By most accounts, the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan is among the best performing of the NDA government’s flagship programmes. Those responsible deserve resounding rounds of applause. The stench of a traditionally taboo subject no longer repels. It has been transmuted and elevated to near humdinger status in civic discourse and action.

Going by the Prime Minister’s repeated references to the remarkable achievement and, more importantly, the centrality of this singular, broad-canvas concept of swachchta, underlying his governance model — as a versatile metaphor for integrity, transparency and accountability — expectations soared to record highs. The dramatic policy-disruption of demonetisation was accepted with resigned, rugged stoicism largely in the belief that it was, at its core, a phenomenally avant-garde assault on the overwhelming toxicity of our smug power structures. Whether — and to what extent — it made the grade in terms of the stated stratospheric objectives will perforce be interminably queued as the impact and multiple after-impacts are not amenable to early assessments.

Here comes the crucial crunch point. Even if one forgets the Report Card, disturbing questions related to swachchta in public affairs — in its augmented metaphorical avatar as referenced above — cannot be peremptorily flicked off. Those of immediate concern have to do with the election mega-carnival presently underway in the States. It is righteously claimed that the efficient conduct of elections marks us out as global front-runners. The focus on the form and processes have worked wonders over the years and picked up a distinctive momentum. The much agonised-over and inconclusively deliberated upon electoral reforms, proposed by successive Law Commissions and the Election Commission, also appear to finally have got the Government’s ear and may well hobble off to a shaky start. Be they simultaneous holding of elections, transparency in funding of political parties and keeping convicted criminals out of the power edifice, greater sanitising will happen but only over an unforeseeable hazy time-frame.

In the midst of the superb administrative and regulatory arrangements, disappointingly though, one is hard put to attempt to explain — leave alone justify — the unconscionable and unabashed splurge of apparently unlimited resources in what are often desperate bids to snap up votes. Votes are cynically taken as sublime carte blanches to unalloyed power. Given the stage of quagmired development we find ourselves in, will it be outrageous to ask if the infamous shadow economy is still ominously around? The same shameful integrity-deficit dogs the crass, hollow promises of many of the hopefuls, including those with serious criminal charges. They come in gushing streams of undisguised insensitivity, callously exploiting the problems, pain and miseries of huge swathes. They beg, with folded hands and heads bowed, to be given the opportunity to serve. And how well they serve. Only themselves! As a minor, yet telling illustration, the average assets of 60 sitting MLAs contesting in Uttarakhand have risen 96 per cent in the last five years. Not much seems to have changed over the years in this regard. If anything, the razzmatazz and faux glam-quotient have increased exponentially. But there is tremendous hope in the record voter turnout in each phase. The wrath of the consistently denied, deprived and let-down cannot be trifled with indefinitely.

is the appropriate context in which to appreciate Justice Amitava Roy’s Supplementary Note in what Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose described as a “fatty” verdict , handed down after two ponderous decades of due-process- of-law in J Jayalalitha’s eponymous DA case. Whatever be the commentators’ uncharitable quips on its linguistic attributes, it hits the bull’s eye, highlighting the plight of the honest and upright who find themselves in a minority, forced to suffer in distressed silence in a world where the corrupt are held in “fear and awe”. Not stopping at articulating mere angst, he called for judicial action, legislative vision and citizen- partnership to battle the malignant vice of “insatiable avarice”.

While this landmark verdict has neatly reverse- catapulted Sasikala from the dreamland of Poes Garden to a straw bed on the rough-hewn floor of Bengaluru Jail, the raw power of the corrupt continues to be on shocking display in Tamil Nadu. The Game of Thrones plays on, with the real stakeholders — the people of the State — unceremoniously turfed out. It is tantalising to contemplate if the tables can be turned.

The critical role of the Judiciary in upholding probity in public service was underscored yet again, this time in Bihar, where the Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, is on an energised overdrive to enforce his personalised brand of swachchta through the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016. The Government acted in a stunningly inexplicable manner against a young IAS officer whose integrity was known to be unimpeachable. It filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court contesting the Patna High Court Order of 28 October 2016, quashing the FIR against the 2013 batch officer, Dr Jitendra Gupta, on charges of corruption. As Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Mohaniya (Bhabua district) , he had taken on the local “Entry Mafia” which controlled the transport networks , reportedly in cahoots with the police. It was alleged in a complaint by the mafia (!) to the Vigilance Department that the officer seized four trucks on 3 July 2016 in Mohaniya and later demanded and took a bribe of Rs 80, 000, through his driver to release them. His house was raided from where nothing was admittedly recovered. He was arrested at midnight and spent a month behind bars. The Patna High Court saw through the deficiencies in the investigation, the most conspicuous being that the trucks in question were actually more than 200 km away from the place of alleged occurrence of the crime. It was observed that nobody even made a feeble attempt to confirm whether the money was demanded at Dr Gupta’s behest. The case that he was guilty merely on the basis of a statement of a co-accused who was in police custody, was not upheld. The Bihar Government, in spite of these damning findings, strenuously argued in the Supreme Court that the FIR could not be quashed as the investigation was still pending. The Bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and U U Lalit dismissed the plea and made a scathing statement that the officer was “framed” for targeting the overloading of trucks plying on National Highways.

It has been undoubtedly a major setback to the Government’s credibility and will have strong ripple effects on governance. Whether they will veer towards the positive remains to be seen. It is puzzling that while the IAS officers within the system moved against their junior colleague, the IAS Association of Bihar vouched for his integrity and submitted memoranda to the Governor and Chief Minister, seeking justice. Being dragged to Guillotine Square, though innocent, is unfortunately a common enough experience within the Service. Having the Service Association back you to the hilt, regardless, is indeed rare and praiseworthy. Nonetheless, mixed voices are very welcome to Governments of the day which love to fix and frame inconvenient officers.

The moral of these unsavoury narratives is that we urgently need a “Swachch Ganatantra Abhiyaan”, from which must flow a “Swachch Jan Seva Abhiyaan”. The present circumscribed, ambiguous remit of swachchta will not do. The need of the hour is an unambiguous understanding and enforcement of swachchta, going beyond its present circumscribed remit.

The writer is a retired IAS officer and comments on governance issues.