Karnataka - Bangalore

Develop aversion to corruption, says Supreme Court judge

Staff Reporter

People must articulate their protest against it: Raveendran

BANGALORE: Corruption in all spheres of society thrives because people have grown accustomed to it, and regard it tolerantly as part of life, and the only way it can be controlled or contained is to develop aversion to it, Supreme Court judge R.V. Raveendran has said.

Delivering the C. Bheemappa Chetty and Rangamma Endowment Lecture at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan here on Saturday, Mr. Raveendran said people must protest and articulate their intolerance to corruption, even if it inconvenienced them, lodge complaints, and now, use the ultimate weapon, the Right to Information Act, to send a clear message to those who thrive on bribery and corruption for various reasons.

Mr. Raveendran classified corruption into four levels:speed money, to get their work done faster, the next level where people who aspire for power resort to bribing to attain their desires — as candidates in an election often do, or emotionally "blackmail people who wish for Government largesse, such as a house plot, or a job.

The third kind of corruption was when people who have broken the law or committed an offence try to buy themselves out of the punishment and the fourth, "the height of corruption" is when people in Government use the system and the law to foist cases against members of the public and harass them, unless they pay up. When a society reaches the fourth level, "only God can help" Mr. Raveendran said.

He said it was important to consider the reasons why a society became corrupt. Countries like Iceland, Finland and New Zealand were considered to be the least corrupt. The main reason for this was the population in these countries was very small. There were plenty of resources and the supply exceeded demand, so the question of resorting to bribery in order to access services and other entitlements did not arise. In India, or for that matter, China, the available resources could not be equitable distributed among all sections. Mr. Raveendran said there was a tendency to avoid putting in place a regime of prevention, and instead the system had become habituated to resorting to law making, and trying to address corruption after it had taken place. The endowment lecture had been set up by High Court judge Manjula Chellur and her siblings in memory of her parents. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan director Mathoor Krishnamurthy described this form of remembering parents as being "as sacred as performing annual obsequies for the ancestors."

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