"Had we not intervened, the I-T officials would have slept over it and the overseas probe would not have proceeded" was the anguished remarks of the Supreme Court judges on the 2G scam (DNA, May 17,2011). The additional solicitor general tried to justify the delay by saying, "big companies" are involved and they are "creating obstacles" which was not accepted by the Court. This is the crux of the problem. The administration does not take action or hesitates to proceed against the high and the mighty.
The executive branches of the government have to be empowered to take action when they find wrong doing irrespective of the station of the person. There should be functional autonomy not merely to the revenue department but many other branches of the government like police, intelligence and many others. All these departments are under various ministries and the ministers and the top officials do not always allow them to go after the wrong-doers for extraneous reasons.
If all these executive departments have functional autonomy and they report directly to a committee of the parliament consisting of the major parties, many illegal activities could be prevented or at least brought to book early. The head of the revenue department and the police commissioner or the chief of intelligence can then be held responsible if there is a loss of revenue or loss of life under their jurisdiction if they have functional autonomy. Power and responsibility should go together. Parliamentary oversight is necessary. The ministers should not be allowed to be dictators which happened in the case of 2G and the same is happening in the case of terrorist attacks as well.
CAG and even Lokpal/Lokayukta can only punish culprits after the event. We have to devise a mechanism to nip corruption in the bud and promote good governance. Functional autonomy should be able to address this issue. It is like a sprinkler system which gets activated as soon as it detects fire.
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?queryed=9&eddate=5%2f17%2f2011
May 22,2011.
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