2015 Ramon Magsaysay Awards: Whistle-blower still believes India can be corruption-free

MANILA, Philippines - What do you get for being a man of courage and conviction?

Twelve transfers in five years, an illegal suspension order, an invented charge sheet, a demotion and a spoiled annual confidential report.

This is what 41-year-old Sanjiv Chaturvedi has faced in the past years for unearthing numerous scandals involving high-ranking officials in India.

In 2008, Forest Service Officer Chaturvedi blew the whistle on the digging of a canal without the permission of Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary in Haryana, northern India.

When he found that trees were being chopped, he did what duty called for – he filed a complaint with the chief wildlife warden, but was warned by the state principal secretary that he would face disciplinary action. He was then transferred to another office.

Upon transfer, however, Chaturvedi uncovered another irregularity when he found out that government funds were being used in growing herbal plants in a privately owned land. He filed another complaint and the state hit back at him with greater force. He was suspended from work until the ministry revoked the order when they realized that evidence and facts of the case were ambiguous.

After revoking the suspension, Chaturvedi was posted at a position below his rank.

For Chaturvedi, he was just doing his duty and irregularities had to be reported to the proper authorities to be rightfully addressed.

“We are trustees of public funds, of these natural resources,” he once told his brother, also an Indian Forest Service officer in another state.

For his “exemplary integrity, courage, and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly investigating corruption in public office, and his resolute crafting of program and system improvements to ensure that government honorably serves the people of India,” Chaturvedi was bestowed the Ramon Magsaysay Award this year, along with four others in their respective fields.

In an interview with The Wire, Chaturvedi admitted, “No officer from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) congratulated me, not even the director or anyone in the ministry. The only two prominent persons who called me are Haryana Minister Anil Vij and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.”

For Chaturvedi, the biggest challenge in fighting corruption is when officers like him “come into conflict with the higher ups in the political establishment, since all the disciplinary powers are with them.”

The whistle-blower still believes that India can be corruption-free, since other developed countries have sufficiently contained the blight. “If we somehow manage to reach a critical number, then it will become difficult for the government to stifle our voice,” he said.