Menace of corruption

The most menacing social element - corruption – has entered the realm of socio-economic and political being of our nation with a sense of naked realism. It has, now, come to rule the crust of the social, political, economic, administrative and moral existence of Indian democratic set up. It has become all-pervasive and normal way of our daily routine. No body is satisfied with what he already has; he is always in the look out to grab the other peoples’ possessions; he is willing to go to any length to get it. He wants to hoard all and go on amassing till his death. If the laws of the land are enforced three quarters of our most respected citizens would be in our country’s jails.


The politicians and administrators (civil servants), in India, have forgotten the basic dictum of democracy that power involves responsibility. They all have simply turned themselves into power mongers and given the Indian administrative and political infrastructure shape wherein they themselves can wield power without responsibility. This sense of power without responsibility has corrupted them. They forget the fact ill-gots do not bring peace and prosperity either to them or to the nation. The politician-criminal-bureaucrat nexus is like a blood-sucking monster that lives off everything around it. There are plenty of bookies, shylocks, and criminals. They are the people; most of us want to be.


Corruption has destroyed, prevented and corrupted just about everything that exists. Everyone is in competition. All are in a bloody race to lay hands on as much as is possible before it is all our. Corruption has become an established welfare and development funds are being cleverly and at times, openly, siphoned to personal and private accounts in and abroad.

We pay serious attention to the meance of raging corruption which, along with poverty, inequality, civil conflict, discrimination and violence, is a major issue that has not been adequately addressed. Corruption is lack of integrity, which could be financial, intellectual or moral. In the context of public life, we are primarily concerned with the lack of financial integrity. The corrosive negative impart of corruption is being increasingly realized. The World Bank defined corruption as use of public office for private gain. It is increasingly, therefore, in the context of public affairs and governance of the country that the issue of corruption is being discussed and highlighted.

Particularly after the end of the cold war, the corrosive impact of corruption is being increasingly realized. It is seen to be anti economic development, anti national and anti poor. The need for checking corruption in global business also emerged more or less simultaneously after the end of the cold war because, in the globalised economy, the need for ensuring good corporate governance was soon realized. Globalization has intensified corruption to the utmost.

We are therefore living in a world where when it comes to public governance,the need for integrity and checking corruption is increasingly realized as very valuable. Even in business, the need for honesty is being underlined by the focus on the principles of corporate governance. Ultimately, corporate governance depends on the two elements of transparency and accountability. Because, without transparency accountability cannot be enforced, and accountability in the case of an enterprise is to ensure that the interest of the shareholders and stakeholders are protected. the smart-ones, the heroes; and mod But the challenges facing the anti-corruption movement have changed markedly over the last decade. When the Transparency International was formed in 1993, national and international leaders wilfully ignored calls to tackle corruption. The Transparency International is an NGO based in Berlin, which annually publishes the grading of the countries on the basis of what is called Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Now the body of evidence is too large, and the pervasive impact of corruption recognised as too great, to ignore.

Arguments are advanced to justify corruption on the grounds of:

1. No country is immune to graft. As New Zealand and Finland demonstrate in the Global Corruption Report 2006, even countries that are consistently ranked in the top 10 in Transparency International's CPI experience lapses in accountability. Corruption affects all sectors of society, from construction, education and police, to p a r l i a - ment, and the judiciary. Corr u p t i o n continues to be an obstacle to investment, impedes effe c t i v e management of natural resource revenues and can lead to misappropriation of disaster relief funds.

2. While commenting on the inevitability of corruption in the revenue department, the great Kautilya in his Arthasastra said that expecting a revenue official to be dry honest was like expecting a person with honey on his tongue not to lick it. Thus, corruption is seen by several people as not only
inevitable but also natural.

3. Though corruption is a global phenomenon, there is a lot of difference in the degree of corruption among countries. From the ranking of India in the Transparency International's CPI, it is obvious that India is one of the more corrupt countries in the world.

4. On the other hand, citizen users of public services themselves are responsible for corruption. In fact, there is no active and sustained civil society movement against corruption. The efforts are sporadic, localized and short-lived and have never acquired the character of a large movement.

5. We can identify seven key factors that stand out as responsible for the widespread corruption in the system. These include: Lack of transparency and accountability in the system; lack of an effective corruption reporting mechanism; lack of honesty in official in the Government; acceptance of 'Bribe' as a way of life, custom and culture; ineffective ti-corruption institutions, including Police and Judiciary; poor economic policies; inadequate training and orientation of Government officials.


The exposure of several scandals highlight the increasing role played by civil society and the media in monitoring public funds and holding public officials to account. Corruption is no longer tolerated in some countries, and in others the media has played a key role in exposing it.

Another key question currently being asked is the kind of impact various 'standard' anti-corruption policy remedies have on corruption levels. Attempts are made to evaluate the extent to which asset declaration by public officials affects levels of corruption in countries around the world. They find that the longer such laws have been in place, particularly where there is a credible threat of prosecution for violating the law, and the more the information can be accessed publicly, the greater the link between asset declaration and less corruption.

India can certainly become a corruption-free country. There have been several countries with high rate of corruption, but have been able to turn around and tackle corruption effectively. Hong Kong was once notorious for corruption. In 1974, the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) was set up and that organization has been able to bring a dramatic change in bringing down corruption in Hong Kong. Hence the first thing to be realised is that corruption can be tackled, as other countries have done it.

Corruption in India is the result of the vicious cycle starting with political corruption leading to bureaucratic corruption, business corruption, corruption in NGOs and finally the criminalization of politics. Corruption in India owes a lot to the fact that the democratic system we have adopted involves political parties collecting funds for election and other purposes. All political parties collect funds in cash. This is black money. Black money is the oxygen for corruption and corruption is oxygen for black money. Hence a political system which is dependent on black money can never take the initiative to fight corruption. It is the political corruption which lies at the starting point of the vicious cycle
of corruption in our country.

Bureaucratic corruption results from a number of factors. The permit licence raj for more than four decades after independence was a breeding ground for corruption and the root cause of corruption in the licence era were scarcity of goods and services, lack of transparency, the bureaucratic red tape and consequent need for speed money, the legal cushions of safety that was exploited by the corrupt and finally the tribalism among the corrupt. The business corruption flourish because in the permit licence raj, the only way of influencing the politicians and bureaucrats was by corrupt means. The recent phenomenon of the NGOs also shows that even this sector is not free from corruption. This all pervasive corruption has resulted in the loss of the legitimacy of the state institutions giving rise to criminalization in politics.

We have to think in terms of a systematic approach to tackle the issue of corruption by breaking the vicious
cycle starting with political corruption. For checking political corruption,the starting point should be the attack on black money and reform of the campaign funding laws. To reduce the elements of black money, laws like the Benami Transaction prohibition Act which were designed to check the use of black money must be vigorously implemented. The transaction laws like the Income Tax, Customs, and Excise should be made almost zero exemption laws so there is no question of exemption and the transparency element is enhanced. To prevent criminalization of politics, it is necessary to ensure that those candidates against whom criminal charges have been framed in court, should be prevented from contesting elections till they are cleared by the courts. The very delay in the judicial system needs to be tackled and made to work against the criminals in politics. These measures will go a long way in reducing the scope of corruption at the political level.

Bureaucratic corruption can be tackled if the following three point strategy is adopted. First, there is a need for simplification of rules and procedures so that the scope of corruption is reduced. Simple rules can be the first step forward. In fact, one problem we have in our country is the lack of the sunset clause in our laws, so that laws continue to be one the statute book long after their relevance has passed. These broad measures should go a long way in cleaning up our system. Secondly, there should be transparency and empowerment of the public. Fortunately, the current UPA government has passed the Right to Information Act. The very right to information can be a powerful tool for empowering citizens to ask questions and bring greater transparency in the system. This combined with widespread application of information technology can result in significant reduction of corruption. IT application and e-governance will bring in greater transparency, easier access for citizens for their rights to infor mation and in the way help in bringing down corruption. The third important aspect is prompt punishment of the guilty. The disciplinary authorities should take immediate action. Corruption might mean the difference between life and death for the poor and the needy. It is invariably the poor in society who are affected most by corruption because they often cannot afford bribes.

If we are serious about protecting human rights, as members of civil society we need to take into account the issue of corruption. The challenge is immense, and can only be tackled if we work together, making use of the moral and legal arguments provided by the international human rights framework, as well as the practical tools and strategies.

A pervasive challenge is to ensure that lessons on how to fight corruption a r e a d o p t e d with rigour and commitment by the people entrusted with power. Too often anti-corruption rhetoric is not followed up with action. Another challenge is to build stronger ties between the anti-corruption movement and movements concerned with other aspects of good governance. Though money lost directly to corruption is the most obvious and immediate cost, the negative effects of corruption in terms of quality of government and the well-being of a population are much longer term. The potential gains from fighting corruption are immense.

Corruption is a powerful force, but it is not inevitable or unavoidable. Diminishing its impact restores diverted resources to their intended purpose, bringing better health, nutrition and education to victims of corruption around the world, and with them, opportunity and hope.

The Supreme Court has forced the candidates to declare their criminal background, educational qualification and wealth details and this is the first step to bring in greater transparency in the political system. The Right to Infor- mation Acts is another good step taken and this combined with the initiative for e-governance should go a long way in improving transparency in our system and empowering the people.

The corrupts should realize that greed can destroy more than one person's life; it can ruin the lives of their loved ones. Corruption is that monster which needs to be destroyed or it will destroy the whole nations. Its elimination is not a thing to be undertaken lightly. This is the desperate situation and desperate situation requires desperate action. At present, only good governance can handle the situation properly. But a gross misconception of the concepts of rights and duties as well as that of the Government and governance have led the concept of good governance into a chaotic situation and narrowed its very image. The undue and misleading concepts of rights have thrown the concept of duties in the background. At the same time, the prevailing lop-sided concept of honesty has also harmed the cause of good governance. The dictum "honesty is the best policy" has narrowed down the scope and purpose of the honesty. In fact, the honesty should not be taken as a policy; it should be made a way of life.

Members of Parliament and state legislature should come from the people with fuller knowledge of grass-root realities; should make laws accordingly to suit the need and redress the ailments. For this elections, should be transparent, free and fair. The selection of contesting candidates should be based on their sound social footings; persons of criminal background, believers of corrupt practices and money-mongers should be kept at bay.

Political interference as well as politician-criminal-bureaucrat triangle should be put an end to. Much of the corruption is due to this triangular nexus. It is high-time that strict laws be passed in the Parliament to punish such pressure-groups and wipe them out of the mainstream of social and administrative circles. This is very unfortunate to note that the media-the forth estate of democracy has derailed and lost its pious and well-defined goal. It has taken a shape of booming industry and is hankering after power and wrongful gains. For corruption, it is not just the Government to blame; the people too are equally to be blamed. We have become selfish, have little respect for social obligations and can harm the nation and fellow-citizens for our petty gains. The so-called elite of society must be prepared to share the blame for rising corruption. They feel the stink of corruption; they criticize corrupt politicians and officers but never come out in the open. On the contrary, they show their respect to such corrupt people, where they are in their presence. Now, they should change themselves or be bold to openly decry the corrupt section of persons.

All concerned should join hands and make it a point to weed out corruption at any cost. There should be a staunch will to this effect. It is high time that we stand as rock to face and dismantle the edifice of the corrupt people, or they will lead the nation and the entire people to the ruinous end.