On Thursday (December 30), former RBI Governor (1997-2003) Bimal Jalan praised the Modi government for bringing about a steep decline in corruption in policymaking. Jalan made the remarks during an exclusive interview with The Times of India.
During the course of the discussion about his new book ‘India Reckoning: Rewards and Discontents of Democracy’, the ex-RBI Governor was asked about ways to reduce corruption. “At the current stage of where Indian democracy is evolving, what is the best way to reduce the incidence of the interlocking of vertical integration of corruption?” journalist Sanjiv Shankaran inquired.
Bimal Jalan responded, “In a democratic government with a majority that actually is much less because if the government has a majority, then they can announce any policy that needs to be made. Corruption is more prevalent when there is no majority. When different parties can do a certain amount of corruption, and they will join this party or that party, that sort of thing.”
He further emphasised, “So the best way is to declare all policy decisions in public and the reasons for these decisions. There should be free public discussion of what policies have been announced. In the present government, corruption is much less in terms of policymaking.
Former RBI Governor on Indian democracy, judicial delay
While speaking about the essence of India’s democracy, Bimal Jalan pointed out that it was extremely strong with adequate space for differences in views. “Different citizens have different views, obviously, as part of democracy, depending on the context of policies announced by the government in power, which is as it should be in popular democracy,” he said.
On being asked about unwarranted delays in implementing policy changes by journalist Sanjiv Shankaran, the former RBI Governor laid emphasis on the menace of judicial delay in resolving conflicting policy decisions. He stated, “In a majority government, Parliament approves quickly. And proposals are decided by the executive based on the discussion in Parliament. Policy approved by Parliament can also be revised by the judiciary.”
“The important part is to reduce delays. We have to have quicker judgments by the judiciary. Judiciary is very strong, and very good. But the problem is that there are so many cases that go to the judiciary. It doesn’t have the time to resolve these cases quickly unless it’s a constitutional issue,” he concluded.
Bimal Jalan on seperation of powers, the financial setor and India’s growth story
The ex-RBI Governor said that the separation of powers between the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislature has been effective since the economic liberalisation of 1991. “And in the older days before 1991, you had some coalition governments, and coalition governments are different. So there was a little bit of a difference in terms of separation of powers because there were separate powers in different arms of the state and also among different constituencies,” Bimal Jalan inferred.
He further informed that although the financial sector in the country is relatively small, it is extremely stable. “One can say that the particular financial policy announced by the government or a particular policy announced by the judiciary is not functioning. But the financial sector per se is stable,” the former RBI Governor added.
On the issue of performance of Indian democracy, he said, “The most important thing is that India’s democracy is really the largest in the world. And in the largest democracy in the world, the most important lessons are the desirability of free and fair elections – which we are having, the Election Commission is absolutely free and it does all the elections in the state and central levels – and the freedom of citizens to give their views on policy pronouncements.” Bimal Jalan also highlighted that majority governments have been more successful at governance than their coalition counterparts.
