Corruption, integrity, and spine

NYC mayor’s case shows the importance of probity in public institutions

Alok Tiwari

Amid the upheaval caused by Donald Trump in the US there is also a side show going on that is just as significant. It is related to New York City mayor Eric Adams. He is a Democratic politician serving as mayor of US’s biggest city for three years. In September last year, after a series of investigations by the US Justice Department, notably under the Democratic administration of President Joe Biden, he was charged with bribery, fraud, wire fraud, and taking illegal favours from foreign governments. Adams has pleaded not guilty and has refused to resign even as public pressure, including by peers in his party mounted, for him to quit. But that is not important. What is important is what happened once Trump was elected president, and it has lessons for India as well.

Politicians everywhere are thick-skinned and rarely quit office voluntarily. Adams is no different. As Trump began a new era of going after perceived adversaries and brazenly protecting those personally loyal to him, Adams saw a survival opportunity. Despite being a Democrat, he began siding with harsh position on immigrants taken by Republicans in general and Trump in particular. As a Democratic city, NYC was hitherto protective of immigrants and resisted efforts by federal government to round them up. Adams declared he would offer more cooperation to federal authorities in their drive against immigrants, if only this pesky case he was facing went away. Think a cornered Ajit Pawar cozying up to BJP.

His gambit worked. Justice Department under Trump, ever a sucker for sycophancy and flattery, ordered its prosecutors in NYC to drop the charges on the grounds that the mayor needs to concentrate on federal campaign and, I am not making this up, he needs to pay attention to his re-election campaign. It is here that the move ran into stony ground. Justice is already in turmoil over the purge of officials who had led the case against Trump over his inciting Jan 6, 2021, insurrection and his taking official documents with him after his first term. But the prosecutors at New York leading the Adams case, refused to do the bidding of new bosses. And this they did very publicly.

When the pressure mounted, they chose to quit writing and releasing to public elaborate resignation letters detailing the weight of evidence against Adams and how they could not in good conscience recommend dropping the charges. Six of them quit office rather than buckle under a politically motivated directive from their boss. It was left to a seventh prosecutors to carry out that directive. Now the presiding judge must decide whether to allow the case to be dropped.

It does not end there. The latest is that four ranking NYC officials, all appointed by Adams, have also quit citing their inability to work under a tainted mayor. They said they would not be able to keep their oath of office if they continued. It is a sordid saga but one that has its bright spots as well. And there lies its relevance to us.

Corruption, as Indira Gandhi famously said, is a global phenomenon. It gets bigger when the pie is bigger. The richer a society the bigger the corruption. There will always be individuals trying to game any system to their advantage. What differs is response of different societies to it once it comes out into the open. It is worth considering in this case the investigations and the prosecution against a prominent Democratic politician were both launched by federal administration also under Democrats. They suffered no roadblocks.

And when they were sought to be derailed for political gain by another political party, the career prosecutors showed exemplary courage and integrity in publicly calling out the effort. When they could no longer resist, they chose to resign rather than go along. Can this scenario play out in India? In a democracy, governments will always be run by politicians who need to get elected. They will always protect their political interest first. That is why the government agencies and constitutional bodies are expected to act with independence and integrity. They must investigate the cases before them robustly regardless of political affiliations of those involved. Their acts and decisions must always uphold the rule of law.

Now consider the behaviour of officials in most premier probe agencies of India like the CBI, the ED, the tax agencies like Income Tax and Excise authorities. How many times the ruling party has sought to use them to quell political opposition and to withdraw cases once the politician has switched sides? Have you ever heard of an ED, CBI, or tax officials publicly call out a directive to go after political opponent or to halt an investigation once the opponent has switched sides, much less resign? I agree not everybody is able to sacrifice their career at the altar of probity but equally not everybody’s survival is linked to their job. Imagine if only a handful had done so.

While present government may have been most shameless about misusing agencies, earlier ones have not been a paragon of virtue in this regard. And they have largely gotten away with it. Whether it is a cult of deference to the authority or a tradition formed over centuries of subjugation, it is rare to see people in India stand up for anything. This is true as much in our classrooms as in workplaces. In politics and in public life it is the worst and most damaging. This is truly unfortunate because unlike in the US, public servants in India have very protected tenures. It is not easy for ministers to get rid of them. In case of people in constitutional positions like judges and election commissioners, it is near impossible. Their career and their pensions are all guaranteed. Yet, these are the people who have most let us and our democracy down.

This column appeared in Lokmat Times on Feb 19, 2025