CORRUPTION is like a cancer which eats up the political body of the country. It sucks the blood of the country and ultimately reduces it to bankruptcy. The corruption could be classified into two categories: 1.direct and, 2. indirect. The work of the common men is not done unless they grease the palm of the concerned official, otherwise there is none to care them and obvious to that so many sections and a long series of ifs and buts and so on and so forth. In the second category, the people pay bribe indirectly to the corrupt bureaucrats and dishonest politicians, who commit frauds and forgeries, scams and scandals in their department by misusing their power. They loot their own country and secretly deposit their black money in foreign banks in Switzerland and Sweden etc.
During the last fifty-nine years since Independence, there have been scams and scandals worth Rs three lakh crores in India including the provinces and municipal corporations. During the two months of January and February 2007, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) recommended the prosecution of 337 government officials accused of corruption. It receives 70 cases of corruption per day. The Transparency International India’s survey ranks India as the most corrupt country among a list of 30 leading exporting nations (The Hindustan Times, dt October 5, 2006).
According to India, Corruption Study 2005 released by Admiral R.H. Tahiliani, the chairman of Transparency International India, the common citizens of the country pay bribe of Rs 21,068 crore in a year for availing of various public services. (Times of India, dated July 1, 2005). In accordance with survey by the World Bank bribe of twenty one thousand crore is given each year in India.
The truck drivers have to pay Rs 22,000 crore as bribe to the police, transport departments in a year (Hindustan Times, dt.February 2, 2007). They are forcefully prevented from driving ahead and compelled to stay aside on a road to give bribe. Almost similar is the figure of private bus operators.
According to JNU economist, Prof Arun Kumar, Rs 12 lakh crore of black money is currently being generated in India annually, on which the nation loses about Rs 4.5 lakh crore in tax revenue.
According to a news report in The Indian Express(dt. March 22, 2007), Justice Markandeya Katju of the Supreme Court expressed his exasperation in March 2007, “Every one wants to loot this country. The only deterrent is to hang a few corrupt persons from the lamp-post.”
The CVC, Lok Ayuktas, the CBI and the vigilance machineries in various states in spite of doing their best have not produced the desired result. Even major step like the Right to Information Act, 1947 miserably failed to eliminate corruption. The reasons of rise in corruption are: ineffective judiciary, poor economic policies, defective system of elections, black money used in elections, lack of sanction from the government for prosecuting senior bureaucrats/leaders, criminalization of politics, politicisation of the criminals and time consuming procedure of disciplinary proceedings are the main reasons for rapid growth of corruption. It is an admitted fact that all political parties are based on corruption. They require funds for elections. The sway of money power and muscle power in elections is recognized by all politicians of all the political parties. Those who get themselves elected by spending huge sums of black money donated to them by criminals and corrupt persons cannot be expected to enforce the Prevention of Corruption Act sincerely. They lack will-power to eliminate corruption.
Criminalisation of politics is a great menace to the security and integrity of the country. Some criminals play the role of king-makers behind the scene and make the ruling politicians dance at their beck and call, while other criminals, instead of playing the role kind-makers hump into the arena of politics and try to become political leaders themselves. There were 40 tainted members of Parliament in the 13th Lok Sabha and in the present 14th Lok Sabha there are about 100 tainted members. The UPA government has candidly admitted in the Supreme Court that the nexus among criminals’ politicians and bureaucrats has increased leading to a disturbingly high level of corruption.
In an affidavit to the Supreme Court, the Central Government led by Manmohan Singh has stated that the Government did not want to take action against tainted ministers and Members of Parliament lest that might destabilize the coalition government surviving on slender majority. The Central Government submitted: “Let the convicted MPs stay or the Government will fall. In the era of coalitions immediate disqualification of MPs and MLAs found guilty by the courts will rock coalitions” ( The Times of India, dt. March 3, 2007). Thus the corrupt and the criminals have become an integral part of the Indian system and the Congress party is the defender of tainted MPs and MLAs in the governments. In the words of Kuldeep Nayar “The Congress defends the indefensible. This is the worst kind of political chicanery.”(The Asian Age, Eng daily dt March 14, 2007)
Mahatma Gandhi had emphatically advised the member of Indian National Congress members to close down the party after achieving independence, because he feared that the taste of power would make the Congress men corrupt. Shri Jaiprakrash Narayan used to say “The Congress is synonymous with corruption.” Corruption, like water, flows from higher level to lower level, from top to bottom.
R.K. Shanmukham Chetty, Independent India’s first finance minister had to resign for committing a fraud of deleting the names of the companies (close to the Congress) from a list of the companies to be investigated for tax evasion.
When Pakistan attacked Kashmir, V.K.Krishna Menon, India’s High Commissioner in Britain, placed hefty order to a dubious company for 4,603 jeeps in 1948. He swallowed brokerage of Rs 30 crore. The vehicles of very poor quality landed long after the ceasefire had been signed. The Ananthsayanam Iyengar committee submitted its report on the deal in 1951 but the report was not made public. The Nehru government came to the rescue of Krishna Menon. On the contrary Pt Nehru installed him in Delhi as Minister with portfolio and then as Defence Minister.
More so, on May 24, 1971, Rs. 60 lakh was withdrawn by Rustom Sohrab Nagarwala, from the State Bank of India, Parliament Street Branch, New Delhi, after the chief cashier Ved Prakash Malhotra got a purportedly from Indira Gandhi, then the Prime Minister of India, asking him to do so. It is one of the most famous case of the times. It is interesting to note that during investigations it was revealed that Smt Gandhi had no account in that bank. If she had no account how such a heavy amount was delivered? Ram Babu Maheshwari was the Nagarwala’s lawyer.
Majority of the old sayings, say proverbs, are proving in India. One of them is rich makes the law, which grinds the poor. It is easy to advice—read Justice Markandeya Katju(above)—but have to chew iron balls in implementing them because who will dare to bell the cat? If such crimes are done by the general public, when a victim tries to escape from the laws his/her family is harassed by the law but when it comes to the leaders it mews. Why?
How funny when police failed to trace Mr Shahbuddin, MP—now in jail—in a criminal case. Our Parliament was seeing all these mishappenings like a mute spectator sitting its fingers crossed, why? Why he was not debarred from the House?
Secondly, to punish 1993 serial bomb-blast victims, our courts are taking such a long time. Our pseudo-secularists are pleading not to convict Parliament attacker Afzal. DON’T INDIA A LAUGHING STOCK BEFORE THE WORLD.
For over a year, the people of Delhi and other parts of India are witnessing demolishing and sealing, in both the cases the general public has to face the wrath of the law but none of corrupt officials of Police and other concerned departments, either they are in service or retire, are punished that how came all these encroachments, unauthorized constructions etc; what were you are doing; and from where you got so much of bank balances, so on and so forth.
Recalling back, down the memory lanes, before 1940, at the advice of Pt Nehru, Krishna Menon received Rs 40 lakh from the then president of the Congress Maulana Abul Kalam Azad for getting some work of the Congress done in England. When Maulana and other senior members of the Congress came to know that Menon did not spend a single rupee, they asked him to return the money. When Menon failed to return the money, they complained to Nehru but Nehru did not utter a single word to Menon. At last the matter was reported to Gandhiji, who strictly dealt with the case but Nehru came to the rescue of Krishna Menon. At last the matter was hushed up. Sardar Patel was extremely infuriated over this scam, but was helpless because of pressure of Gandhiji and Nehru.
(For more about scams and scandals in India, read “Where will our Bharat go?”)
During the last fifty-nine years since Independence, there have been scams and scandals worth Rs three lakh crores in India including the provinces and municipal corporations. During the two months of January and February 2007, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) recommended the prosecution of 337 government officials accused of corruption. It receives 70 cases of corruption per day. The Transparency International India’s survey ranks India as the most corrupt country among a list of 30 leading exporting nations (The Hindustan Times, dt October 5, 2006).
According to India, Corruption Study 2005 released by Admiral R.H. Tahiliani, the chairman of Transparency International India, the common citizens of the country pay bribe of Rs 21,068 crore in a year for availing of various public services. (Times of India, dated July 1, 2005). In accordance with survey by the World Bank bribe of twenty one thousand crore is given each year in India.
The truck drivers have to pay Rs 22,000 crore as bribe to the police, transport departments in a year (Hindustan Times, dt.February 2, 2007). They are forcefully prevented from driving ahead and compelled to stay aside on a road to give bribe. Almost similar is the figure of private bus operators.
According to JNU economist, Prof Arun Kumar, Rs 12 lakh crore of black money is currently being generated in India annually, on which the nation loses about Rs 4.5 lakh crore in tax revenue.
According to a news report in The Indian Express(dt. March 22, 2007), Justice Markandeya Katju of the Supreme Court expressed his exasperation in March 2007, “Every one wants to loot this country. The only deterrent is to hang a few corrupt persons from the lamp-post.”
The CVC, Lok Ayuktas, the CBI and the vigilance machineries in various states in spite of doing their best have not produced the desired result. Even major step like the Right to Information Act, 1947 miserably failed to eliminate corruption. The reasons of rise in corruption are: ineffective judiciary, poor economic policies, defective system of elections, black money used in elections, lack of sanction from the government for prosecuting senior bureaucrats/leaders, criminalization of politics, politicisation of the criminals and time consuming procedure of disciplinary proceedings are the main reasons for rapid growth of corruption. It is an admitted fact that all political parties are based on corruption. They require funds for elections. The sway of money power and muscle power in elections is recognized by all politicians of all the political parties. Those who get themselves elected by spending huge sums of black money donated to them by criminals and corrupt persons cannot be expected to enforce the Prevention of Corruption Act sincerely. They lack will-power to eliminate corruption.
Criminalisation of politics is a great menace to the security and integrity of the country. Some criminals play the role of king-makers behind the scene and make the ruling politicians dance at their beck and call, while other criminals, instead of playing the role kind-makers hump into the arena of politics and try to become political leaders themselves. There were 40 tainted members of Parliament in the 13th Lok Sabha and in the present 14th Lok Sabha there are about 100 tainted members. The UPA government has candidly admitted in the Supreme Court that the nexus among criminals’ politicians and bureaucrats has increased leading to a disturbingly high level of corruption.
In an affidavit to the Supreme Court, the Central Government led by Manmohan Singh has stated that the Government did not want to take action against tainted ministers and Members of Parliament lest that might destabilize the coalition government surviving on slender majority. The Central Government submitted: “Let the convicted MPs stay or the Government will fall. In the era of coalitions immediate disqualification of MPs and MLAs found guilty by the courts will rock coalitions” ( The Times of India, dt. March 3, 2007). Thus the corrupt and the criminals have become an integral part of the Indian system and the Congress party is the defender of tainted MPs and MLAs in the governments. In the words of Kuldeep Nayar “The Congress defends the indefensible. This is the worst kind of political chicanery.”(The Asian Age, Eng daily dt March 14, 2007)
Mahatma Gandhi had emphatically advised the member of Indian National Congress members to close down the party after achieving independence, because he feared that the taste of power would make the Congress men corrupt. Shri Jaiprakrash Narayan used to say “The Congress is synonymous with corruption.” Corruption, like water, flows from higher level to lower level, from top to bottom.
R.K. Shanmukham Chetty, Independent India’s first finance minister had to resign for committing a fraud of deleting the names of the companies (close to the Congress) from a list of the companies to be investigated for tax evasion.
When Pakistan attacked Kashmir, V.K.Krishna Menon, India’s High Commissioner in Britain, placed hefty order to a dubious company for 4,603 jeeps in 1948. He swallowed brokerage of Rs 30 crore. The vehicles of very poor quality landed long after the ceasefire had been signed. The Ananthsayanam Iyengar committee submitted its report on the deal in 1951 but the report was not made public. The Nehru government came to the rescue of Krishna Menon. On the contrary Pt Nehru installed him in Delhi as Minister with portfolio and then as Defence Minister.
More so, on May 24, 1971, Rs. 60 lakh was withdrawn by Rustom Sohrab Nagarwala, from the State Bank of India, Parliament Street Branch, New Delhi, after the chief cashier Ved Prakash Malhotra got a purportedly from Indira Gandhi, then the Prime Minister of India, asking him to do so. It is one of the most famous case of the times. It is interesting to note that during investigations it was revealed that Smt Gandhi had no account in that bank. If she had no account how such a heavy amount was delivered? Ram Babu Maheshwari was the Nagarwala’s lawyer.
Majority of the old sayings, say proverbs, are proving in India. One of them is rich makes the law, which grinds the poor. It is easy to advice—read Justice Markandeya Katju(above)—but have to chew iron balls in implementing them because who will dare to bell the cat? If such crimes are done by the general public, when a victim tries to escape from the laws his/her family is harassed by the law but when it comes to the leaders it mews. Why?
How funny when police failed to trace Mr Shahbuddin, MP—now in jail—in a criminal case. Our Parliament was seeing all these mishappenings like a mute spectator sitting its fingers crossed, why? Why he was not debarred from the House?
Secondly, to punish 1993 serial bomb-blast victims, our courts are taking such a long time. Our pseudo-secularists are pleading not to convict Parliament attacker Afzal. DON’T INDIA A LAUGHING STOCK BEFORE THE WORLD.
For over a year, the people of Delhi and other parts of India are witnessing demolishing and sealing, in both the cases the general public has to face the wrath of the law but none of corrupt officials of Police and other concerned departments, either they are in service or retire, are punished that how came all these encroachments, unauthorized constructions etc; what were you are doing; and from where you got so much of bank balances, so on and so forth.
Recalling back, down the memory lanes, before 1940, at the advice of Pt Nehru, Krishna Menon received Rs 40 lakh from the then president of the Congress Maulana Abul Kalam Azad for getting some work of the Congress done in England. When Maulana and other senior members of the Congress came to know that Menon did not spend a single rupee, they asked him to return the money. When Menon failed to return the money, they complained to Nehru but Nehru did not utter a single word to Menon. At last the matter was reported to Gandhiji, who strictly dealt with the case but Nehru came to the rescue of Krishna Menon. At last the matter was hushed up. Sardar Patel was extremely infuriated over this scam, but was helpless because of pressure of Gandhiji and Nehru.
(For more about scams and scandals in India, read “Where will our Bharat go?”)
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Surender Singh