Mostly soot, little illumination

Book review of 'On the trail of the black: Tracking corruption'

ON THE TRAIL OF THE BLACK

Tracking corruption

Bibek Debroy and Kishore Arun Desai (Editors)

Rupa; 309 pages; Rs 595

Do you want to read a book which tells you how corrupt India is? Possibly, if you are not an Indian. Of course, there is corruption in health care, education, and the myriad other service delivery programmes run by the government. Of course, exporters indulge in corrupt practices, importers also do, as do real estate players. But that cannot be the point of a whole book. Sadly, that's the case here. The book is, at the very least, a year late. During this period countless reams of paper have been sacrificed up to print all the possible aspects of India’s black money problem. Regular newspaper readers might find it quite a challenge to spot a piece of information that they did not read or know about. So unless you have just woken up to the reality of corruption in this ancient land, this is not the book for you.

If indeed you are in that small minority, then your disappointment may not be as severe because the editors start from the beginning of time; these days in India that often refers to the time when Lord Ram ruled the landmass which later adopted the Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar. We are told that corruption is such a long-standing problem, and indeed, so synchronous with the history of mankind, that even during Ram’s peerless rule — when, according to Valmiki Ramayana, all diseases had been wiped out — one can find, lo and behold, the mention of corruption. 

So, what is the point of the book? The book is a tribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is anointed as the “Architect of Change” -- capital 'A', capital 'C' --  on the dedication page. Presumably then, Mr Modi's rule, long may it prosper, is expected to root out what even survived the Ramrajya. It is not entirely without merit to note here that the lead editor, Mr Debroy, is the head of the PM’s Economic Advisory Council. So, regardless of who influences whose economic thinking between him and the PM, it is not surprising to find this book trying to justify all the actions taken by the Modi government, which is, we are told, making one audacious attack after another on corruption. However, such a setting would, presumably, rob the writers of the freedom to criticise the government’s policies. As such, there are broadly four outcomes when you read this book: One, and for the most part, you are smothered by the details of how corruption afflicts different aspects of the society, replete with long forgotten recommendations of some committee from the past; or two, you are treated to a forced, but invariably lame, defence of the current set of policies being implemented by the PM; or three, in some places, writers attempted to avoid talking about the most crucial aspects altogether; or four, writers tried to obfuscate, and blame the Mr Modi’s political rivals.

Let’s start with the last one. On page 7 of the introduction, the editors wax eloquently about how the corrupt Indians have got so used to that they tend to rationalise when questioned. As an example, editors innocuously refer to "a member of Anna Hazare team", who during the 2011 anti-corruption movement justified using fake travel bills. What the editors do not point out is that this person was none other than Kiran Bedi, who later defected from the Aam Aadmi Party to the Bharatiya Janata Party on the eve of the Delhi state Assembly polls and was indeed reported to be Mr Modi’s choice for Delhi’s chief ministerial post. In fact, after the AAP thrashed the BJP 67-to-3 in the 70-member Delhi Assembly, Ms Bedi was handpicked by the PM and appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.

Then comes the bigger sin of purposely avoiding those aspects of the debate on corruption that might be inimical to Mr Modi’s reputation as the only one who can redeem this corrupted land. A case in point is the chapter on “reforming electoral finances”, written by Mr Desai, one of the editors of the volume. It starts by accepting the well-known truth that electoral finances are “the” biggest drivers of corruption and black money, yet decent quality paper is wasted trying to define “electoral finances” and making pointless flowcharts about how parties receive and spend funds. All the while ignoring even a semblance of honest analysis of what Mr Modi’s rule has done to change things. Here’s a brief list of what was not mentioned in the book: In 2016, the Modi government retrospectively amended the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act that allowed the BJP and its main opponent, the Congress, to dupe their way out of a Delhi High Court verdict that found the two parties guilty of violating FCRA rules. Moreover, despite Mr Modi’s unequivocal commitment to probity in public life — which these days results in patients being denied treatment for the lack of Aadhaar — the BJP has led the political parties in refusing to come under the Right to Information Act. Similarly, despite as much as 70 per cent all party fundings coming from unknown sources — typically, by using the sub-Rs 20,000 donation route as it is not open to audit — Mr Modi’s government has only reduced the threshold to Rs 2,000, making a mockery of common sense. This list, sadly, is longer than the print space available for the review. 

The last bit is about the lame defence of existing policies. Refer to the chapter on “Demonetisation and tax reforms” for some bizarre assertions by the author. Even though it accepts, without actually saying so, that most of the criticisms of demonetisation came through in the days, weeks and months since, yet there is an insistence that it was the best policy move. Sample this: “That demonetisation was a radical measure is not disputed by many. The real debate is around its efficacy as a measure to curb corruption and other illicit activities like tax evasion”. That's an odd thing to say when you are trying to convince sceptics. It seems the only goal in which demonetisation succeeded was to allow the PM to address the nation a couple of time more than usual; on all other metrics, the critics took the government to the cleaners. The author goes on to admit that the burden of ensuring that the guilty -- who laundered their black money back into the banking system -- are punished lies with the tax officials. But, pray sire, do you not know how we got to Memphis?