Corruption
is not a new phenomenon in India. It is witnessed all over the world in
developing as well as developed countries. It has been prevalent in society since ancient
times. Corruption in India has become so common that people now are averse to thinking
of public life with it. It has spread its tentacles in every sphere of life,
namely business administration, politics, officialdom, and services. In fact,
there is hardly any sector which can be characterized for not being infected
with the vices of corruption. Corruption is rampant in every segment and every
section of society, barring the social status attached to it. Nobody can be
considered free from corruption from a high ranking officer to a small clerk. The
situation as it stands today is that, corruption is no slur on any individual,
it has by now become a way of life, it has been so closely woven into our life
patterns that, no one thinks much about it. The position as it stands today is
so very pathetic that, it is a wonder who will punish whom for corruption?
Corruption
in the Indian society has prevailed from time immemorial in one form or the
other. The basic inception of corruption started with our opportunistic leaders
who have already done greater damage to our nation. People who work on right
principles are unrecognized and considered to be foolish in the modern society.
Corruption in India is a result of the connection between bureaucrats,
politicians and criminals. Earlier, bribes were paid for getting wrong things
done, but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time. Further,
corruption has become something respectable in India, because respectable
people are involved in it. Political corruption is worst in India. It is well established
that politicians are extremely corrupt the world over. In fact, people are
surprised to find an honest politician. These corrupt politicians go scot-free,
unharmed and unpunished. Leaders like Lal Bahadur Shastri or Sardar Vallabh
Bhai Patel are a rare breed now who had very little bank balance at the time of
death. The list of scams and scandals in the country is endless. The Bofors
payoff scandal of 1986 involved a total amount of `1750
crore in purchase of guns from a Swedish firm for the Army. The Cement scandal
of 1982 involved the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, the Sugar Scandal of 1994
involved a Union Minister of State for food, the Urea Scam and of course no one
can forget Hawala Scandal of 1991, the Coffin-gate, fodder scam in Bihar or the
Stamp scandal which shocked not only the political arena but the entire
society. The major cause of concern is that corruption is weakening the
political body and damaging the supreme importance of the law governing the
society. Nowadays politics is only for criminals and criminals are meant to be
in politics. Elections in many parts of the country have become associated with
a host of criminal activities. Threatening voters to vote for a particular
candidate or physically prevent voters from going in to the polling booth –
especially weaker sections of the society like tribals, dalits and rural woman
occurs frequently in several parts of the country. Recently, the Government
increased the salary of the M.P.’s from `16, 000 to `50,
000, that is 300% increase to the existing salary. But many of them are unhappy
with rise and want the Government to increase the salary to a much more extent.
This clearly shows how the politicians are in constant thirst for monetary
benefits and not caring about the welfare of the people. Tax evasion is one of
the most popular forms of corruption. It is mostly practiced by Government
officials and politicians who lead to the accumulation of black money which in
turn spoils the moral of the people.
In
2011 India was ranked 95th out of 178 countries in Transparency
International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Some of the
largest sources of corruption in India are entitlement programs and social
spending schemes enacted by the Indian government. Examples include “Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act” and “National Rural Health Mission”. Other
daily sources of corruption include India's trucking industry which is forced
to pay billions in bribes annually to numerous regulatory and police stops on
its interstate highways. Defense Ministry and Ministry of Communication are
regarded as ‘gold mines for making money’. Corruption is also at a high rate in
departments like Public Works, Police, Excise and Revenue. Corruption in these
departments is rampant at all levels from the highest to the lowest. The
registered number of cases of corruption in India under the Prevention of
Corruption Act, 1947 varied from 300 to 500 between 1981 and 1987 but after the
enforcement of 1988 Act, the number now varies between 1800 to 2000 annually.
As
of December 2008, 120 of India's 523 parliament members were facing criminal
charges. Many of the biggest scandals since
2010 have involved very high levels of government, including Cabinet Ministers
and Chief Ministers, such as in the 2G spectrum
scam, the 2010
Commonwealth Games scam and the Adarsh Housing Society scam, Coal Mining
Scam, mining scandal in Karnataka and cash for vote scam.
Taxes
and bribes are common between state borders; Transparency International
estimates that truckers pay annually ` 22,200 crores (US$
4.5 billion) in bribes, to Government regulators and police.
In
real state Officials are alleged to steal state property. In cities and
villages throughout India, consisting of municipal and other government
officials, elected politicians, judicial officers, real estate developers and
law enforcement officials, acquire, develop and sell land in illegal ways.
Corruption
caused problems in government funded projects are also not limited in the
country, aid programs are beset by corruption, bad administration and
under-payments. As an example, the report cites only 40% of grain handed out
for the poor reaches its intended target. The World Bank study finds that the
public distribution programs and social spending contracts have proven to be a
waste due to corruption. As an example, India enacted the so-called Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on August 25,
2005. The Central government outlay for this welfare scheme was ` 40,000
crore
(US$7.24 billion) in FY 2010–2011. After 5
years of implementation, in 2011, the programme was widely criticized as no
more effective than other poverty reduction programs in India. Despite its best
intentions, MGNREGA is beset with controversy about corrupt officials pocketing
money on behalf of fake rural employees, poor quality of infrastructure built
under this program, and unintended destructive effect on poverty.
A
study conducted between 2004 and 2005 found that India’s driver licensing
procedure was a hugely distorted bureaucratic process and allows drivers to get
licenses despite their low driving ability through promoting the usage of
agents. Individuals with high willingness to pay make a significant payment
above the official fee and most of these extra payments are made to agents, who
act as an intermediary between bureaucrats and applicants. The average license
getter paid `1080, approximately 2.5 times the official fee of `450,
in order to obtain a license. On average, those who hired agents had a lower driving
ability, with agents helping unqualified drivers obtain licenses and bypass the
legally required driving examination. Among the surveyed individuals,
approximately 60% of the license holders did not take the licensing exam and
54% of those license holders failed an independent driving test. Agents are the
channels of inefficient corruption in this bureaucratic driver licensing
system, facilitating access to licenses among those who are unqualified to
drive. Some of the failures of this licensing system are caused by corrupt
bureaucrats who collaborate with agents by creating additional barriers within
the system against those who did not hire agents.
In
Government Hospitals also, corruption is associated with non
availability/duplication of medicines, getting admission, consultations with
doctors and availing diagnostic services. “National Rural Health Mission” is another
health care-related government program that has been subject to large scale
corruption allegations. This social spending and entitlement program hoped to
improve health care delivery across rural India. The program has been run since
2005 by the Ministry of Health of the
Indian government. The Indian government mandated a spending of ` 27,700
crores in 2004–05, and increased it annually to be about 1% of India's gross
domestic product. The National Rural Health Mission program has been clouded by
a large-scale corruption scandal in which top government
appointed officials were arrested. Corruption, waste and fraud-related losses
from this government program have been alleged to be ` 10,000
crores (US$2 billion)
Another most highlighted
scam is the black money scam. Black money refers to money that is not fully
legitimate property of the owner. A white paper on black money in India by the
Government of India suggests two possible sources of black money in India. The
first includes activities not permissible under the law, like crime, drug
trade, terrorism, and corruption, all of which are illegal in India. The
second, more likely source is that the wealth may have been generated through a
lawful activity but accumulated by failing to declare income and pay taxes.
Some of this black money ends up in illicit financial flows across
international borders, such as deposits in tax haven countries. This scam can
be said to be the almost immediate cause of the anti-corruption movement being
faced by the country. The revelation about the huge sums of money being stashed
away in Swiss banks served as an impetus to rally against the government that
had been ignoring it. The magnanimity of the situation came into focus when
Indian businessman Hasan Ali Khan was arrested on money laundering charges
which was to the tune of `39,120
crores.
According
to a 2010 The Hindu
article, unofficial estimates indicate that Indians had over
US$1456 billion in black money stored in Swiss banks
(approximately USD 1.4 trillion). While some news reports claimed that data
provided by the Swiss Banking Association Report (2006) showed India has more
black money than the rest of the world combined, a more recent report quoted
the SBA's Head of International Communications as saying that no such official
Swiss Banking Association statistics exist. Another report said that
Indian-owned Swiss bank account assets are worth 13 times the country’s
national debt. These allegations have been denied by Swiss Bankers Association. James Nason of
Swiss Bankers Association in an interview about alleged black money from India
suggests "The (black money) figures were rapidly picked up in the Indian
media and in Indian opposition circles, and circulated as gospel truth.
However, this story was a complete fabrication. The Swiss Bankers Association
never published such a report. Anyone claiming to have such figures (for India)
should be forced to identify their source and explain the methodology used to
produce them."
In
a separate study, Dev Kar of Global Financial Integrity concludes, "media
reports circulating in India that Indian nationals held around US$1.4 trillion
in illicit external assets are widely off the mark compared to the estimates
found by his study." Kar claims the amounts are significantly smaller,
only about 1.5% of India's GDP on average per annum basis, between 1948–2008.
This includes corruption, bribery and kickbacks, criminal activities, trade
mispricing and efforts to shelter wealth by Indians from India's tax
authorities.
According
to a third report, published in May 2012, Swiss National Bank estimates that
the total amount of deposits in all Swiss banks, at the end of 2010, by
citizens of India were CHF 1.95 billion (` 9,295 crore, US$ 2.1 billion). The
Swiss Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed these figures upon request for
information by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. This amount is about
700 fold less than the alleged $1.4 trillion in some media reports. The report
also provided a comparison of the deposits held by Indians and by citizens of
other nations in Swiss banks. Total deposits held by citizens of India
constitute only 0.13 per cent of the total bank deposits of citizens of all
countries. Further, the share of Indians in the total bank deposits of citizens
of all countries in Swiss banks has reduced from 0.29 per cent in 2006 to 0.13
per cent in 2010.
Another burning scam was allocating
valuable coal block to hundreds of private miners without auction. According to the CAG draft report, the
government extended undue benefits totaling a `10.67
lakh crore to commercial entities by giving them 155 coal acreages without
auction between 2004 and 2009.
This
could be the mother of all mining scams. The mining scam in Odisha, which
accounts for over 30 percent of India’s iron ore deposits estimated at `
3 lakh crore, a scale that dwarfs the Bellary mining scam in Karnataka and the
Goa mining scam. This scam was plundering at its best with the Naveen Patnaik
led government exploiting the state's minerals to the tune of lakhs of crores
of rupees. Apparently, the mine owners had been illegally using fake Transit
Passes to transport minerals from Odisha to other states. The plundering was a
large scale one and involved many high profile people from the government and bureaucracy.
Yet, today, the illegal mining continues. According to the State Vigilance charge
sheet, the illegal iron ore mining at these three mines (Serajuddin Mines,
Rungta Mines and Indrani Patnaik Mines) alone has caused the loss of a
staggering ` 2,352 crore to the state exchequer. Each tonne of iron
ore fetches the mining company nearly ` 8,000, while the
State government gets a measly royalty of ` 78 per tonne.
The
2G scam is one of the latest scams that have hit the country driving it to
incur huge losses. And caught at the centre of the embarrassing controversy was
the Telecom Minister, A. Raja himself. The scam became bigger with new
revelations of the involvement of politicians, bureaucrats, corporate
personalities, media persons and lobbyists. The granting of licenses to various
companies led to a massive loss to the exchequer. Also, daughter of political
tycoon, M.
Karunanidhi, M. Kanimozhi was also arrested on charges of being a
co-conspirator in the scandal. The much speculated about 2G Spectrum Scam has
been one of the most expensive scams in the nation’s record. Former telecom
minister Mr. A. Raja was the person who skillfully siphoned ` 1.76-lakh
crore by evading the 2G licensing norms. He awarded the 2G accounts at the
price rate of 2001 instead of the increased rate in 2008. As a result India
lost an unbelievable huge amount of money. In 2011, “Time magazine” listed the scam at number
two on their “Top 10 Abuses of Power” list. The present status of this scam is
that both A. Raja and M.K. Kanimozhi has been granted bail on 15th
may 2012 and 28 November 2011 and trial is being conducted in Special CBI Court.
In this scam A. Raja was in CBI custody for 469 days that is only one year 3
months and M.K. Kanimozhi was in CBI custody for 188 days that is nearly six
months.
The
Commonwealth
Games held in India was even soaked in controversies and corruption
to say the least. While the organizing committee drew flak for various
allegations like child labour, sex slavery, environmental impact, racism and
financial costs, the one that shocked the nation was the humungous amount of
funds that had been mishandled by them. The chairman of the organizing
committee was, resultantly, arrested on charges of 'criminal conspiracy and
cheating. The open scam and loot that took place during the Commonwealth Game
is probably one of the most shameful incidents in Indian history. It certainly
disgraced the nation in front of other countries and an international audience.
According to estimations, ` 70,000 crore was
spent on the game of which only half the amount was actually spent for the
event. The investigation performed by Central Vigilance Commission revealed
that various hefty payments were made in the name of non-existent parties and
voluntarily delay was made in the preparation process which collective lead to
misuse of the funds. Suresh Kalmadi the face of this scam at present has been
bailed out on the surety of ` 5 lakhs by Delhi
high court and he still remains a Lok Sabha MP.
The
Scorpene submarines scam was another big corruption scandals faced by the country
including the navy. In the scandal, secret Navy documents were sold to the
makers of the Scorpene submarine. The Indian government
had approved the ` 19,000 crore submarine deal with the French company. The
purchase of six Scorpene submarines cost the Indian government a lot more than
its actual price.
Hawala
Scandal is another much talked about incident of politics and corruption in India which came to mass
notice in 1996 and it was all about bribery at the national level worth $18
millions. India’s well-known politicians accepted hefty bribes from the hawala
brokers. Hawala scam was probably the first scam that gave the public an idea
of the loot of national treasure that was being implemented by the top
politicians. The scam revolved around the payments that the politicians
received from hawala brokers, who basically fund
terrorism around the globe. Many prominent politicians like LK
Advani, Arjun Singh, Yashwant Sinha, Kalpnath Roy, VC Shukla, Madhavrao
Scindia, Sharad Yadav, Buta Singh, Natwar Singh and Madan Lal Khurana were
indicted in this case, but no action was taken against them due to lack of
hardcore evidence.
Various
laws have been framed from time to time to prevent or at least reduce
corruption. The Prevention of Corruption Act came into force in September 1988.
It was an improvisation of the Act of 1947. The scope of the 1988 Act was
enlarged and widened to include the term 'public servants'. Thus if an offence
against a public servant is proved in the court there will be imprisonment of
not less than 6 months upto 5 years and also the person may be fined. The
Central Government has set up four departments to check
corruption—Administrative Vigilance Division in the Department of Personnel and
Training, Central Bureau of Investigation, Domestic Vigilance units in
Ministries / Departments / Public Undertaking or Nationalized Banks and Central
Vigilance Commission.
Laws
and rules have to be implemented with strictness and if needed, the outdated
ones should be amended in order to check the acts of corruption. Vigilance
should be increased so that people think twice before indulging in corrupt
practices. Election expenses should be strictly curtailed and finally, without
the co-operation of the common man, the evil of corruption cannot be eradicated.
ADDRESS
DELIVERED AT THE DEDICATION OF THE CEMETERY 
