Let’s go over what the Chief Minister said in theassembly. “Zero tolerance to corruption does not mean there is no corruption.Even a 20-25% drop is good enough.” He further said that when both the partiesin corruption are beneficiaries, it’s difficult to stop it. It is when theharassment element exists that corruption comes out in the open and can be curbed.”
The admission of this is reaching the base camp of themountainous summit. And the summit, is not zero, but 25%less. Even that is a huge mountain to climb, not just because of the Congress’legacy where corruption was life and honesty was an aberration. It is amountain because of Goa’s existing political culture that has the potential tocut across the political class. This was reflected in Parrikar’s own admissionin the assembly, that he had kept the TCP and the mining departments to himselfbecause there is a tendency to fall to temptation and the minister must beabove all such temptations. Though he didn’t quite state it, it is implicitthatthe Chief Minster,whose track record of honesty is easily higher than everyother MLA in Goa, doesn’t trust departments which have tendencies of generating‘additional revenues’ for the minister, in the hands of others.
This is where the challenge lies. Bringing downcorruption in the system by 25% will happen either when 25% ministers are lesscorrupt or each minister is 25% less corrupt.
The immediate step that the Chief Minister needs totake is follow one line of his statement i.e when the harassment elementexists, corruption comes out in the open and can be curbed. He has the firstinstance of this. The suicide of PWD contractor VishwasHarmalkar. And the causeof his harassment was not this regime but the previous where Churchill Alemaowas the minister. He has a magisterial inquiry which has indicted PWDofficials. They should be criminally prosecuted against. He will get his first1% fall in corruption, as a result, out of his target of 25%.
