Singh

New Delhi, Oct. 10: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today hit out at the intensified national focus on corruption issues but also pointedly flagged “big ticket bribery” in the corporate sector as something that needed to be curbed.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the annual conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state anti-corruption bureaux on a day a fair bit of national news space was grabbed by allegations of dubious quid pro quo deals between businessman Robert Vadra and realty giant DLF.

“The mindless atmosphere of negativity and pessimism that is sought to be created over the issue of corruption can do us no good. It can only damage our nation’s image and hit at the morale of the executive,” Singh told the conference.

He took no names, but his intended target was not far to seek: the daily cascade of allegations flowing from India Against Corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal against Vadra and DLF. Kejriwal has alleged Vadra’s businesses benefited from “soft” financial and land deals, a charge DLF has countered.

Amid a renewed bid to energise the economy with a slew of reforms, the Prime Minister’s perception is said to be that increased foregrounding of corruption issues could well derail his revival effort.

But, if the Prime Minister spoke out against the detrimental impact of the political campaign his government is besieged by, he also directed a pointed finger at corporate corruption of the kind that Vadra and DLF are alleged to be involved in.

“Experience has shown that big ticket corruption is mostly related to operations by commercial entities. It is, therefore, also proposed to include corporate failure to prevent bribery as a new offence on the supply side,” he said. “Experience has shown that in a vast majority of cases, it is difficult to tackle consensual bribery and the supplier of the bribe goes scot-free by taking resort to the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. This would be taken care of in the proposed amendments,” he added.

At one level, Singh’s statement could reflect his frustration at not being able to contain allegations of a corrupt nexus between politicians and the corporate sector, which have stained his government. The 2G scam and the coal scam are illustrations.

At another level, the Prime Minister may have been seeking to deflect some of the blame from politicians and the bureaucracy and highlight private sector complicity in corruption.

Singh said a proposal was being mooted in the amendment to the act to tackle consensual bribery.

Singh also pointed out that “a clear and unambiguous definition for the term ‘corruption’, covering both supply and demand sides, is being sought to be provided” by filling certain gaps in the act and by bringing it in line with current international practice through amendments.

“We need to ensure that even while the corrupt are relentlessly pursued and brought to book, the innocent are not harassed. The importance of making a distinction between bona fide mistakes and colourable exercise of power in investigation of corruption cases cannot be overemphasised,” he said while explaining that the government was also examining how the act could be amended to protect honest public servants more effectively.