these massive cases of corruption, not a SINGLE bureaucratic head has rolled. In fact, key Bureaucrat players in these scams and scandals are being meticulously shielded and protected ~~ Would that not be very obvious even to a stone Blind person ??

But the humongous nature of defence purchase scams, that vitally affect the nation's security, takes the cake. Here, even the Comptroller Auditor General of India, the "most important officer under the Constitution", has been brought into the kleptocratic network. This IAS officer has been , in the Min of Defence ( during period 2003-2013) the joint secretary, the additional secretary, the Director-General of Acquisitions, officer on special duty and, finally, the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence , when he was seamlessly shifted as CAG as if it was just another routine bureaucratic transfer!

During his long tenure in the ministry, he has been closely associated with many policy/ purchase/acquisition decisions and deals spanning the Army, Navy and Air Force. Most of these have become stinking scams due to wheeling and dealing and huge kickbacks. They are either under the CBI scanner or CAG scrutiny (see box). Now he is himself CAG ( !! ), and thus can cover up anything everything. What a wonderful kleptocratic pact !!

The Union Public Service Commission, that recruits the crème de la crème of India's civil services, has also not been left out. Here, the coveted position of Member, UPSC has gone to the loyal retainer of a State land/real estate mafia. For eight long years, this IAS officer has been deputy principal secretary, principal secretary and, on re-employment, officer on special duty to the Haryana Chief Minister. In these capacities, he has been handling the State's Town Country Planning (TCP) Department, which, during this period, plundered Gurgaon district and issued colony licences and change-of-land-use certificates for thousands of acres in the State, causing a loss to the exchequer running to Rs 3.5 lakh crore due to land frauds. This officer also managed to scuttle an ongoing 'performance audit' by the CAG on these frauds, that included the DLF-Vadra land deal. It clearly looks as if the UPSC too has lost its virginity !

. Others include his successor as principal secretary to the CM, The humongous nature of defence purchase scams, that vitally affect national security, takes the cake. Who has already spent seven years as director, TCP Department, and its principal secretary.

Another one is following suit with more than three years as director, TCP. As against this, the crusader against this network, Ashok Khemka, who had already seen 40 transfers in 20 years of his career, was allowed to stay for just 80 days in the job from where he had blown the whistle. Can the IAS-anchored kleptocracy get any worse?

Kleptocratic India is fast moving towards being a 'failed State'.

Several senior and middle-level members of the AIS, more particularly the service I once belonged to ( IAS ), are the root cause of this. Because, without their concurrence, connivance and collaboration, no kleptocratic network could ever emerge, exist or expand. Wailing and shifting blame on politicians is pointless. Because the enemy is within, hidden in the underbelly of the Trojan Horse, the universal symbol of betrayal !

                                            Author: MG Devasahayam, IAS

whatsapp # 090355 30833
MANGALORE
Yahoo Messenger Id: hegde_csl@yahoo.co.in
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