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On at least 12 occasions, Kiran Bedi appears to have inflated her travel
expenses while charging the institutions and NGOs inviting her for seminars,
even as she used her own travel discount as a gallantry award winner — keeping
the rest of the money for her own purposes. Bedi defends herself, saying that
she was travelling less comfortably than she was entitled to, and using the
money left over for her NGO. Her accountant also described this as a clever
saving. But what would be a trivial human workaround by most people’s standards
is a grand moral lapse, by Team Anna’s standards. Kiran Bedi’s sanctimony and
absolutism when it comes to others is what makes her small bill-fudging so
damaging.
India Against Corruption rides on a wave of popular repugnance with
rent-seeking, it has rallied citizens who have been bruised by their encounters
with the state, with the red-tape and harassment, and the rampant corruption.
But in that tide of emotion, the “movement” has chosen to simplify and polarise
matters. Instead of formulating a broader vision about corruption,
understanding its various contexts and the range of behaviours it describes,
they narrowed the aperture to one specific version of the Lokpal bill —
gheraoing legislators who objected to certain clauses, declaring them
compromised. If Team Anna had been less given to immediate and unforgiving
judgement, perhaps Bedi’s explanations would have been received with a more
open mind.
Whether it is Kiran Bedi inflating bills, Arvind Kejriwal being remiss in
reimbursing the government for salary drawn while he was on study leave, or the
Bhushans and their real estate investments, Team Anna should square with itself
and then start identifying what constitutes corruption, deception, and what is
simply human resourcefulness, or finding a way to live with rigid and
unrealistic rules. What, for instance, are the clear lines between “I used it
for my NGO” and “I used it for my political party”? This episode should be a
reminder that what they call corruption comes in S, M and XL sizes and there is
a difference between ordinary humbug and serious fraud, and those difference
matter terribly. In a liberal democracy, these questions about ethics should
always be up for debate, as should proposed solutions and checks. To cleanse
the system we need a real, nuanced conversation, not grandstanding.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/these-other-bills/863011/
