How many time has this country faced grave injustice because of the judicial set up in the country? How many times have you or I, shaken our heads, most sorrowfully, at some unfortunate incident or the other, wishing our government was not as useless as they otherwise are? Just how many times have lives been lost only because of the callousness of the men in power? “Don’t underestimate the power of the common man”, they said. The truth is, we, as the common people are truly helpless because the men we elect to power are so corrupt that this country has few hopes of surviving. So often, sincere hopes of changing this society and determined efforts to make this country a better place to live in go a waste.
In this country, no sector, industry or organization is seen free from corruption today. Either we face bribery at each strolling footstep or we see people falling prey to it. The saddest part of the story is, the few honest people who gather up the courage to stand against the corruption prevalent in the society and try to reform the country become so quickly non existent, that it’ rather scary.
“ Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.”, Karl Kraus had said. The problem is, the number of people engaged in corruption is so large and corruption has become so much an integral part of the system, that few people would dare to go against tradition. People who work on the right principle are ridiculed to such an extent that a little while later, he’s forced to give in to the evils of the country.
Today, if a person wants a government job, he pays lakhs of rupees of bribery. He hence starts his life with a necessarily evil that’ going to haunt him for the rest of his life. A student who’s essentially one of the most average students at school suddenly has this inexplicable desire of becoming a doctor. He pays a heavy sum to the politician his father knows well and embarks on his career, killing random people all his life. Well, if a certain Kasab is hung for killing innocent people, so should he. He is criminal of a greater stature than Kasab, given that he does it so neatly, so skillfully. At around the same time, twenty mothers cry themselves to death, grieving the death of their young children. Adulteration of products in food for the sole purpose of saving up on money that immediately is distributed among three other men, has killed several children in the suburban areas in the state, the journalist is heard saying. While thousands of Indian women march on the streets of the capital city ,protesting against the Nirbhaya rape case, a band of politicians discuss in their dining rooms ways of evading questions on the incident and washing their hands clean. No justice is obtained here, as in the Jessica Lal case. While these incidents bring a tear or two to the eyes, statistical records leave us in awe. Last year, India ranked 94 out of 176 countries in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International. Corruption will have a detrimental impact on the economy resulting in skewed distribution of wealth and inefficient utilization of resources.
More than half of the respondents surveyed agreed that it is the lack of will of corporate enterprises to obtain licenses and approvals the right way encourages bribery and corruption. Around 83% of the respondents felt that the recent spate of scams would negatively impact FDI inflows into the country. A 2006 report claimed state-funded construction activities in Uttar Pradesh, such as road building, were dominated by construction mafias, which are groupings of corrupt public works officials, materials suppliers, politicians and construction contractors.
Corruption caused problems in government funded projects are not limited to the state of Uttar Pradesh. According to The World Bank, aid programmes 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 programmes and social spending contracts have proven to be a waste due to corruption
In a 2011 report on Corruption in India,] one of the world's largest audit and compliance firms KPMG notes several causes that encourage corruption in India. The report suggests high taxes and excessive regulation bureaucracy as a major cause. India has high marginal tax rates and numerous regulatory bodies with the power to stop any citizen or business from going about their daily affairs. This power to search and question creates opportunities for corrupt public officials to extract bribes; each individual or business decides if the effort required in due process and the cost of delay is worth not paying the bribe demanded. In cases of high taxes, paying off the corrupt official is cheaper than the tax. This, claims the report, is one major cause of corruption in India and 150 other countries across the world. In real estate industry, the high capital gains tax in India encourages large-scale corruptionThe desire to pay lower taxes than those demanded by the state explains the demand side of corruption. The net result is that the corrupt officials collect bribes, state fails to collect taxes for its own budget, and corruption grows. The report suggests regulatory reforms, process simplification and lower taxes as means to increase tax receipts and reduce causes of corruption.
There are quite a few strategies that might be adopted to eradicate corruption from the country, a disease as it is.The right to information act gives one all the required information about the government and tax payments. Several anti corruption societies have also been started. It will, though, take a sufficiently long time to do away with corruption completely, given the strong roots it has established in our set up. It isn’t today that corruption has started to play a key role in the politics of the nation. It all started with the Bofor’s Scandal, probably. And an undeniable deal of denial comes with it each time.
