24

DEEP FOCUS

SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAI JULY 14, 2013

Not easy to kill the

GOLDEN GHOOS
Indias anti-bribery mechanisms are not a patch on global deterrents, a global survey shows. But how can we increase accountability in a land where lines are often blurred?

Money cant buy love, can buy likes

Looking to burnish your Facebook and Twitter reputations? Worry not, clever firms will generate hundreds of fake followers and fans for you
Javed Anwer | TNN

71%
say the level of corruption has increased in the past two years

all who abet public servants, explains Vivek Kathpalia, partner, Nishith Desai Associates, a law firm. The PCA prescribes fines and punishment ranging between six months to five years for both the bribe taker and the person giving the bribe.

Us and Them

Yet it is in this regard that an analysis of anti-bribery legislations around the world LITARY I M shows that Indias anti-bribery measures Madhavi Rajadhyaksha & Lubna Kably | TIG still pale in comparison. Even a mere promAL PAR ise of a bribe could attract punishment in nyone who has tried getting TIC countries like Germany, France and Italy . a ration card, death certificate % Indias maximum five-year imprisonor just their pension is likely GO N All key institutions ment seems weak as compared to strinto have experienced what a % and sectors in India gent punishments the law mandates recent global survey highare regarded as in Indonesia and China. lights. One in two citizens interviewed in India adMany countries in fact follow being corrupt by OLICE P % what economist Kaushik Basu had mitted to paying a bribe to access pubrespondents of the proposed recently that the lic services and institutions in the last latest Transparency bribe taker should be made more 12 months, according to the Global MEDIA International survey % culpable than the bribe giver. He Corruption Barometer, 2013 released held that the latter should not be by international civil society organpenalized in order to encourage ization Transparency International % them to report crimes. The this week. This is significantly highNetherlands, US and China er than the global average where LAT GIS UR award longer prison sentences 27% of people polled across 107 counto bribe takers. tries admitted to bribery . U S O B IGI Following the massive public The survey data also spotlights % outcry since Anna Hazares antia key area of difference (See table) corruption campaign in 2010, our in how India treats corruption com% pared to many other nations. This government has proposed tweaking the laws. A Prevention of Corbasically boils down to one obvious CATION ruption (Amendment) Bill, 2013 question: in a country where the burDU in the pipeline seeks to remedy den of guilt for bribery still rests priDICIARY some of the existing lacunae. It will marily with the bribe taker, is there any U J % reportedly broaden the definition of way in which bribe givers may also be bribery to include middlemen and severely penalized? As they are in many make a commercial entity liable for failother nations, some of which put convicted % ing to prevent bribery of an official. It also bribers in the clink for a decade or two. Y S S T H E % Theres a big hitch there with India, though, fixes a timeframe within which seniors need LT to sanction prosecution of public officials which the survey data underlines. Most serving under them. bribes here are a way of life -- speed money % Graphic: Sajeev Kumarapuram SINESS A reverse flow of compensation for unor facilitation payments that almost every U B delivered, promised services is an idea whose Indian is often forced to pay just to get his or time has come, stresses chartered accounther work done. These arent the same as In which service/sector have ant Shailesh Haribhakti. That is precisely bribes given by canny operators to pubwhat the Right of Citizens for Time Bound lic servants to swing contracts, votes you paid a bribe last year? Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal or favours their way; or to sweeten of their Grievances Bill, 2011 proposes to do. big-ticket deals. say government It promises time-bound service in order to Ravi Duggal of International wants to protect his team EDUCATION LAND actions to ght mitigate the necessity of speed payments. Budget Partnership blames the bulk member. Even if such sanc% corruption have Once passed, it would require every public of our problem on the countrys elabtion is obtained, cases are been ineffective % authority to publish a citizens charter stating orate procedural systems. If a widow discharged during trial on TAX JUDICIARY the time within which it would deliver goods is to avail of a pension scheme, she will the pretext that the sanctionREVENUE % or services. Officials who fail to deliver withfirst have to prove on paper that she is a ing authority had not applied its % in this timeframe could be fined up to Rs widow, even if the entire neighbourhood mind while granting the sanction, states 50,000. Consumer activist Jehangir Gai bebears testimony to it. This creates a mecha- the CVC report. % % HEALTH lieves accountability will be injected only if nism for bribery . Heated public debates have taken place in UTILITIES the system clearly demarcates duties and puthe recent past over this with even politicians nitive action. In addition, repeated commaking noises that bribe-givers (individuals Feeble attempts % % plaints should result in the officials increIn fact, a report on the draft of the National and the private sector) also be punished. HowREGISTRY & ments or promotions being stalled, he says. Anti-Corruption Strategy published by the ever, the PCA does apply to all who abet pubPOLICE PERMITS Such legislations, in varied forms, exist in Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) stated lic servants. And contrary to popular percepDelhi and states such as Rajasthan, Bihar, and the need to distinguish (for imposing penal- tion the private sector is not immune to punship firms, trusts etc). It could be interpret- Madhya Pradesh, but awareness is poor. ties) payments made to facilitate an existing ishment for giving bribes. But we still have a mountain to climb, conBut is this deterrent enough? Should ed that if a company (person) gives some right from commercial bribery for a benefit. In India, bribery involving public officials bribe givers who act on compulsion be equat- gratification to an employee (could be a direc- sidering we need to work to bring about tor or a manager) to influence a public greater amounts of three things at the same is governed by The Prevention of Corruption ed with public officials who misuse their official, that employee would be li- time: transparency, accountability and parAct, 1988 (PCA), which has several bottle- position for gain? able under Section 8. As far as the ticipation. Which is why many like Duggal Under Section 8 of the PCA, any necks. For example, the law requires a prior Board of Directors is concerned, believe India is a long way off from improvsanction of an appropriate authority before person can be held liable for an ofthey may not be liable as givers ing its rankings in subsequent polls. We any court takes cognisance of bribery by a fence if he accepts gratification say corruption is a of gratification under this sec- make a lot of laws, especially around election public servant. Past experience has shown from any other person to influence serious problem in tion. The only section that the time or under the pressure of some event. that these provisions have often resulted in a public official. A person refers to public sector Board may be liable under is sec- Many may sound progressive but implemenlong delays as the sanctioning authority is not just any individual, but any comtion 12 of the PCA which applies to tation remains a big problem, he shrugs. normally a senior officer of the accused and pany or association (such as partner-

BRIBE QUOTIENT

20

86

30

75

41

44

61

45

HEA

56

50

REL

65

68%

50

48

41

48

36 34

61

62

47%
France

LESSONS
FOR INDIA

COUNTRY Individual

China
Fine, have property conscated or face xed-term or life imprisonment Fine up to RMB 200,000 (roughly Rs 20 lakh), conscation of illegal income and imprisonment up to 5 years for the person involved Same consequences as the bribe giver. A criminal detention or death sentence in extreme cases

Italy
Imprisonment up to 8 years (up to 20 years for judicial bribery) and conscation of assets Disqualifying penalties such as blacklisting, suspending licenses and debarment from govt contracts Same consequences as the bribe giver

UK
Imprisonment up to 10 years and an unlimited ne Blacklisting from public contracts, penal nes Same consequences as the bribe giver

US
Imprisonment up to 10 months and ne equivalent to the bribe amount

Countries across the PENALTY FOR world have legislations BRIBE-GIVER in place to penalize bribe takers as well as those Corporate seeking favors. Even a promise (not an actual act) to bribe, could result PENALTY FOR in penal impositions in BRIBE-TAKER Germany, France and Italy

Imprisonment up to 10 years and a ne up to 150,000 (Rs 1 crore) Fine up to 750,000 (Rs 6 crore), closure of the particular unit and blacklisting from public contracts Same consequences as the bribe giver

Jail up to 14 months; ne equal to the bribe

Sources: Guide to Anti-Bribery and Corruption Laws, OECD and government websites

good reputation is now apparently just a mouse click away . Consider the case of a Delhi-based educator who realised about a year ago that he needed lots of Facebook likes to impress his clients abroad and approached Gaurav Dhir, who ran a social media marketing firm back then. We dealt in genuine social media marketing and advertisements. But the person who approached me wanted a quick fix. He wanted to buy likes, says Dhir, I referred him to someone who I knew and who could have given him likes for the money . In a few weeks, the educators Facebook page, says Dhir, acquired thousands of likes. The person supposedly spent over Rs 1,00,000 to buy them; and joined a growing list of folks whore parting with the cash to rake in a fake reputation. Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot was recently dragged into this, accused by his rivals of buying a Facebook following, from Turkey of all places. If so Gehlot then joins the ranks of several politicians in the US, Europe, Canada and Middle East also accused of spending money for acquiring such reputations. In fact, the US Department of State also faced some flak recently for spending over $6,00,000 on buying likes for its Facebook page. According to a recent report by BarracudaLabs, a research firm, the industry of generating fake social media followers and fans is booming. Hundreds of websites, including a few based in India, promise to give you a truckload of likes on Facebook or followers on Twitter for just $200. Fan Bullet is one such firm. It publishes no contact number or mailing address on its website but offers several packages that promise all kind of Twitter followers and Facebook fans. One-way Twitter followers, which are likely bots and not real people, are quite cheap. Around Rs 2,400 ($39) will get you 1000 of these followers within a week. The firm also offers targeted followers that are more likely to be interested in what you are doing as well as country-specific followers. For Facebook, a package with 1,000 fans costs around Rs 2,800 ($44). Combo Twitter and Facebook packages are also available. And theres even an option to avoid the kind of mistake that Gehlots social media team reportedly made. Fan Bullet claims you can buy country-specific likes. This means if G If a Facebook page acquires you are a politician based thousands of likes within a in India, you can get likes week without a clear and from India. You dont have specific reason to get them from Turkey . G On Facebook expand the likes. Fan Bullet declares that Fake ones will probably have it has served over 10,000 bland profiles. Many of them clients so far in the last two may also be foreigners from a years and whatever it does country with little connection to is 100% legal and genuine. the individuals reputation Dhir points out that one way companies like Fan G On Twitter a tool like Bullet work is to create www.twitteraudit.com could fake accounts on Facebook help find fake followers and Twitter using bots G For Twitter and Facebook, automated computer tools like Klout or Kred Score scripts that will generate help find out the influence of the required clicks. But a social media user Facebook and Twitter have become lot better at catching bots or identifying scripts, adds Dhir. So companies have now started relying on profile pages created by actual human beings. In countries like India, these companies hire school or college students to create fake profiles. The cost is very low and once a company has around 10,000 to 20,000 profiles on Facebook or Twitter, it can use these profiles to carry out tasks such as liking pages or following people. Facebook, which has a team examining such complaints 24x7, acknowledges that problem but says that it is getting better at catching the culprits. Facebook has always been based on a real name culture. Its a violation of our policies to use a fake name or operate under a false identity , and we encourage people to report anyone they think is doing this, either through the report links we provide on the site or through the contact forms in our Help Center, a Facebook spokesperson told TOI. Twitter has a similar tough stance against the fake profiles. It is known to disable profiles that it feels are not genuine. Mahesh Murthy , founder of Pinstorm, a digital marketing firm, says a better weapon against such fake reputations is more awareness about the dirty tricks brands and individuals employ . Around a year ago, fake followers and likes were a rage. But now the interest in them is diminishing. Boosting social media numbers is an exercise in ego but people are realizing that bigger is not always better, he says. Interaction on a social media page is a better measure of your influence. So, focus on conversations with your friends and followers. Dont go after the numbers to boost your ego.

POL I

S TIE

LE

WHAT LINKS JAPAN AND JADUGODA...

...the effects of radiation. Mining of uranium in this small Jharkhand town has left residents dealing with disease and deformity
Amitava Kumar
Photos: Ashish Birulee

grew up in Patna but the place where I learned to ride a bicycle was Chaibasa. My seventh birthday passed unnoticed because my maternal grandmother had died the previous week, but my parents relented and bought me the promised bicycle. Yesterday , I went back to Chaibasa after more than 40 years. My father was a civil servant who had served for many years in what is now Jharkhand, a place made melodious by the humble poetry of the names of its small towns: Tupudana, Murhu, Kalamati, Chaibasa. When I was a boy , did I ever visit a town called Jadugoda? I dont now remember whether I did, but on Friday I went to Jadugoda, one-and -a-half hours drive away from Chaibasa. The visit robbed me of any shred of nostalgia. A stocky, soft-spoken man named Ghanshyam Birulee, almost the same age as I am, began telling me a story . His father, a worker in the local uranium mines, had died of lung cancer in 1984. A few years later, in 1991, his mother passed away too. The cause of her death was also lung cancer. His mothers death confronted Birulee with a

question: his mother had never worked in the mines, nor had she even gone there on a visit, how was it possible that she, too, had been affected by the uranium? Radiation and the diseases that result from it are not common knowledge among the people of Jadugoda. It took Birulee, now an activist with Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation, a lot of time before he hit on the truth. His father would bring back each week the uniform he wore when he worked inside the mine, and his mother would then wash it. The presence of uranium particles on the uniform meant that they emitted radiation. His mother had died from uranium poisoning. From the reading he had been doing Birulee learned about the ugly realities of the nuclear winter in Hiro-

IES OD

MS

FAKER ALERT

DANGER ZONE: Leafy vegetables being washed in Gura river which is reportedly contaminated with uranium waste. (Left) A youth who was born with deformity

shima-Nagasaki. And he reached a conclusion: The problem that is in Japan is also the problem that is in Jadugoda. The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL), which runs the local mines, has steadfastly denied water contamination or deaths caused by radiation exposure. But various studies conducted over the last few years have shown that contamination from the uranium mine has spread in Jadugoda and the circumference of the tailing ponds (they hold the sludge produced by the min-

ing process) too are polluted with uranium. In Ichra village close to Jadugoda, a young woman named Budni Oraon takes care of her two younger siblings. Budni is in her mid-20s. Her younger sister Olabati and their brother Duniya are separated by another year or two. Both Olabati and Duniya are congenitally deformed and mentally disabled. I met the siblings in their small house in Ichra. The door opened into a room with a bed and a small television set where

Hindi film songs were playing. Duniya sat on the floor, moving with the help of his hands, his thin, misshapen legs bent under him. He has large, expressive eyes and I saw that his striped t-shirt said Born to Party . Budni, wearing bright clothes and thin silver bracelets around her ankles, talked to me while standing at the threshold under a picture of her deceased father. A little distance away , her mother sat on a bed in the corner, her eyes taking in the scene on television. From time to time, the sound of garbled words and laughter came from an adjoining room. That was Olabati, whom I later met; she was grinning as she lay supine on a sheet on the floor. What happened to these people? I wanted to ask Budni these questions, but she had more immediate, practical concerns. Both Duniya and Olabati receive Rs 200 each in disability pension each month. But the money isnt given to Budni or sent by post; the block officer has to physically see the two disabled persons. Budni has to hire an auto-rickshaw and spread a sack on the floor for her brother and sister as they cannot sit up. The expense on the trip to the Block office eats into the small amount of money they receive from the government. Budni is tall and animated, and has very white teeth. She said, If I run away one day , who will take care of them? She pointed to Duniya and said that he couldnt even drink water by himself. She had to feed, wash, and clothe him. Duniya couldnt understand the conversation; his eyes were fixed on my face. Budni said, If I get married and go away , their lives will be destroyed. It seemed terrible that anyone should

have to make such choices. But Budni could foresee a solution. Could the government provide a fixed ration to its disabled citizens? Budni felt that if there was such a provision, then anyone taking care of her siblings could cook for them and perhaps eat a small portion themselves. Finally , it was time for me to put the question to Budni: why are your older siblings physically fit, and why were your younger siblings born disabled? Budni pointed to the road outside. When the road was being built, the paving materials used came from the uranium plant. After the ore had been extracted, UCIL had no use for the crushed stones. It was given free to the government to build roads. Budni said that her mother, first pregnant with Duniya and then with Olabati, worked barefoot on that road as it was being built. The fate of the people in Jadugoda has been a horrible tragedy , the result of a combination of profits and prejudice. The number of disabled youth in the area far exceeds the average in any other town, at least 100 in a population of around 50,000. But what is to be done now? Ghanshyam Birulee is clear about future goals: rehabilitation for all those affected by uranium poisoning; medical treatment and compensation for the sick; ensure safe mining; and lastly , carry out uranium waste disposal in accordance with international laws. If these steps are taken, we will have found a more humane and just response to this incredible atrocity . Im already feeling nostalgic for that future. Kumar is an author and a professor of English at Vassar College