Corruption free India for a developed nation

 The word Corruption means the moral degradation of a person who gives undue favors to someone in exchange for monetary or other considerations. It could also be nepotism i.e., favoritism shown towards one’s relatives or friends at the cost of deserving applicants. Corruption is a widespread phenomenon in today’s public life.

Corruption pertains to lack of integrity. This could be a lack of intellectual integrity, financial integrity or moral integrity. The World Bank defines corruption as the use of public office for private gain. According to Transparency International, an NGO based in Berlin, India ranked 87 among 178 countries in the Corruption Perception Index of 2020. The least corrupt countries are New Zealand and Denmark and the most corrupt are Afghanistan and Somalia. From Ranking India is among the most corrupt countries of the world.

Corruption and various malpractices in India

In India, there are innumerable cases of graft that come into notice from time to time. In recent years, various scandals and cases of corruption such as the Fiarfax, Adarsh scam, 2G Spectrum Scam, Vyapam scam, Coal mines scam, etc. have come to the fore. Corruption defense deals are certainly very alarming for a country. The media reported that there were kickbacks even in the procurement of coffins for the Kargil war heroes. The year 2012 was rocked by the Tatra trucks scam while the Agustawestland choppers deal scam that began to break in February 2013, threatened to reach precedent proportions. 

Bribery is the most common form of corruption in India. Government functionaries rarely do a job without taking bribes in some way or the other. Some departments like the Income Tax, Custom and Excise, CPWD, Municipalities etc, are the most infamous in this regard.

Educational institutions such as schools and colleges have also been affected by the cancer of corruption, Reputed and big schools in most of the cities are alleged to be charging big amounts of money for the admission of students There are also reports of certain medical, engineering and management institutions taking donations or capitation fee for the admission of students, This is not all. Tampering with the marksheets of students, manipulating the results of examinations, all form a part of corruption. This can ruin the 10 career and the future of deserving students.

 

Corruption is more pronounced in politics. It is an open secret that every candidate spends lakhs of rupees to contest an election for the membership of Legislative Assembly or Parliament. Once elected, he is tempted to retrieve the amount spent by any means, fair or foul. This leads to enormous corruption.

 

Corruption is also widespread in trade and commerce. Unscrupulous traders indulge in corrupt practices like black-marketing, adulteration", etc., to cheat the customers. Big business houses and multinationals amass a lot of Mack money by indulging in unfair practices. In short, there is no sphere  of activity which is free from corruption.

 

The existence of too many controls, rules and regulations, restrictions permits and licenses is also responsible for the growth of corruption. In the process, those persons who are at the helm of affairs make a lot of money. It is not India alone which has been badly affected by it. Corruption is a global phenomenon. Every country is facing this problem.

 

Factors Responsible for Corruption

 

Factors responsible for corruption, according to a former Director of the CHI are at least two: Firstly, the public servant pays a huge sum of money to a minister to earn his job. Every recruit, therefore, sets about the task of covering his investment the moment he completes his training and is given a dependent charge to exercise authority in public interest. Secondly, the public servants's rapacious" demand for an exorbitant sum of money (quota) at his table exerts pressure on his subordinates to collect more and more in babes. Meeting that huge target is a hard task that drives many of the lowly government officials to indulge in questionable practices.

 

The best way to deal with this menace is to eradicate it from its roots. Rules and regulations must be simplified so that they are easily understandable to the common man. Only persons of high moral character and proven integrity should be chosen for a government job. All citizens should be educated so that they are well aware of their rights and duties. They should be bold enough to assert their rights. The best way to fight this problem is to develop a vigilance machinery within one's own country. This is possible only when there is wholehearted support and cooperation of the people of the country.

 

Kudos to the three member bench of the Supreme court which firmly believes that a corrupt public servant, despite given ample opportunity, would never ever reform himself and he, therefore, deserves no sympathy or mercy. This may look stern or out of tune with the philosophy that penology is blind without the leavening effect of mercy and opportunity for the criminal to lead a new life. But severity of punishment to act as a deterrent¹ is what the country needs in this hour of crisis. It is a pity that 1.2 billion Indians are not only willing to put up with corruption but are also a party to it because no citizen, for lack of time, wants to wait for the services which he is entitled to under the law.

 

Indian society is witnessing a wave against corruption as has never been seen in the past. The movement led by Anna Hazare, demanding an ombudsman to judge graft cases against anyone in public office, got tremendous public support. Anna Hazare's fast led to political calculations that eventually saw the Lokpal Bill introduced in the Parliament. The Jan Lokpal Bill is an Indian draft anti-corruption bill that provides for the Jan Lokpal, an independent body similar to the Election Commission with the power to prosecute politicians and bureaucrats without prior government Fiction permission. The Lokpal Bill is not the only law we have on corruption. After the Bofors scam, we had the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) of 1988. There was an earlier one since 1947. The 1988 PCA consolidated with 1947 PCA, 1952 Criminal Law Amendment Act and some sections of IPC. Corruption has grown in Independent India in spite of all these laws.

Initiatives taken by the Government

 

In 2014, on the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who was also known for transparency, vigilance and integrity; PM Narendra Modi established Central Vigilance commission (CVC) and said that, “ For a developed India, trust and credibility are critical.  that people’s trust in the government enhances people’s self-confidence. The Prime Minister lamented the fact that earlier governments not only lost people’s confidence but they also failed to trust people. The legacy from the long period of slavery of corruption, exploitation, and control over resources, unfortunately, received more strength after the independence. This severely harmed at least four generations of this country, he said. “We have to change this decades-long way fully in the Azadi ka Amrit Kaal”, the Prime Minister pointed out.

 

Even after 8 years of launching CVC this current government is keeping a keen eye on malpractices such as bribery and other forms of government. In this ongoing CVC week , Pradhanmatri said that, “we are trying to change this system of scarcity and pressure for the last 8 years. The government is trying to fill the gap between supply and demand. The three ways adopted to achieve this are advancement in technology, taking basic services to the saturation level, and finally heading towards atma nirbharta.”

With regard to the use of technology, the Prime Minister mentioned linking PDS to technology and removing crores of fake beneficiaries and saving more than 2 lakh crore rupees from going to the wrong hands by adopting Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Similarly, the adoption of transparent digital transactions, and transparent government procurement through GeM is making a huge difference.

Speaking on taking the basic facilities to the saturation level, The Prime Minister pointed out that reaching every eligible beneficiary of any government scheme and achieving the goals of saturation puts an end to discrimination in society while eliminating the scope of corruption. Highlighting the principle of saturation that is adopted by the government for the delivery of every scheme, the Prime Minister gave examples of water connections, pucca houses, electricity connections and gas connections.

The Prime Minister said that too much dependence on foreign goods has been a big cause of corruption. He highlighted the government’s push towards atmanirbharta in defence and underlined that the possibility of scams is ending as India would be manufacturing its own defence equipment, from rifles to fighter jets to transport aircrafts. 

Terming CVC  an institution that encourages everyone's efforts to ensure transparency, the Prime Minister recalled his request last time for ‘preventive vigilance’ and praised the efforts of CVC in that direction. He also asked the vigilance community to think about modernising their audits and inspections. “The will which the government is showing against corruption, the same will is necessary to be seen in all the departments as well. For a developed India, we have to develop such an administrative ecosystem, which has zero tolerance on corruption”, he said.

The Prime Minister asked for a system where corruption-related disciplinary proceedings are completed in time-bound mission mode. He also suggested continuous monitoring of criminal cases and asked to devise a way of ranking departments on the basis of pending corruption cases and publishing the related reports on a monthly or quarterly basis. The Prime Minister also asked for streamlining of the vigilance clearance process with the help of technology. There is a need for auditing the data of public grievances so that we can go to the root causes of corruption in the concerned department, the Prime Minister added. 

The Prime Minister stressed the need to bring in common citizens in the work of keeping a vigil over corruption. “No matter how powerful the corrupt may be, they should not be saved under any circumstances, it is the responsibility of organisations like you. No corrupt person should get political-social support, every corrupt person should be put in the dock by the society, it is also necessary to create this environment”, he said. Touching upon a worrying trend, the Prime Minister said “We have seen that many times the corrupt people are glorified in spite of being jailed even after being proven to be corrupt. This situation is not good for Indian society. Even today, some people give arguments in favour of the corrupt who have been found guilty. It is very necessary for such people, such forces to be made aware of their duty by society. In this also concrete action taken by your department has a big role.”

The Prime Minister emphasised that institutions acting against the corrupt and corruption like the CVC, have no need to be defensive in any way. He stressed that there is no requirement to work on any political agenda but to work towards making the lives of ordinary citizens simpler. “Those who have vested interests will try to obstruct the proceedings and defame individuals associated with these institutions”, the Prime Minister interjected, “But Janta Janardan is the form of God, they know and test the truth, and when the time comes, they stand with those in support of the truth”. The Prime Minister further urged everyone to walk the path of truth to fulfil their duties with dedication and emphasised, “when you take action with conviction, the whole nation stands with you.”

Concluding the address, the Prime Minister said that the responsibility is huge and the challenges keep transforming too. “I am sure that you will continue to play a vital role in building a transparent and competitive ecosystem in Amrit Kaal”, the Prime Minister said. He stressed the need for constant dynamism in the methodology to tackle this challenge. 

Conclusion: India is facing the problem of corruption today. This problem is being consumed internally by the country. We should not wait any longer.The real problem in our society is that people have been accused but not convicted . 

This is the right time that we should feel the negative effects of the demon of corruption on the country and make every effort to make the country corruption free.

We consider only the political field to be corrupt, but only the political field is not a corrupt sector, corruption is prevalent in every field. Corruption is present in every field and it is ruining our country Indias. For sure Jan Lokpal Bill and institutions like CVC and other initiatives taken by the Government,  are not likely to root out the endemic and entrenched Problem of corruption . Nevertheless, it marks a significant beginning and represents an important milestone in people’s fight against corruption.

We all have to understand this and make every possible effort by becoming aware of the interest of the country, only then India will be able to become a developed and corruption-free India.