Corruption and Recovery of Indians Illegal Deposits in Foreign Banks

 

March 29, 2011, Constitution Club, New Delhi

Shri Arvind Kejriwal, RTI activist

Dr. Kiran Bedi, Former IPS Officer

Shri Sunil Bansal, ABVP Leader

Shri Ram Sharan Joshi, Veteran Journalist

Shri AN Mishra, Senior Journalist and Former VC

Justice DS Tiwatia

Shri Baldev Bhai Sharma, Chief Editor, Panchajanya

Shri Rajesh Gogna, Human Rights Activist

Prof IM Kapahy, University Teachers’ Leader

Shri Brij Kishore Sharma, Constitutional Expert

 

 

Prof Rakesh Sinha, Hon. Director of the Foundation, in his initial remark said that the present revelation of corruption cases reflects severe socio-political crisis imposed on our nation by a microscopic minority of political elite. He characterised it as “playing havoc with the idea of India”. He said Parliament is presiding over a decline of moral values. The parliamentary debate is now like a school debate in which speakers (for and against) try to score points. There is very little hope to get this critical issue resolved through such debates. How much the index of moral values has come down is obvious from an example, he said. In Madras a peon of a government hospital was found guilty of taking one rupee as bribe from a patient. He was awarded six months imprisonment. Now A Raja from the same State is enjoying the patronage of the political establishment despite his role in a scam which caused the loss of 1,76,000 crore rupees!

 

 

He said that Parliament is a tool of democracy and there is a danger of delegitimisation of this tool if people’s faith is not restored and the way to do it is mass movement. A position paper, drafted by Sh. Gopal Agarwal, was presented at the session for debate. In his research paper, he said that the people want solution and there is a need for firm legislation to curb corruption at the highest level. There is urgency to adopt a Jan Lokpal Bill, provisions in the law to recover the money generated through bribery and also legislation to prevent private to private corruption. He urged the gathering to focus on the issue of how to recover the huge amount of money deposited in the Swiss and other foreign banks by Indians secretly. Agarwal also presented other draft documents on recommendations for recovery of illegal monies stashed in foreign banks and prevention of bribery in private sector Bill, for discussion.

 

Ms Kiran Bedi, making her intervention, said that time has come for the people to join in for a mass movement to overthrow the corrupt regime. She appealed to the people to support Anna Hazare’s fast on April 5, 2011, stating that “our earnest duty is to save the nation from the greedy, corrupt people”. She said that the people should and be prepared to march in the street and demonstrate their strength. 

 

 

Sh. AN Mishra, former VC and veteran journalist, traced the history of corruption and anti-corruption movements in the country. He feels another JP movement is imminent at this juncture. Sh. Sunil Bansal, joint organising secretary of the ABVP, said that the ABVP is committed to fight out this evil from the body polity and a movement had already been launched. Students were responding very enthusiastically and thousands of them joined in the dharna organised by the ABVP all over the country against corruption in public life. Prof IM Kapahy, a veteran teacher who has been leading the National Democratic Teachers Front (NDTF) for decades, cited statistical data to prove that the amount of money deposited in the Swiss bank alone can save 20 lakh families from poverty - which is far more than our annual budgetary expenditure on health and education.

 

Sh. Baldev Bhai Sharma, Editor, Panchajanya, raised a pertinent question, “Why has corruption become a cyclical phenomenon?” Sharma argued that while the immediate need of the hour was an anti-corruption movement to punish the corrupt and recover the wealth illegally amassed by a few powerful people, there is another dimension to it. We have to think why people give and take and bribe. We need to contemplate on a long-term solution to the problem, i.e., lok prishkar. He emphasised that character-building is the only solution to the problem. He lamented that when the chapters on great heroes like Shivaji and Maharanapratap have been removed from the CBSE syllabus, how can we expect our children to inculcate great qualities?

 

 

Sh. Rajesh Gogna, a well-known lawyer and human rights activist, said that although he supported Arvind Kejriwal, Kiran Bedi and others in their efforts, somehow he was not convinced that such efforts can lead to a genuine change. Brij Kishore Sharma, an eminent constitutional expert, emphasised the need to amend the existing laws to prevent cases of corruption. He felt that the present company law is insufficient to prevent corruption at the corporate level. Jagniwas Iyer, an intellectual, observed that politics is polluted and collective effort is needed to achieve a desired goal.