Vigilance in the state of being!

Ever since tough cop Muneer Ahmed Khan joined as its new director, the State Vigilance Organisation has suddenly come into a ‘state of being’. The ‘state of being’ expression is not meant to convey that nothing was happening before but it is to state that since Khan’s joining the attack on corruption and corrupt has become profound, conspicuous and daring, something that was missing. A College Principal who has been in news for a long time, a few engineers and a notoriously infamous aide of a former Deputy Chief Minister are among those picked up by Khan’s boys. It is good to see that the sleuths of Vigilance Organisation are picking up people for the proven wrong deeds, which had almost been forgotten, but this is only the surface story. Basically, this is an entire individual action which comes out from the personality of an officer and it clearly lacks the institutional depth. An individual approach, howsoever ambitious and determined may be, is not enough to deal with the nature and scale of corruption in Jammu and Kashmir, which is gigantic. Muneer is a multi-tasking officer. As the head of Crime Branch, he is reported to have made use of his resources to help the state government during 2016 turmoil where only a political process could have worked. The way he has moved on in first two weeks of his job at the top of anti-graft body inspires a lot of hope but what after Khan has moved on. This really has been a drawback of the Vigilance Organisation which lacks an internal cadre and inner commitment. You have someone like Ashok Bhan at the top and it is in action but next tenure could be of a reluctant officer who is not interested. Muneer’s initial days have suddenly started giving an impression as if a massive campaign is going on against corruption. It isn’t. The modus operandi clearly suggests that he is clearing backlog –getting those people in the lockups who should have been there long ago. Corruption is basically a deeply embedded phenomenon in Jammu and Kashmir which has become a culture. There is a unimaginably large number of intermediaries between people and the government. It’s beyond the scope of Muneer Khan, or for that matter any super cop, to remove these intermediaries between people and the government. People like Khan could be of great assistance only if there is a political will at the top with commitment to take bold steps for probity, transparency and accountability. Such a scenario has not been able to emerge for a very sad reason –an overwhelming majority’s level of comfort with corruption is part of the system.