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Gupta has raised the vital issue of the need to change the bureaucrat’s body chemistry but here, I am afraid, he is enormously more charitable to bureaucrats then they deserve. Let’s be honest. Very few join the civil service to serve the ordinary person. They join it to make a decent living, and enjoy a high standing in society.

It is true that corruption in the bureaucracy reflects the malaise of society at large, which we must certainly work towards eliminating. But there is every reason to argue that the cleansing process should begin with the bureaucracy. Are the politicians alone responsible for breaking the back of the bureaucrats in UP and Bihar? It takes two to tango and the former could surely not have achieved much without the active connivance and servility of the latter. One knows of so many upright bureaucrats from these states. They aremarginalised, if not hounded, by their own brethren, working in tandem with their political masters.

There is thus no getting away from the fact that the babu has to be fettered and not just by the traditional, time-tested manner prescribed in the Classification, Control and Appeals handbook. The departmental codes and manuals coupled with the Indian judicial system have given the corrupt a sense of implacable immunity against being penalised. That is what has prompted Vittal to seek out novel ways to expose the dishonest.

Ultimately, the only potent approach to contain and, over time, eliminate corruption is to empower people by giving them the right to information. Achieving this will not, of course, be an easy task. The scams and scandals over the years have shown in unmistakable light the harm caused in a system that apotheosised secrecy. We need to be reminded that even the noblest suggestions of the Santhanam Committee were whittled down to soft-pedal moves to catch the corrupt.

The most importantprop for a responsive and honest administration is openness that can be achieved only by a complete overhaul of the existing rules which deny the public access to official information. After all, it is the public which ought to be the final arbiter of governmental functioning.Well-argued responses to `Express’ articles and reports, carried in this column, will be paid for. Contributions must be no longer than 600 words.