Sonia Gandhi’s promise, therefore, about setting up fast-track courts to tackle sleaze and Manmohan Singh’s rueful admission that corrupt practices erode good governance are likely to be seen as hollow words in the absence of purposeful steps. The fact that no initiative has been taken to implement the Congress president’s pledge is a tell-tale sign that the government and the party remain mired in their customary, self-serving lethargy where anti-corruption measures are concerned.

Similarly, the prime minister’s observation at a meeting of senior civil servants that allegations of venality undermine the country’s image and “demean us before our own people” may be seen as a demonstration of the speech-writer’s skills rather than an expression of official will. Such cynicism is unavoidable when the government is entangled in a larger number scams than ever before.

Moreover, these pertain to the higher rungs of the administration such as former telecom minister Andimuthu Raja, former Commonwealth Games boss Suresh Kalmadi, former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, former minister of state for external affairs Shashi Tharoor and the present central vigilance commissioner P.J. Thomas. As if to confirm that such scandals are nothing new, an income-tax tribunal has referred to the kickbacks in the Bofors howitzer deal of the late 1980s paid to Italian businessman Ottavio Quottrocchi, who is known to be close to the Nehru-Gandhi household.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh may have found the resurrection of the Bofors saga “intriguing”, as if to suggest that the tribunal is conspiring against the ruling party. But, to most people, the issue will only suggest the presence of conscientious officers. To compound matters, the government’s reluctance to reveal the names of the account-holders of black money in foreign banks on the ground of confidentiality cannot but be seen by the lay man as an attempt to hide behind the fig-leaf of legality to save the blackguards who plundered the country, as the Supreme Court pointed out. Indeed, the prime minister’s remark that judicial activism should not transgress into the domain of the executive will be regarded as a defensive reaction in the face of embarrassing disclosures.

Where the common man is concerned, it is the Supreme Court’s unwelcome initiatives – in the government’s view - which forced the ruling party to act against Raja. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain why he was arrested three years after the prime minister first wrote to him in November, 2007, to follow transparent procedures in allocating spectrum technology. The court has also done the right thing by indicting the government for standing by Union rural development minister Vilasrao Deshmukh in spite of judicial strictures.

The point, which probably escapes the government and the Congress, is that neither is trusted. Both have squandered the goodwill which saw them through two general elections. Even Manmohan Singh’s personal integrity is no longer sufficient to salvage the government’s reputation. The only course which can help it is quick and determined action against the wrong-doers, something which Sonia Gandhi apparently realized when she spoke of fast-track courts.

But allowing the law to follow its own course, as the saying (which is increasingly mocked) goes, will only make the government sink further in public estimation. This would not have happened if the CBI had retained its earlier pristine reputation. But, since it is now seen as a tool to serve the ruling party’s partisan purpose, its slow pace of work can seem deliberate.

It is only the Supreme Court and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which have acted without impartially, thereby showing that the process of checks and balances, which is an invaluable aspect of democracy, is functioning satisfactorily. If these two institutions had failed to live up to their reputations, then India may well and truly have been a banana republic, a charge which Ratan Tata has levelled against the government.

That such an allegation could be made at all when the government comprises some of the finest minds in the country today is mystifying. If anything, it suggests that the culture of corruption has become so ingrained - from the municipal corporation of Delhi with its 22,000 ghost employees to the corridors of power on Raisina hills – that few can escape its tantalizing coils.

Some of them grab the venal opportunities with both hands while others fail to act for various reasons, of which destabilizing the government is one. But the greatest destabilizing effect is caused by the loss of moral authority, which can erode a party’s political influence. The Congress at least should remember this lesson, considering how it lost a majority of 415 M.P.s in Rajiv Gandhi’s time because of the Bofors scam.(IPA Service)