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Journalism of Courage
The Indian Merchants Chamber has joined force with the initiative of 14 prominent Mumbai citizens,who wrote an open letter to the government emphasising the urgent need to tackle the canker of corruption flooding the governance system. IMC has not only endorsed views expressed in the letter,but has added its own recommendations to set up an independent panel for stemming the rot in the system and cleaning up the sleaze.
IMC president Dilip Dandekar has stressed that viable strategy should be put in place and the governance deficit should be made up immediately. The recent spate of scandals showing up the weak joints of governance have not only threatened to derail Indias high economic growth momentum and its endeavors to make it inclusive and wide-based,but also to undermine peoples faith in the efficacy of our democratic polity to deliver equity and justice at the grass roots, Dandekar said.
It is utmost important that the government should move quickly to remove cobwebs from the existing anti-corruption laws and mechanisms,and render them accessible to ordinary citizens. It is equally necessary for the bureaucracy as well as the corporate houses to engage in some soul-searching,to activate self-correction mechanisms and clean up the Augean stables from within, he said.
He urged the government to set up an independent citizens committee to monitor and recommend measures to the government to operationalise the existing but inactive anti-corruption mechanisms such as the Anti Corruption Bureau and State Vigilance Commissions. He also stressed the need to appoint the Lok Pal and Lok Ayuktas at the Centre and the states to force the executive behave. The Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988,contain adequate provisions for punishing the corrupt. Vigilance departments of various government organisations are also quite well-equipped.
