Bribe Bandh: Clearing the mist of jargon
Following the dramatic last seven days when the entire country stood up to support Anna Hazare in his protest against corruption, the following headline hit the Times of India on April 11: “Six years after signing, India yet to ratify UN pact against graft”. Incidentally, ratifying the UN pact has been the focus of www.ipaidabribe.com's Bribe Bandh Campaign for over a month now. As captured in our earlier blog, Bribe Bandh aims to collect one million clicks to influence the government to ratify the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC). Every signature is a voice that will take the battle against corruption towards a satisfactory, citizen-friendly conclusion. As one of the few countries in the world yet to ratify this convention, the official reasoning given by India is as follows: “…India has not yet brought its domestic laws in line with the international convention.”
The fact that India SIGNED the convention in 2005, the same year it came into force, and that it has been six years since then indicates the government’s lackadaisical interest in seeing this through. Driving home the peculiarity of India’s nonchalance is that “many Indian diplomats helped to pilot the convention through the UN.” We choose to read it as plain reluctance.
Today, corruption is the subject of discussion in the media. So is the UN Convention. Here’s how ratifying the Convention will affect you and me in our day-to-day life:
• Remember the times when you might have been pushed around from pillar to post to get your work done in a government office, when you had to spend hours negotiating with stoic officials to help you out? It’s as much your right to have them help you just as it is their duty, isn’t it? But they didn’t deliver. What you effectively experienced was the ‘Abuse of Functions’. Sadly in India, this does NOT amount to corruption.
‘Abuse of Functions’ will be considered corruption if the Convention is ratified.
• Like the rest of us, you too might have lost your phone at some point. For some of us, it was harrowing to even get an FIR filed. A wait at the Police Station, officials out for lunch, indefinitely… harassment… here’s a first-hand account reported on www.ipaidabribe.com
“I had my first experience in 2008 when I was 19 years old and had lost my cell phone...went to the police station in Faridabad to launch a FIR...he asked for 100 bucks...or asked me to prove that I lost my cell phone and not sold it without my parent's knowledge in writing from district court...!!! I had to pay him 100 bucks so that I could get the copy of FIR and deposit it to the mobile service provider to get my old number.”
This too would have been taken care of if we had an effective, anti-corruption law in place. Not many of us know that the above incident is a clear case of ‘Obstruction of Justice’. Even if we do know that, there is nothing that can be done about it because according to our laws, this does NOT come under the purview of corruption.
‘Obstruction of Justice’ will be considered corruption if the Convention is ratified.
These are but only two instances highlighting the loopholes in India’s current anti-corruption law. Even though we have signed the UNCAC, until we ratify it, the Government of India will not be obliged to make these anti-corruption laws more stringent and effective, as well as label these reports as acts of ‘corruption’. Enforcing stronger anti-corruption laws would mean a world of difference to the common man in India. It would make sure we can take the perpetrators to task.
When someone accumulates wealth through corrupt practices, and is brought to book for it, there is NO law in India that stipulates that their assets can be confiscated by the government. So not only do the corrupt make money through dubious means, they get to keep it too! What this means is that a corrupt person can continue to enjoy his ill-gotten gains even after being booked for corruption. And this happens because at present there is no concept of ‘Asset Recovery’ in our anti-corruption mechanism.
But you can change this. Today.
www.ipaidabribe.com believes in using systemic change to curb corruption. In that light, we have identified ratifying UNCAC as the most imperative action required to bring about the much needed change. Just like the others mentioned above, Asset Recovery is but one of the clauses that India will have to enforce under the UNCAC, confirming the convention is our path of choice towards building a corruption-free society.
You can help us do this. With just one click.
Bribe Bandh, the on-going campaign on www.ipaidabribe.com, is an attempt in helping India become a corruption-free country. All you need to do is ‘click’ to join hands with the 33,000 citizens who have already voted against corruption. When one million of us come together to voice the need to ratify the convention, the government will have no option but to take action.
We’re asking you to spend just a minute doing something that can change our lives forever. Click here to undo corruption! < http://ipaidabribe.com/sforms/un_convention >
AB