Corruption in Public Life

Can We Do Away With It?

India is one of the largest and most successful democracies in the world. At present we
are moving rapidly towards becoming a developed nation with a high trajectory of
economic growth. We have established our impeccable track record in meeting all the
democratic credentials. But there are some manmade obstacles within our system which
are hindering our path of development. Among such problem most important is the
prevalence of rampant corruption throughout the arteries and veins of the whole system.

We have seen, through sting operations that several ministers, leaders of political parties
and many members of Parliament and State Legislature accepting bribes red-handedly.
Corruption is not confined to political circle only. Rather it is ever vigorous in
bureaucratic system now. In our country the roots of corruption are so deep that in some
government departments it has become the order of the day. The biggest irony is that in
such departments, the bribed and corrupt people are known to be ‘talented’, while an
honest official is termed as ‘moron’. Because of this corrupt system many honest people
have been victimized. Many such incident come to our mind be it the case of Bhagwati
Prasad Dixit of Kanpur or Satyendra Dubey, K. Manjunathan and Manoj Gupta, who
became victims of this corrupt system.

This prevalence of rampant corruption in public life is quite clear from our track record
in Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). In the latest
report published in 2008 India has retained the position of being in the big league of the
most corrupt having placed at 85th out of 180 countries. It is one of the bottommost
amongst 55 of the 146 countries where corruption is rampant. In fact except for some
media reports and some discussions on TV and channels, nobody in the Government, like
in the past, has shown any concern or expressed regret at the slide down. The result is
that people have got to accept corruption as a part of their lives. Even in the recently held
general elections and assembly elections in various state corruption was never an issue of
manifesto. Corruption as an issue is periodically raised invariably by the political parties
in wilderness when they run short of any other idea or issues.

The report of Transparency International, indicates that Indians pay $ 5 billions or Rs.
32000 crores, as bribes every year. This report only talks of the money paid by the
contractors to the public servants, which includes both the political and bureaucratic
executives.

Government rules are made, on the presumption that the general public is corrupt. They
tend to create a web of complicated procedures, which gives birth to corrupt practices. A
number of Chartered Accountants have been arrested by the CBI for acting as conduits of
the revenue officials either for settlement of the cases or for getting them transferred to
the juiciest of the prized wet postings, where such people can line up their pockets.
According to another survey, there is a price tag, which varies from person to person as
per his or her capacity to pay to get the government services, which should be normally
free. These include getting a ration card, birth & death certificates, driving licenses,
admission to schools and colleges, bank loans, customs, excise and income tax or sales or
pollution, or tax clearance, getting insurance claims passed, admission to hospitals,
allotment of government or DDA built houses, escaping traffic violation or getting
married the same day in the court compromising examination system. This list is only
illustrative and not exhaustive.

Another reason for the diffusion and dispersal of corruption is that the corrupt people
have no apprehension forget about any fear of being brought to the book. Public rightly
questions as to why people involved in high profile corruption cases are not only free, but
are calling the shots and in some places even ruling roost. The answer to this lies in the
fact that a lot of political will is required to reform the criminal justice system, which
unfortunately for one consideration or the other is lacking.

The corrupt on a grand scale have a habit of making life unpleasant and often short-lived
for whistle-blowers. There have been cases, where such whistle blowers - as happened in
the case of an Engineer of National High Way Authority of India, Satendar Dubey- were
killed to prevent exposure of corruption in the system.

Corruption in our country is hardly a new phenomenon. Surveys after surveys, cases
after cases in CBI have documented a widespread pattern of corruption and racketeering
prevails in several departments of the Government. Corruption has been more than a
problem for India. Recently, the Supreme Court of India had observed over how did
efforts were made, to change the prosecutor in Bihar Fodder Scam case and it correctly
found fault with how things had been done under the influence of the powerful politicians

When it comes to rooting out corruption, it seems no matter how much liberalization or
progress is claimed to have been made, nothing has really changed. It matters little to
charge a few politicians with corruption when they have learned their tactics of attacking
corruption cases launched as political vendetta.

Recently, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing a conference of anti-

corruption agencies, admitted that there is a perception that while petty cases get tackled
quickly, the “big fish” escape punishment. He said that there is an urgent need to change
this. He also said that "high level” corruption has to be aggressively denounced. He said
that all such cases should be investigated on priority basis. Hopefully, the top level honest
officers would be encouraged with Dr. Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister and they
would be able to ‘trap’ a ‘big fish’ as early as possible. Perhaps, then only the common
people would say ‘Jai Ho’.

Corruption has neither disappeared nor reduced but has only grown more sophisticated
with the help of lawyers and accountants. The reason for all malaises in the country is
that some wrong sorts of people are always in power. Perhaps they would not be in
power, if they were not so. Many a times, people questions that what can be done to
improve the situation and root out corruption. To this Carlyle replied; “Make Yourself an
honest man and then you may be sure that there is one less rascal in the world”. There is
no doubt that a straight line is the shortest both in morals in geometry. It is also important
for our rulers to realize that people are fashioned according to the examples they see.
Laws, rules and edicts are less powerful than the models, which our leaders exhibit. It is a
matter of dishonour, ignominy and infamy to be branded as the 85th most corrupt country
in the world. The onus for this situation as well as the responsibility to rectify it falls on
our leaders, who need not be reminded that example is the school of mankind. Said
Cicero, “Be a pattern to others and then all will go well, for as a whole city is infected by
the licentious passions and vices of great men so it is likewise reformed by their
moderation”.