DON’T GAG THE CAG: People have a right to know

http://www.thestatesman.net/

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh’s criticism of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India for holding a press conference in January last after its report on 2G spectrum irregularities was tabled  in Parliament only exposes his unfamiliarity with this vital constitutional institution which still commands the trust and respect of a vast majority of the people of the country. In his interaction with a select group of editors last Thursday, Dr  Singh said that never in the past had the CAG held a press conference and commented on policy issues. It should limit the office to the role defined in the Constitution, he said. The Constitution does not restrain the CAG from meeting the press. Briefing the media on the contents of the CAG reports after presenting them in Parliament or in the relevant State legislatures has been the established practice. When this practice was challenged by PG Narayanan, an AIADMK member of the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2005, claiming the CAG had misused his authority by going to the press on an audit report inconvenient to the State government headed by his party, the Madras High Court upheld the right of the CAG and its functionaries to brief the media on the contents of reports prepared by them and presented before the legislature. It would seem the Prime Minister would rather gag the CAG so that the misdeeds of the government are hidden from the public.
A notable feature of the administrative arrangement envisaged by the Constitution is the strict control over financial matters of the government. When the draft Articles 149, 150 and 151 dealing with the Auditor-General of India came up for consideration before the Constituent Assembly on 30 May, 1949, TT Krishnamachari sought to change the designation of the Auditor-General to Comptroller and Auditor-General because the duties of his office were not merely of audit but also of exercising control over government spending. He also sought a provision that before entering his office the CAG should take an oath similar to that taken by the judges of the Supreme Court. BR Ambedkar said the CAG should be regarded as the most important dignitary or officer in the Constitution. His duties were more important than even those of the judiciary. Ambedkar pointed out the incongruity of letting the executive make rules regarding the duties of the CAG who is supposed to control the executive with regard to the administration of finances and hoped that a future Parliament would take the earliest opportunity to replace those rules by a parliamentary statue. That, alas, is yet to be done. The lame excuse of the lame duck Prime Minister that “we take decisions in a world of uncertainty and that is the perspective Parliament, CAG and our media must adopt if this nation is to move forward” is a sure recipe to move backward. Manmohan Singh should realise the people exercised their franchise in an environment of “uncertainty” and voted for the UPA hoping it would deliver, only to find post facto that its government not only failed to deliver but turned out to be the most corrupt since independence.

2G Spectrum scam- Old operators caused Rs 1 Lakh crore loss to the Government of India

       The 2G spectrum scam refuses to die down. More operators,  government and other stakeholders try to contain it, more it spreads. Now RCOM is up in arms against government & old operators and has accused that old operators , in connivance with bureaucrats, duped the government to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore fraudulently by misrepresenting and concealing the material facts . This revenue loss occurred mainly due to two policy decisions that old operators -Bharti, Vodafone and Idea reportedly got tweaked in their favour. 

    These operators were allotted 2 G spectrum initially for a period of 10 years but government extended the tenure of license to 20 years  without any corresponding increase in license fee. Subsequently , these operators sold their stake to foreign companies and made huge profit running into thousands of crores. Interestingly RCOM has used the same CAG report to prove its point which has been squarely castigated by company as waste paper. This caused government a loss of  more than Rs 50,000 crore alone. 

         Moreover  the second modus operandi adopted by old operators to dupe the government was illegal hoarding of spectrum in excess of 6.2Mhz. The amount of loss attributed to hoarding also runs into more than Rs 50,000 crores.

     With rivals spilling beans against each other and Supreme Court determined to go to the root of spectrum scam , it seems more such revelations would come. It is unfortunate that spineless and corrupt bureaucracy in collusion with political masters is holding the Indian democracy at ransom with common man as mute spectator. Will another Gandhi and Jai Prakash emerge from masses to stop this loot and bring back nation on the path  of progress and prosperity encompassing all sections of society particularly people at the bottom of pyramid ? Only time will tell. But going by the  wave of change sweeping across the world , one thing is certain that common man, as has been evidenced in Egypt, will not tolerate such act on the part of elites in the society any further. People in power must mend their ways so that fruit of development finally reaches to the people at the bottom of pyramid and not usurped by handful elites in India..

"China says no change in its Arunachal Policy"

Silent and tough line need to be adopted by India to deal with Chinese stubbornness on Indian sensitivity. It is unfortunate that repeatedly china seems to be snubbing India on the Kashmir and Arunachal. Though confrontational approach should not be resorted at all but China must be paid back in the same coin though politely but firmly.

Sal Gandhi: Corruption free India- Prosperity at the bottom of pyramid.

Sal Gandhi: Corruption free India- Prosperity at the bottom of pyramid.

Education

Universalisation of education:

There are 3 aspects to education 

1. Literacy to all ,

2. Character building

3. Employablity. 

The need of hour is to orient education policy in such a way that it encompasses all 3 aspects simultaneously for realising the vision of universal character based education. We have taken a big leap forward through Right to Education. It is indeed a historic step for India. But real challenge lies in its implementaion in letter and spirit. Most effctive way to do this is to monitor and give a clear guidelines to implementing agencies through NAC.Again manning NAC through right mix of bureaucrats and people from private sector will hold the key. We , as concerned citizens, have been working on education as key constituent to our effort in bringing prosperity, happiness and dignity to the people at bottom of pyramid in our country. It should be realised that unless participation of people at the bottom of pyramid is ensured in our nation building effort, we would not be able to emerge as strong economic powerhouse on the world arena. We also need to explore the avenues to complement and supplement the Government’s effort through public -private partnership , NGOs/Foundations . Above all, eduction needs to be made key deliverable for CSR programmes of private and public sector undertakings which will further set the juggernaut rolling in right direction. Today magnitude of problems for people at the bottom of pyramid is beyond comprehension of most of Indians. Food, clothes and housing is big issue for many. And this is precisely the reason why such parents don't send their children to school and children end up as family bread earners. 

Therefore problem needs to be tackled at 3 levels. 

1. Providing more opportunity to people to earn. 

2. Children in schools must get basic minimum necessities of daily life- food, clothes...

3. Creating awareness among them about giving a dignified future to their children through education. This is the need of hour and visiting such people and motivating them can create a huge impact on their mind set and consequently on our attempt of universalisation of education. 

Corruption free India- Prosperity at the bottom of pyramid.

Year 2010 was marred by numerous scams in government as well as private sector. It is widely believed  2G spectrum is mother of all scam though there is  counter view that it is just a sensational story . CWG and Adarsh society scam coupled with 2 G has shaken the faith of common man in Government. Added  to this is dubious ways in which Citibank and End Mark Forex officials have duped the people. Very foundation of our democratic set up seems to be in danger if urgent steps are not taken.

Indian democracy was founded on the principle of welfare state.  Far from serving the large majority at the bottom of pyramid, it appears that crooks are bent upon stashing cash through illegitimate means. 

One most important reason for corruption is lack of transparency and accountability. It's not only limited to government but also rampant in public and private spheres also. BCCI, scandal in citibak, numerous scandals in banking and shares market are such example. Transparency is key  to tackle corruption and Government can ensure this by adopting tow pronged strategy.

1. Allow RTI in all spheres of public life. For this RTI act should be amended to enlarge its scope to cover every institution in the country except some those whose dealing with national security.

2. Allow independent financial and technical audit by an organization outside government ,,of all institutions where government / people's money is involved. Main focus of such audit should be to bring transparency in the working of organizations. Organizations may not agree with the findings of such audit but sheer fact that the way they have worked is in public domain , will restrain them from loots and plunders to some extent. If crime is grievous, then government can step in and start investigations. Crooks will say that to some extent CAs are doing such job, but we all know what they are doing otherwise Satyam ..would not have happened.

I strongly feel that Government should empower RTI and technical / financial audit watchdog,which are outside government, to bring more transparency in public affairs instead of creating another agency under government control.