When the invitation first came to me in 2005 from the University of Passau, Germany, to attend the Lecture on Economics of Corruption, it was a pleasant surprise to me. Then, I had no slightest idea that I would visit not only Germany but also Austria and present the thoughts gathered in my mind over these 19 years of exposure and experience in the arena of Vigilance. It is this ‘vigilance’ that paved me a way to visit Passau, where I stayed between 7-14 October 2006 to attend this program. This was represented by around 40 countries where I presented my paper on Vigilance. I was indeed thrilled to introduce my concept of SIV–G (to pronounce like Shivji minus ‘sh’ sound), which stands for Self Imposed Vigilance for Good Governance and about which I will discuss little later.
Before that let me give the first hand account on my experience in Passau.
Passau is a lively modern town and history city located near the Austrian and Czech border. It stands as a cultural and artistic centre with a variety of historical testimony. It is 179 Kms from Munich and can easily be reached by train. It is also known as ‘The City on Three Rivers”. The rivers Donau, Inn and Ilz and the river Donau being the second longest river in Europe, add beauty to the city. The confluence point of these rivers is a great scene to watch, where one can witness the breathtaking natural spectacle of mixing of rivers with different colors.
Passau has magnificent St. Steven’s Cathedral. After it had burnt down almost completely in the devastating 1662 town fire, this Cathedral was rebuilt by the famous baroque architect Carlo Lurago, its stucco works were done by G.B. Carlone and the frescos were painted by Carpoforus Tencalla, all of them Italian baroque artists. With 17974 organ pipes, 233 stops and 4 carillons the organ in this Cathedral is the world’s largest cathedral organ. All five parts of the organ can be played from the main key board, one at a time or all together, offering the visitor unforgettable acoustical delight. I found a striking similarity between the huge side door available inside this Cathedral known as ‘gateway to heaven’ and the ‘swarga vaasal’ of our Perumal Koils. The only difference that I could see is that the ‘gateway to heaven’ is opened once in 50 years unlike our annual feature of ‘vaikunda ekadasi’.
The Castle Veste Oberhaus is another spectacular sight. Built in the year 1219 by the Prince-Bishops of Passau in order to control commerce across the rivers. In the 19th century during the Napoleonic Wars the castle was one of the strongholds against the Austrians. Due to several changes over the centuries today’s castle consists of gathic, renaissance and baroque parts. One can find outstanding exhibits, documentary history and art history of Passau and surrounding places in this castle. There are many more picturesque spots in the city which have the blessings of nature.
The city of Passau, which was termed as a village by a German girl who was traveling with us in the train, is far advanced in terms of facilities and infrastructure. The clean environment supported by pleasant weather adds beauty to the city. What I realized after my eight days stay was that there is a lot of different in their approach towards things matter in day to day life from our. It is worth sharing a few of them.
The cleanliness everywhere is astonishing, whether it is inside the house or roads or any public place. They believe in keeping the environment clean at the first place, instead of making it dirty and then cleaning it up. The approach is definitely not that of ‘in any case we are going to clean it up; let us spoil first and then clean next’.
Their space management is another spectacular thing to see. Usage of vertical space is wonderful. For instance, in a cycle stand I found that it has not only a shed but is designed in such a way that while the back wheel of the cycle rests at the ground, the front wheel is lifted upwards towards the roof. By this way, the ground space occupied by the cycle is very little. The cycles are also placed in the opposite sides in a zig zag manner. The net result is that where we park 10 cycles in our cycle stands, this arrangement can accommodate around 20 cycles.
Another scene of joy is their spontaneous way of practicing discipline, particularly when it comes to road use. There are cycle lanes marked separately on roads and used only by the cyclists. The pedestrians are, of course, the real VIPs. I was caught unaware of this fact, when I was waiting to cross a road on a zebra crossing. The first day on my way to the University, I had to cross a road wherein I found a zebra crossing. There was neither any signal on that spot for the pedestrians to cross nor any policeman to stop the traffic. But to my surprise, the moment when I was approaching the zebra crossing, traffic from both sides had come to a scratching halt. I hardly had any clue that they stopped for me to cross. I realized it only when the person in the driver seat of the car that stopped signaled me to cross. What a spectacular way of exhibiting self discipline! This became my favourite spot. During my eight days of stay, I always tried to find an exception to this disciplined behaviour while crossing, but I couldn’t.
I found that airports, railway stations, post offices and public utility places are interesting as well. While in transit in Frankfurt, I had the opportunity to move around inside the huge airport. While the domination of technology is very obvious, I found a few bicycles freely moving around inside the airport building! Can we think of bicycles moving around freely inside the airport? I started observing who were those bicycle riders? I then learnt that they were the officials of the airport who are using the bicycles to move around inside the airport, obviously taking a lesser time. The same way, in Munich airport also I found some officials with walkie talkie moving around using the skates. I think it is not only a wonderful way of time management but also their mobility within the restricted area is faster. Also, the escalators are not only used for claiming up but also used like the conveying belts wherein one can walk or run to move fast. Yet another time saving strategy.
One more interesting scene I noticed was when my flight was landing at the Munich Airport. The flight landed and was running on the runway. Suddenly I found some cars and other automobiles moving beneath the runway crisscrossing! Of course, Frankfurt airport has a railway station beneath it, which was no surprise. What interested me a lot is the way in which the things are combined to derive maximum benefit. When one moves from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 in Frankfurt airport, the different modes and means used are astonishing. Initially one has to walk for a while. Suddenly, one or two escalators can be found to reach different levels. Then you will realize that you are on a platform. Before you understand what sort of platform it is, you will find a beautiful train stopping over there. The moment you are in and out of the train you will find lifts around to come down to lower levels and you are in the other terminal.
Another example of combination of means and modes is also seen in another place. From Munich airport, I was supposed to take bus number 635 to go to the nearest railway station, Friesing. From Friesing, I had to take train to Passau. When I approached the counter in Munich airport, I just mentioned the person at the counter that I had to go Passau. He, a courteous person, guided me thoroughly. He gave me the options available and gave the bus timings as well as the connecting train timings. When I decided the timings, surprisingly to me, he issued a single combined ticket for both bus and train and gave a print out of the itenary as well. I could see a similar approach in Linz, a big city next to Vienna in Austria, where one can buy a ticket for 3 euros and travel throughout a day by bus, train and tram as many times as one wants.
Then, the train stations are another interesting area to watch. Even though the trains are running through out night, the ticket counters are closed by 6 o’clock in the evening. There are two machines which take care of the needs after the office working hours. One as a ticket vendor and another as an information centre. The trains are neat and clean. It was while traveling from Austria (Linz) to Passau, I found a family boarded the train. The boy from that family around 9 years entered the train with his bicycle! It was interesting. While the train was running he was moving around freely inside the train in bicycle. Later on when I checked up out of my curiosity how it was allowed, I found to my utter surprise that in the railway time table itself, there are indications against certain trains with a ‘cycle symbol’. This means one can carry his cycle along in those trains. In those trains also, certain bogies carry a big cycle symbol, only in such bogies the cyclists travel with their cycle. Interestingly, the tickets are checked only inside the trains and not separately in the platforms and exit points. Surprisingly, when I left Passau by the late night train, I didn’t find any railway employees in the station except the train driver and the ticket checker. The height of automation!
Another admirable aspect is the value for time. Trains and buses to the extent I have traveled run exactly on dot. One can get down at his right destination by following the official arrival time of the train. The same way, the departures are also on dot. At the designated departure times, the doors are shut automatically and the train starts moving. Once the train starts moving, it is not possible to board anyone while in motion which ensures safety of passengers as well. So you won’t find someone running to catch the trains once it starts moving. There are many more aspects which carry a lot of interest to us. But I should now focus on the very purpose of my visit which revolved around the University of Passau.
The University of Passau is an important place in Passau. Students from all over the world study in this University which has its main focus on Economics. Those who know the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which rank countries as per their level of corruption must be familiar with the Transparency International (TI), a Berlin based non governmental organization. The TI brings out the annual Corruption Perception Index in association with the University of Passau. Therefore, an invitation from such a University and for an event relating to anti-corruption assumes significant importance. Particularly for me, being a vigilance officer, such an invitation is very encouraging and motivating. This is the university where I presented my ideas on Vigilance in two installments, the first one in 2005 and the second one this year. The participants to this program were anti-corruption practitioners, researchers and some are professors from different universities all over the world.
While preparing my presentation I was conscious of the fact that I am going to represent India and there existed a global platform where I could put forth my thoughts gathered in my mind all these years. The net result is that I could come out with the “Suresh’s Law of Corruption Dynamics” and presented in absentia in 2005 in the University of Passau, thanks to the influence of my intellectual guru. This law tries to prove scientifically how the dynamics of corruption works. This law has four elements in it namely, Corruption, Governance, Values and Systems. Interestingly, there were positive reactions from at least half a dozen countries, which included Nepal, Bangladesh, Chez Republic, Cambodia, USA and Germany. In fact, the participant from Nepal had sought my permission to copyright my ideas and also invited me to Nepal for a lecture. More interestingly, one of the Universities in USA has shown interest on this Law and invited me to do PhD and all probability I would be able prove this law in the years to come.
In 2006, I received the invitation again from the University of Passau, Germany to attend the Lecture on Economics of Corruption. This time, I preferred to present a paper on the unknown aspect of Vigilance titled “Vigilance – the right operating system for good corporate governance”. I sent my paper to the University who not only accepted my paper but found some interesting elements in it. They suggested that I should touch upon the impact of corruption in the globalized world which is witnessing liberalization and reforms. This gave me an excellent opportunity to strengthen my Law published last year. And that paved way to my reinvented concept of “SIV-G”. As mentioned in the beginning, SIV-G has to be pronounced like Shivji without ‘sh’ sound. This concept SIV-G stands for Self Imposed Vigilance for Good Governance. There is a similarity between the role played by Lord Shiva (Shivji) and SIV-G, both for destruction of evils. In the case of SIV-G, it is destruction of the evil of corruption. SIV-G, in fact, has turned out to be an axiom to the Suresh’s Law of Corruption Dynamics.
This concept of SIV-G is based on the sound premise that if there is darkness, there is no point in cursing it. Bring the light, the darkness vanishes. In the same way, SIV-G is an attempt to bring the light of good governance using self imposed vigilance so that the darkness of corruption vanishes.
What comes first to your mind, when you hear the word ‘vigilance’, is the most favourite question which I would like to ask anyone with whom I interact? Vigilance is a unique concept which does not exist in other countries in letter. This concept is unique to India. There are anti-corruption bureau, anti-fraud and anti-crime agencies and so on. There are no vigilance officers and vigilance departments and vigilance commissions etc. exist in other countries, the way it is known and termed in India. A simple exercise of using a search engine in internet by searching for the word ‘vigilance’ would confirm that it is related by and large to preventive medical care and related issues. However, there is a very strong purpose behind this concept of vigilance in India.
Eternal vigilance is the price for liberty, it is said. Shakespeare in Tempest uses the word ‘vigilance’, which conveys the meaning of alertness. Some more traces of vigilance were found during the American Revolution in which some self appointed vigilance committees existed. These committees were subsequently dismantled after formal governments and administrative mechanisms were established.
During the colonial times, the presence of ‘vigilance’ as a function existed in the form of instructions and guidelines issued by the higher authorities to their subordinates to ensure proper administration and prevent misuse of authority. However, due to the expansion of activity of government huge public funds were handled by government servants and thus were vested with vast powers. This has led to mounting aspirations and provided ample scope for misuse of authority and breeding of corruption. Complaints against administration started pouring in. The vigilance mechanism, which was basically meant to check the misuse of authority, which by all means intended to prevent corruption, has shifted its direction towards fighting corruption. And today we see our approach is totally towards fighting corruption and not preventing corruption. Why not we shift our approach to prevention. So eternal vigilance applied for good causes produce the desired result.
“The thief is an artist and the policeman is only a critic”, said Oscar Wilde. The real glory will come only when the thief takes over the role of the policeman to criticize his own art and reform himself. This would be the greatest reform that can even happen to mankind. It is possible only with the SIV-G. When we apply the self imposed vigilance to the factors determining governance, it leads to good governance. This is what SIV-G is all about.
In fact, in crisply described words, the concept of Self Imposed Vigilance (SIV) can be best understood from the couplets of Thiruvalluvar, when he observed:
Thirukkural (Ch.68, Ver.676)
Every act is to be performed after considering the exertion required, the obstacles to be encountered and the purpose to be achieved on its completion.
In the ultimate analysis, I am very optimistic of the fact that corruption will vanish from the earth sooner or later. I have a very strong reason to believe so. The way slavery existed during 1850s no longer exists now. It has vanished. Surely corruption will also vanish from the scene like slavery. How fast we make it happen depends on how effectively we use this SIV-G. I am hoping to see it in my life time.
This is how the journey of Vigilance to Germany was accomplished and in a way, the first ever attempt to globalize the concept of Vigilance was undertaken.
