Understanding Corruption in India

by SUDHANSHU TRIPATHI

If virtue and vice both are integral parts of human nature and both exist together, the society consisting of such human beings will certainly reflect the essentials of such nature. Evidently goodness is as natural to society as there is wickedness. That is why corruption in its various forms, being the by-product of wicked-ness, has been in existence since times immemorial. Of course, it was less or very less in earlier times because there was less or very less struggle for survival of human beings during those days. As the bounties of Nature were in abundance but their consumers were few, the struggle for survival of human existence were almost absent; therefore, any talk of corruption was of less or no relevance at that time. With the passage of time and consequent rise in human population, the bounties of nature gradually declined due to its excessive exploitation and further could not match the fast rising demands of consumers, the erstwhile beautiful, serene and pious natural environment got transformed into a struggle-oriented selfish and fearful arena. Everybody became, and so he is today with rare exceptions, confined to oneself with less and lesser concerns for other fellow beings; therefore, what the society is today is nothing but a heterogenous whole consisting of self-engrossed, pleasure-seeking, autonomous and atomic individuals, as John Locke, the prophet of British liberalism, had said in the 17th century. As a result, the clash of interests in such circumstances is inevitable among them and with its ever increasing degree due to decreasing amount of resources, it will inevitably lead to adoption and use of corrupt practices by them for the sake of their survival.

But corruption today is primarily an economic one which is existing side by side with all other forms of corruption, almost in the whole world. And India, although being the sacred land of Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, Mahatma Buddha and many more devine incarnations, is no exception. What is exceptional here in this context is the scale and magnitude of the cases of corruption which, as it appears, is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, never before in our country or in any country all over the world, so many scams of unimaginable magnitude and proportion have been unearthed and brought out in the open before the people at large by the highly alert and investigative media, particularly the electronic media. In fact the cancer of corruption is so well entrenched today, its rot having gone deep into most of our society as well as into our civic bodies, that it has weakened our real and rational will and also the spirit of civic sense and nationhood.

At the same time it has aroused moral indignation among all conscientious, selfless and patriotic citizens of the country that is amply visible in the ongoing anti-corruption crusade launched by the famous Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. The en masse upsurge of people and their enthusiasm all across the country have proved beyond doubt that they are fed up with the infernal condition of our multiparty coalition government. Hence, there is no room for complacency, nor is their scope for keeping further faith in our corrupt politicians, bureaucracy (whose members are hand in glove with their political masters), or even religious heads for their support against corruption. This disease has to be struck at its roots; otherwise it may become incurable. Obviously, we the people, have to come forward and they are coming forward because Anna Hazare has already sown the seeds of our “real freedom” or “second independence” for a corruption-free India as Mahatama Gandhi did before independence for our freedom from British rule.

While tracing the roots of corruption, one can easily find the cause in the increasing spiritual vacuum in our lives due to the massive onslaught of a highly materialistic consumer culture, sponsored by the Western countries, which has broken our back, that is, character, and which, in fact, happens to be the real strength of either a person or a society or country. As a result, there is no respect for universal values like truth, love, justice, service, sacrifice, peace and humanity. ‘Simple living and high thinking’ is now a thing of the past. Instead, unlimited money, power and success at any cost, being based upon the market-oriented consumerist value system, are our only concerns today. Earning millions of money or gaining power and position or being an all-round success in either profession, business or politics, we are willing to compromise the principles of honesty and integrity and indulge in all sorts of corruption. To be able to form a government or to stay in power or position, our so-called people’s representatives are prepared to be blackmailed and buy support, thereby befooling those people whom they represent. All these are justified in the name of coalition politics or coalition dharma.

As the fish rots from the top and flows downhill, corruption is also said to percolate down. People in general tend to follow the standards defined and set by the high-ups. As Chaucer said: “If the gold doth rust, what shall iron do?” However, the conduct of Ministers, legislators, judges, bureaucrats and businessmen cannot be viewed in isolation form the society, of which they are a part. As is the fact that there has been a general decline of values in society. Resultantly, at a time when the people in India are demanding a life free of hunger, unemployment, deprivation and acute poverty, they are witness to the tonnes of foodgrains being wasted as rotten items or the sordid scandals involving huge amounts of public money being looted. The sheer magnitude of public money and the nexus of top-level Ministers, bureaucrats and others are simply unprecedented.

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IT is well known that corruption during the last decade has crossed almost all limits, particularly in the Commonwealth Games 2010 scam, 2G spectrum scam and many more. In the CWG scam, millions of rupees had been siphoned off into the pockets of the organisers and their relatives. The Shunglu Committee Report, investigating into the CWG scam, had indicted Suresh Kalmadi and his Organising Committee for deliberate mismanagement with a view to line up their pockets and causing a colossal expenditure of Rs 70,000 crores from the estimated expenditure of Rs 1899 crores. The CWG expenditure was around 14 times more than the expenditure incurred during the CWG held in Melbourne in 2006. Similarly, the 2G spectrum scam has cost the public exchequer Rs 1,76,000 crores in which former Communications Minister, A Raja, through the sale of licences almost at the 10-year old prices, has caused colossal loot of public money to please certain corporate interests, thereby benefiting his company and himself. And what is here all the more shocking is the complete silence and inaction of our Prime Minister. Further, the Government of India was not willing to remove the CVC, Thomas, who had criminal records in courts in Kerala and was adamant in staying on in the post but he had to resign after the Supreme Court verdict, declaring his appointment as illegal.

The SC again took serious note of money laundering by Hassan Ali and his black money kept in foreign banks as the Apex Court found the most glaring case of the government’s cover-up exercise in which, “… 450 billion dollars of ill-gotten or unearned savings are sitting in foreign banks”, as outlined by a well known magazine of Britain, Economist. The SC had to charge Hassan Ali of depositing $ 8 billion equivalent in Swiss Banks, thus leading to immediate action against him. He is the biggest tax defaulter of India and owes Rs 50,000 crores to the government and had not filed tax returns since 1999. And several other scams like the Adarsh Cooperative Housing scam, issuing of fake pilot licences and an earlier fodder scam etc. have led to the Economist referring to India as a rotten state in the headline of an article on India’s corruption issue. Thus it is an endless story.

What these scams point to is the fact of the malignant nexus of corrupt politicians, bureau-crats and big business houses operating at the centres of power. These powerful lobbies transform the instruments of governance to suit the interests of the corporates and scamsters and shape public policy to protect private interest wherein money rules the roost. When this happens, it racks and wrecks the social fabric. And highly respectable institutions of governance like Parliament and Assemblies become playgrounds for serving vested interests. No wonder then that democratic governance falls into the hands of criminals who assume charge of the gullible ignorant masses. Leaders like Madhu Koda, Shibu Soren and Laloo Yadav etc. have ruthlesly exploited their positions for indulging in rampant corruption and making fortunes for themselves. Consequently the enormous gap of economic inequality creates an unhealthy and fertile ground for violence and terrorism to grow because the have nots, denied of justice and their rights, go astray from the rule of law and order and take recourse to violence or murder for redressal of their grievances. “Money! Money’s the curse of man, none greater. That’s what wrecks cities, banishes man from home…. deludes the most well-meaning soul……,” said Sophocles centuries ago through his immortal character Creon in Antigone.

Hence, the role of money has to be limited. But, at the same time, the misgovernance or lack of governance should be immediately addressed, as this is the most important source of today’s corruption. The governance deficit has led to the rise of an increasing disconnect between the people and corrupt rulers who have further aroused anger, dissatisfaction and resultant frustration among the common man; this has the potential for large scale violence, terrorism or even revolution. The principal organs of the government, that is, Legistature, Executive and the Judiciary, have failed to perform their essential functions of governance and become self-serving, unaccountable and are indulging in blatant misuse of power and gross misappropriation of public money. What is very unfortunate is that today governments adopt all sorts of tricks and tactics to divide the people by harping on the age-old issues of caste, religion, region, community etc. so that the citizens do not concentrate on their misdeeds and misrule causing a huge quantum of corruption and scandals. Such events get exposed only when the sharing of the loot remains undecided among them.

As for the remedy, there is an urgent need to purge the political system of the four major ills, namely, corruption, casteism, communalism and criminalisation. The correction has to begin from the top by cleansing the political system through electoral reforms. Apart from money power, the depredations of muscle power and mafia gangs should be also arrested and curbed. Further, the steps required are forefeiture of ill-gotten wealth in cash or in properties; bringing back all illegal money deposited in foreign banks or invested abroad; freeing the media and investigation agencies from political interference and control; comprehensive political, administrative and judicial reforms and also enacting a credible Lokpal Bill having jurisdiction over the PM, judges of the High Courts and Supreme Court, and all higher functionaries of the government.

But how can all these reforms be achieved through peaceful and constitutional means because those who can do so have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo? Why will they lose their power and position? However, when public pressure rises to become irresistible, they would find no option but to succumb to the pressure; they would then come to realise that reforms are ultimately in their best interests. Although the present political establishment is not much in favour of the above mentioned reforms, yet the spark ignited by Anna Hazare is not going to extinguish and those wielding power at present would perforce have to under-take those reforms for their own survival.

Dr Sudhanshu Tripathi is an Associate Professor of Political Science, M.D.P.G. College, Pratapgarh (UP). He can be contacted at sudhanshu.tripathi07 @gmail.com