More Anti-corruption Bills to Be Introduced in India's Parliament

• Civil society leaders who led anti-graft protests in the summer are threatening to restart agitation if suitable legislation for instituting an ombudsman is not introduced
• Corruption is hurting growth and discouraging both domestic and foreign investment
• Civil society, business leaders and the government agree on the need to introduce transparency in government, end discretionary decision-making, make the judicial process more effective, create a public attitude of zero tolerance for corruption and bring back Indian money parked in tax havens abroad 

Mumbai, India, 13 November 2011 – The government has announced a series of measures to tackle corruption and is set to propose for consideration seven bills in the forthcoming session of Parliament, Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State for Planning, Science, Technology and Earth Sciences of India, said in a BBC television debate today at the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit.

These include bills to protect whistleblowers and a bill to prevent bribery by foreign officials. “Legislation cannot be made under public frenzy,” he argued, referring to widespread civil society protests in the summer, saying the protests had turned “we the people” into “we the mob”.