The recent few months have been witness to allegations of corruption amounting to over three lakh crore in 2G spectrum allotments, the Common Wealth Games (CWG) scam, the Adarsh Building Society scam, allotment of land and mines in Bangalore, etc.

While many steps need to be taken to tackle the issues, creating an effective deterrence against corruption is one of the most important steps. No one gets punished for corruption in our country. A look at the structure of our anti-corruption system shows that there is not a single anti-corruption agency that is independent of the government or has the complete powers to take action.

The CVC and CAG are independent but merely recommendatory. The government often ignores their advice.

CBI has powers but is completely dependent on the government for permissions for investigations and prosecutions. CBI’s lawyers are appointed by the Law ministry and report to it as well. That is the reason why everyone demands a Supreme Court monitored CBI investigation (as is the case in 2G spectrum).

Our anti-corruption systems have inherently and intently been kept flawed. Even the Lok Pal Bill pending since 1968 falls in the same category as it is also proposed to be a recommendatory body.

Therefore, no vigilance or anti corruption body in our country is independent and final. Either an agency is recommendatory or it is vulnerable to political influences or both.

That has led to a situation where the high and mighty never get punished for corruption. There is clearly a class divide. We have police stations for the poor but CBI, CVC and CAGs for the rich with nearly NIL recovery of ill usurped wealth.

Therefore, India needs a total overhaul of the anti-corruption delivery system. We believe that the country immediately needs a statutory, effective and independent investigating and prosecuting multidisciplinary agency, paid from the Consolidated Fund and led by independent professionals searched, and not merely appointed and barred for some years from re-employment, to ward off political vagaries.

Hong Kong was in a similar situation of rampant corruption in 1970s. People took to streets. The island was forced to set up an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) with functional autonomy, headed by men and women of merit, drawn from many disciplines. And it cleaned up the system. To begin with, they dismissed scores of top level cops. Today, Hong Kong is one of the most honest countries.

Even India can turn around if we have an effective anti-corruption agency. Many eminent people including Justice Santosh Hegde (former Supreme Court Judge and Lokayukta of Karnataka), Prashant Bhushan (eminent Supreme Court Lawyer), myself, Kiran Bedi etc., have drafted a Bill for the creation of such an agency called Lokpal, completely different from the one presented by the Government. A draft of the same is available at www.indiaagainstcorruption.org. Public comments are invited on the same.

Lokpal would deal with the Central Government. For state governments, strong and independent institutions of Lokayuktas would be created on similar lines. Though 18 states do have Lokayuktas, they are merely advisory in nature and are ineffective. They need to be replaced /strengthened on the lines that we have suggested for Lokpal.

A campaign against corruption has started by the name of “India Againt Corruption”. It includes Kiran Bedi, Anna Hazare, Justice Tewatia (former Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court), Swami Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mallika Sarabhai, Swami Agnivesh, Arch Bishop of Delhi, Devinder Sharma (eminent agricultural expert), Sunita Godara (Asian Marathon champion), P G Gupta (representing PAN IIT alumni association). This group has written letters to the Prime Minister and all Chief Ministers to enact these laws.

We need to create public pressure on the governments to enact these laws.