Akhilesh Aryandu
In the last four decades, the center of corruption was not only in the field of politics, but in all areas of administration, police, power, court, industry, investment, banking, shipping, army, education, health, judiciary, media, municipal, bureaucracy, service. Corruption prevails in all sectors like corporate and agricultural markets. At the same time, everyone knows that Indians keep illegal money safe by depositing it in outside banks.
For the last seven years, the central government has been talking about ending corruption in every field, which seems far from the ground reality. The government’s talk of ending corruption and bringing transparency in every field does not match with the surveys. It is worth noting that the index of corruption in India has decreased in the last seven years, but not so much that it can be called better. On January 25, 2022, Transparency International released the ‘Corruption Perception Index’ (CPI) 2021, according to which India’s ranking in corruption has improved by one place.
India’s rank has now become eighty-eighth out of one hundred and eighty countries of the world. However, there has been no change in the marks to be awarded on a hundred-point scale. India’s score is forty as before. The NDA government can take pride in the fact that since 2013, when it took over, corruption has improved significantly. Significantly, in 2013, India’s corruption count was thirty-six, which had gone up to thirty-eight in 2014-15. It is worth noting that the ranking has been getting better in increasing order.
The speed at which reforms are being said in all areas, corruption is not improving at that pace, it must be a matter of concern and contemplation. Significantly, South Sudan is at the bottom of the corrupt countries of the world and Denmark is in the best condition. There has been no change in the position of America. He is still in twenty-seventh place. According to the CPI, one hundred and thirty one countries have not made significant progress in preventing corruption in a decade. But this should not make us think that a better situation is soon going to be created in the matter of corruption in India. It is worth noting that the absence of scams cannot be taken to mean that corruption has been curbed and now the common man is freed from paying bribes.
If we look at the history of corruption, it started in the British era itself. The policy of the British regarding corruption, more or less the same was adopted in independent India, due to which corruption spread like a canker in all areas. Now corruption has been considered as an incurable disease for which there is no medicine. Ironically, it is discussed and condemned by all, but no one comes forward with a sincere heart to get rid of it.
After independence, after the ‘Jeep Scam’ in 1948, the Mudal case came to the fore in 1951, which was discussed across the country, but during the rule of Congress, one or the other scams kept happening. Then ten years later in 1962, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri formed the Santhanam Committee to eradicate corruption. The committee, in its remarks, had said that in the last sixteen years, the ministers have created a lot of wealth by obtaining money illegally.
This was followed by the Nagarwala scam in 1971 and then the famous Bofors scam in 1986, in which the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was accused of brokerage. After this, the ministers of the central government were accused of committing scams in a span of few years. Why not only the Centre, the Chief Ministers and ministers of the state governments were also accused of scams, in which the fodder scam of Lalu Prasad Yadav continues to be discussed even today.
In the last four decades, the center of corruption was not just the field of politics, but governance, administration, police, electricity, court, industry, investment, banking, shipping, army, education, health, judiciary, media, media, municipal, bureaucracy, Corruption prevails in all areas of service, corporate and all sectors like agriculture markets. At the same time, everyone knows that Indians keep illegal money safe by depositing it in outside banks.
When the NDA government came to power, it had promised that it would bring back the black money stashed by Indians in Swiss banks, but why it could not bring back the black money in the last seven years remains a mystery. Significantly, Indians are poor, but India has never been poor. Director of Swiss bank says that about two hundred and eighty lakh crore rupees of India are deposited in his bank. This amount is so much that it can provide employment to 60 million people and there will be no need to take loan from the World Bank.
Corruption has a profound effect on the economic, educational status, employment, education and health of the country and society. If it falls on the justice system, social security, standards of well-being and welfare schemes, but the impact on the economic sector, health, administration and justice system puts the society in great trouble. The central government talks about India moving towards becoming a superpower economically, but the pace at which the country’s economy is progressing, it does not seem that in a few years India will become a superpower like America.
A country becomes a superpower when its technology is of advanced quality and it does not need to import from outside. Secondly, in order to become a superpower, the cost of labor should be low, only then the country can produce more consumer goods. It is worth noting that China is far ahead in this matter than India. Corruption is a huge obstacle in becoming a superpower. If inequality is very high in many areas in a country, then that country is still far behind in the path of becoming a superpower. It remains to be seen how the situation of inequality and corruption is in India. If not satisfactory, then corruption and inequality need to be eradicated first.
To prevent corruption, the judiciary, executive, legislature and media should perform their duties honestly. Along with this, all the sectors related to governance, administration and labor world will also have to do their work honestly. The news of corruption coming in the army, the guard of the country’s security, raises the question whether the country’s army or its small and big officers are not honest? Bofors scam, AgustaWestland helicopter scam, Adarsh society scam, it seems that there is corruption somewhere in the army, which needs to be eradicated.
Similarly, the corruption prevalent in the media, in which paid news and misrepresentation of news is prominent, needs to be looked into. Similarly, increasing corruption and discrimination in the bureaucracy is a serious problem. Shadow corruption in the corporate world is a big reason for increasing economic misery. This needs to be looked into seriously and more stringent laws should be made for this.
The central government has enacted several laws to prevent corruption, including the Indian Penal Code 1860, the Corruption Act 1988, the Benami Transactions Act, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act 2002, the Income Tax Act 1961 and the Lokpal Act 2013. But it is not possible to stop corruption just by making laws. To eliminate this, the government, administration, politicians, employees, officers and the general public will have to take a pledge.
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