According to Anna Hazare, “Corruption has no place in a civilized society”. However, in most of the countries, especially in Bharat, corruption has pervaded in every section of public and private life. Corruption, being a ‘cancer’, will slowly kill the country. Therefore, it is our bounden duty to commit ourselves to fight the evil of corruption and to prevent the country from economic, social, political, moral and other downfalls.
Prime Minister of Bharat, in his Independence Day speech in August 2023, expressed his concerns regarding twin challenges of corruption and nepotism that hinder the progress of our country. To make the nation to constantly rise to higher levels of endeavour and achievement, we must collectively strive to fight corruption.
According to “Transparency International”, ‘corruption’ means “abuse of entrusted power for private gain”. Corruption may be in the form of cash or kind or favour. However, once the person in a responsible position abuses his/her power, it is said to be a ‘corrupt’ act. Corruption has become an accepted norm in our society and officials have become habituated to it. This indicates the dwindling base of our ethical & moral principles.
It is disheartening to mention the fact that corruption has become a stressful phenomenon & all pervasive in nature. There are no fields which are free from corruption; be it either politics or public service or media or private sector or police or judiciary.
How did we come to such a worrisome situation then? To explain it, we must look into the historical perspective also.
It is evident that corruption was practiced even during the 4th century BCE. Kautilya in his magnum opus, ‘Artashastra’ opines that, “as it is impossible not to taste the honey that falls on the tongue, in a similar manner it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the kings revenue”.
During the colonial period, when British became territorial power, especially after First War of Independence of 1858, they started to avoid Bharathiyas from political participation. By enacting the Official Secrets Act of 1923, colonialists made it an offence for British officials to reveal ‘state’ information to Bharatiya citizens to protect military and government intelligence.
After Bharat got independence, there was an urgent need for rapid industrialisation. Trough the Industrial Act of 1951, the Government of Bharat issued licenses for the new industries. This Act has resulted in the ‘License, Quota, Permit Raj’ till 1991, indicating the unbridled power and its misuse by the government officials.
Even after 1991 Economic Reforms, though the country’s economic fortunes were improved, corruption took different forms and become deep rooted. It is growing unchecked and unhindered .
In the past few decades, our country has witnessed number of scams and scandals. Bofors scam of 1980-90, Satyam Computers scam, Commonwealth Games scam, Fodder scam of 1990s, Coal block allocations scam, Aadarsh Housing Society scam , Augusta wasteland Chopper deals scam 2013 and very recent Cash for Question in Parliament are just a few corruption examples to mention here.
In the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) – 2023 by Transparency International, Bharat ranked 85 out of 180 countries in corruption levels. We often here the news about investigative journalists and activists being attacked, civil society organizations being targeted. These individuals and organizations were vocal against the rampant corruption. However, there voices are being suppressed. This is the sorry state of our fight against corruption in Bharat.
Then what are the reasons for such a rampant corruption in Bharat? The answer is not difficult to discern. The reasons are, new generation politicians are not concerned about nation oriented programs and policies but are self-centered; decreasing value system and ethical qualities in Bhartiya society; wide acceptance of corruption as a norm by the people; over-burdened and under resourced judiciary leading to low number of convictions and judicial delays; unholy nexus among politicians bureaucrats and businessmen leading to crony capitalism; candidates with serious criminal antecedents are becoming law makers; poor enforcement of stringent laws; the premier agencies in fighting corruption are failing to fulfill their responsibilities and have become ‘caged parrots’ in the hands of politicians; lack of transparency and accountability in the public administration; low salary and incentives for government servants and bureaucratic red tapism; complicated taxation and licensing system; judicial corruption because of delay in disposal of cases shortage of Manpower and newly emerging Complex laws; no or poor protection of activists, whistle blowers; illiteracy and lack of awareness among people about implications of bribing; lack of large scale national level movements and independent organisations against corruption; the people’s movements like 2011 Anna Hazare led Jan Lokpal movement are petered out early; lack of ethics and poor sense of ‘social responsibility’ in the corporate sector. Such reasons are dime a dozen and have become root causes for corruption.
These root causes of corruption have wider implications. According to Transparency International, “global peace has been deteriorating for 15 years and corruption has been both a key cause and result of this. Corruption undermines governments’ ability to protect people and erodes public trust, provoking more and harder to control security threats. On the other hand, conflict creates opportunities for corruption and subverts governments’ efforts to stop it”. In the context of Bharat, the impacts of corruption are,
- rule of law and access to justice are compomised
- corrupt citizens have stashed millions of rupees in the tax heavens and thus there is a flourishing & parallel economy by the black money
- provision of poor quality or no quality services like water, electricity etc.
- Erosion of quality of life of poor and middle class people and thus there is a violation of human rights
- Bharat is a persistently ranking low in Human Development Index (132 out of 191 countries), Global Poverty Index, Ease of Doing Business Index, Global Hunger Index (111 out of 125 countries) etc. at the international level
- there are growing numbers of crimes and deaths as per the national crime records bureau (NCRB)
- farm suicides due to lack of timely reach of benefits to farmers.
- Poor implementation of government schemes like MGNREGA, NRHM etc
- Crony Capitalism and monopolisation is leading to distorted markets
- Reduced inflow of long term foreign Investments
- Poor quality infrastructure (example: collapse of under construction bridges, schools etc)
- corruption has become a main reason for “Brain Drain” phenomenon wherein the upset and talented citizens will leave the country and find opportunities to showcase their abilities.
Overall the impacts of corruption are very severe. Corruption will breed poverty and backwardness. It makes the poor poorer and the rich richer. Because of the poor implementation of developmental works, there will be poor economic growth which will lead to high inflation; high inflation in turn will lead to depreciation of currency; weak currency means poor export earnings and high import cost, which in turn jeopardises the economic situation of the country.
These disturbing realities of negative fallouts of corruption are despite the fact that Bharat has stringent legal and regulatory framework.
In the legal framework, there are laws like Prevention of Corruption Act (1988), Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act – 1988, Indian Penal Code – 1860, Prevention of Money Laundering Act – 2002, Right to Information Act – 2005, Whistleblowers Protection Act – 2011 and Black Money and Imposition of Tax Bill – 2015.
In the regulatory framework, there are Lokpal and Lokayukta institutions, Central Vigilance Commission, Anti Corruption Bureau, and Central Bureau of Investigation.
Also, Bharat is a signatory to the UN convention against corruption since 2005.
These legal and regulatory frameworks have failed to bring the corruption to a halt. Saying ‘no’ to corruption will promote dignity, equality and opportunity for the poor people. Therefore the people must be conscious that they can change a corrupt system. But how to change the corrupt system? There comes the role of ethics and values.
Ethics is concerned with what is the morally good and bad and morally right and wrong. While choosing ethically good and right action, a public office bearer will have a larger and positive impact on society and thus prevents the corruption. Ethics and value based conduct of office bearers will establish the moral boundaries, promote account ability, encourage civic virtue and build trust between Government and citizens.
In 1995, in United Kingdom, the Nolan committee recommended 7 ethical and moral values to be adopted by public functionaries and common citizens, in order to weed out corruption. They are, selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. These recommendations must be adopted in India also in both public and private sector institutions and at individual level.
Not only ethics and values are sufficient to fight corruption. There are other ways too viz,
- Value based education in schools and colleges
- sensitization of bureaucracy through training
- Establishment more trial courts for speedy disposal of corruption cases
- Right to recall – underperforming legislator and legislator who is facing corruption charges must be called back from his duty
- Bringing sweeping changes in electoral reforms, like state funding of elections, legal backup to model code of conduct, prohibit criminals from entering politics, etc.
- strengthening inner-party democracy to prevent nepotism and dynastic politics
- Strengthering the existing legal and institutional framework through necessary amendments and strict enforcement of such laws
- Creating awareness among people regarding negative consequences of corruption. Corruption must be seen by them as an ‘enemy of the development’ and fight against it must be considered by them as
- It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Therefore to Reduce the discriminatory powers, technology and e-governance principles must be leveraged
- Digital transformation of all government processes
- Development of ‘code of ethics’ for bureaucrats and legislative members to promote ethical behaviour
- Adopting the citizens charter in all departments to enhance accountability and to improve Public Service Delivery.
As alluded to earlier, corruption is like a ‘cancer’. It slowly engulfs all the progress made by the country and will lead to moral Turpitude of the citizens and future generations. It will lead to anarchy, lawlessness and authoritarianism. This must not happen in Bharat.
Bharat is the largest democracy and 5th largest economy in the world. As a largest populated country, Bharat is aspiring to become third largest economy soon and a permanent member in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Bharat is also a home to largest number of poor people (15% of its population) in the world. It has to a uplift these under privileged section of population. With the existing level of corruption and commitment to weed it out, Bharat cannot achieve the above aspirations.
Therefore, We, the citizens as a whole, must have zero tolerance towards corruption. It must be treated as an antithesis to development. While doing so, we must also upgrade our values system and ethical principles. We must realise the words of Gandhiji who said, “be the change that you wish to see in others”. Therefore, the ‘Change’ must begin from ‘Me’ then only the country will transform. We must keep a constant vigil on the governance through participation, debates and dialogues to avoid the corrupt practices. Then only the nation can progress and scale the newer heights. India is the largest democracy and the price of democracy is constant vigil by the citizens. As Thomas Jefferson said, “let the eye of vigilance never be closed” in our country. In this way we can dedicate ourselves to the success saga of our nation.
