Author: Sumit Mitra
Publication: India Today
Date: July 7, 2003
In West Bengal, a state in which
no citizen up to 26 years has seen a change in government by election,
corruption has been expectedly institutionalised. The bulk of the 86,000-strong
police force is unionised under a CPI(M)-controlled association. No promotion,
transfer or dismissal can take place without its nod. The illegal gratification
that policemen obtain-be it in going easy on an investigation, on stopping
or facilitating a land deal, or even allowing a complaint to be entered
on the general diary-are done with the assent of the association, and,
in most cases, the local committee of the party.
The CPI(M)'s North 24 Parganas district
office recently got an sp transferred as he had wanted to arrest a miscreant
friendly to the party. In another instance, a "friendly" SP was named in
the Comptroller and Auditor General's March 2001 report for diverting funds
amounting to Rs 26.97 lakh. Meant for facilitating
Central poll observers for the 2001
state assembly elections, it was used to wine and dine and shower on them
several household appliances, obviously to make them look the other way
from allegations of electoral malpractices. No inquiry was initiated against
him despite the CAG indictment. He was recently promoted as deputy inspector-general.
If corruption has a free run, the
public will give a fitting reply in the ballot box-as would happen in a
healthy democracy. In Bengal, however, the ballot box has become a non-
issue for decades. So has corruption.
