The crusade on corruption launched by Anna Hazare surely is one of the most important events in the history of independent India. People were fed up with the system of governance and were waiting for a saviour. Even more than a series of scams that surfaced one after another in recent times, the patience of the common man was running thin as she has been a victim of daily harassment, be it for registering births and deaths, selling or buying properties, getting children admitted to schools and colleges, obtaining approval for building houses or getting electricity or water supply connections. TR Raghunandan?s Website hosted by Janaagraha http://www.ipaidabribe.com provides vivid details of various types of corrupt practices the citizen of the country is victimised with. The cancer of corruption is so widespread that Anna Hazare?s fight became the people?s fight and it caught the imagination of the entire country. The groundswell of support to the crusade augurs well for the country. We now need to capitalise on this to ensure that this mass mobilisation is used to cleanse the system of the cancer of corruption.

The crusade so far has been to decide on the form and content of the Lokpal Bill and the persons to be involved in its drafting and mechanism to ensure its enactment. While not undermining the importance of the ?people?s victory?, with the government agreeing to the proposal of having equal number of civil society activists as the government functionaries in the drafting committee, it is important to understand that corruption does not end with the enactment of the Lokpal Bill. We need to realise that the institution of Lokpal is not a panacea for all ills and the mass mobilisation gain achieved by Anna Hazare by catching the public imagination will be wasted unless we redefine the goal and evolve an integrated strategy to root out corruption. It is important to note that an anti-corruption crusade involves a long and arduous journey and dealing with a complex set of economic, political and legal matters. It is, therefore, important for likeminded crusaders to work together to evolve a comprehensive strategy.

Minimising corruption in a systemic manner requires that it is important to minimise opportunities for corruption, increase the probability of detecting corruption and ensure an effective judicial system to punish the corrupt. Ironically, the second

Administrative Reforms Commission has done well to identify and list out various aspects and has made several recommendations to improve the legal, judicial, administrative and electoral framework to minimise corruption. It has recommended a number of electoral and political reforms, including partial state funding of elections, tightening anti-defection law, amendment to the Representation to People?s Act to disqualify persons facing charges related to grave and heinous offences and corruption. The commission has recommended ethical frameworks for the executive, legislature, judiciary as well as regulators. It has also recommended the abolition of MPLAD and MLALAD entitlements. Ironically, the Union government has increased the MPLAD money to R5 crore (up from R2 crore) in the Budget session of Parliament and the Delhi state enhanced the local area development fund for MLAs to R4 crore (up from R1.5 crore) recently. Ironically, everyone in Parliament and legislature seems to be happy. Only the government of Bihar decided to abolish the fund.

Even as Anna Hazare was leading the crusade, both the ruling DMK and the opposition AIADMK were busy distributing largesse and cash to woo the voters in Tamil Nadu. Apart from promising various freebies by way of pre-poll promises, there have been massive exercises in buying votes by distributing gift hampers and plain cash. Indeed, neither any political party nor any candidate incurs expenditure with any altruistic motive of ?serving? the people but considers this as an investment that will yield a high rate of return when elected. The probability of losing the election even after incurring the expenditure requires that the expected rate of return will have to be really high.

Any systemic approach to eradicating corruption must recognise that it is as much an economic phenomenon as it is of governance and administration. It arises from the existence of high demand for certain goods and services and concentration of powers to certain individuals or groups to provide them. It could also be given to avoid paying penalty for committing any illegal act. Thus, it has both supply and demand sides. There are bribe givers who are in dire need for the service and bribe takers who have the powers to provide it. Sadly, while everyone is against corruption when he is a victim (including the corrupt person), a large number of persons actually indulge in it one way or another and have consciously or unconsciously allowed it to take deep roots. It is hard not to see large-scale violations in land use patterns and building plans and even various illegal extensions to houses in urban areas providing ample opportunities to the bureaucrats in the municipal/state governments to make a fast buck.

With so many civil society groups getting on the bandwagon of the anti-corruption crusade, there is a real danger of converting this into an anti-reform bogey and it is important to guard against it. This requires us to clearly recognise that opportunity for bribe arises from the creation of artificial scarcity and concentration of power and discretion in the hands of a few. To a considerable extent, this is a legacy of the licence/permit raj that we lived in during the first 40 years of planning. Even as we liberated industry in 1991, the edifice has not been destroyed and we see this in every scam that was uncovered in recent times. This permeates in every sphere, be it in securing permission to build a tenement, start a school, college or hospital. While not serving the objective of complying with the required regulations, these have created opportunities for those in power to enrich themselves.

The solution lies in fast-tracking economic reforms to remove scarcity conditions and concentration of power. Increasing competition and strengthening regulation with sufficient checks and balances is the need of the hour and that requires more, not less economic reforms. The office of the Lokpal is important, but it cannot be the panacea for all ills afflicting society. Economic reforms to reduce the opportunities for corruption are equally important.

?The author is director, NIPFP, and member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. These are his personal views