Dr. M Faiyazuddin, New Delhi
Corruption is defined as moral depravity and influencing through
bribery. Essentially, corruption is the abuse of trust in the interest
of private gain. Corruption means perversion of morality, integrity,
character of duty out of mercenary motives (e.g. bribery) without
regard to honour, right or justice. In public life, a corrupt person
is one who bestows undue favour on someone with whom; he has monetary
or other interests “Just as it is impossible not to taste honey or
poison when it is at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a
government servant not to eat up a bit of revenue. And just as it
cannot be found out whether a fish swimming through water drinks or
not so also government servants cannot be found out while taking money
for themselves.” Corruption has become so common in public life that
people are now averse to thinking of public life without this
phenomenon.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts
absolutely.”Corruption breeds at the top and then gradually filters
down to the lower levels. Gone are the days when people who joined
politics were imbued with the spirit of serving the nation. Those who
plunged themselves into the fight for freedom knew that there were
only sacrifices to be made, no return was expected. So only the
selfless people came forward. But the modern politicians are of
entirely different mould. They are not motivated by any lofty ideals.
They win elections at a huge personal cost and then try to make the
best of the opportunity they get. Powerful business magnates who are
forced to give huge donations to political parties indulge in corrupt
practices not only to make up their losses but also to consolidate
their gains.
Corruption starts at the top and percolates down to the whole society.
Such corruption cannot be confined to the towns alone. It is as
widespread in the villages where the dishonest officials and the
traders carry the germs of the disease. The tyranny of confusion and
price rules the land and the people are helpless victims of corruption
everywhere.
For centuries saints and sages have urged the people to eliminate
graft and corruption from private as well as public life; there have
been countless sermons against this deep-rooted menace that has eaten
into the vitals of society, distorted all values and made mincemeat of
morality, truth and virtue. But the evil has grown to gigantic
proportions and there is hardly any sphere of social, economic,
political and even religious activity that is free from graft,
deception and corruption of some kind. Like the air we breathe, it has
become all-pervasive and entered every aspect of life to such an
extent that it is now regarded as a fact of life and an evil we have
to live with. It is also wholly incorrect to say that our ancestors
were fully honest people and that we should, therefore, follow their
example. A close study of history shows that deception; dishonesty,
conspiracy and corruption in vari¬ous spheres of life have existed all
through the ages. Every man, it is said, has his price, and by and
large this has proved true.
Corruption is one million times bigger than the Everest, and the same
amount of times, deeper than the deepest oceans. Can we make India
corruption free? Can we really fight against us? Some people believe
that by making certain changes in LAW and refreshing the old law with
new twists, we can diminish the tower of corruption. by just
introducing a new law, nothing will happen because at present we have
handful laws for punishing and tampering the murders, rapists, dacoits
and etc. And every day thousands of cognizable offences are committed
and due to lack of evidence, loopholes in law and more because of the
broken pillars of our judiciary system, the accused are released free.
In a democracy, the concept of people’s participation is emphasized
on. The people’s participation in our democracy, though, is limited to
casting ballot once in five years, and here too, the poor, illiterate
and gullible folk are fooled into voting the same set of deceivers to
power again and again. Political parties, as one would like to
believe, are born of ideologies where like- minds confer and resolve
to represent and work towards their common belief. As time goes by,
the ideology is pushed back to gather dust and the personalities begin
to take lead. The party that had originally given the men a standing
is sidelined and the personalities start corrupting the body, and as a
result their conduct is steadily governed by the rules of power play
than by reasoning. Looking at such a scenario, it is more than evident
that simply holding sections does not signify a political democracy.
Most of the richest men in the country are the politicians with mostly
unaccounted wealth, internal and foreign wealth. Politics is a
business without any norms or rules of business regarding accounting
or accountability to anyone. Politics is the only business that
facilitates acquisition of wealth without earning at distress prices
or for a pittance or the grabbing of valuable resources such as prime
lands without any compensation to the owner or the government. This
business of politics seems to operate with no taxation on income or
wealth, no financial risk, and no disclosure of sources of wealth or
any fiduciary interests at any time.
Corruption is both a major cause and a result of poverty around the
world. It occurs at all levels of society, from local and national
governments, civil society, judiciary functions, large and small
businesses, military and other services and so on. Corruption affects
the poorest the most, in rich or poor nations, though all elements of
society are affected in some way as corruption undermines political
development, democracy, economic development, the environment,
people’s health and more. When asking why poor countries are poor, it
is quite common to hear, especially in wealthier countries that are
perceived to have minimal corruption (at least domestically) that
other countries are poor because of corruption. Yet, corruption is not
something limited to third world despots. Rich countries too have been
involved in corrupt practices around the world. Bribery may be
pervasive, but it is difficult to detect. Many Western companies do
not dirty their own hands, but instead pay local agents, who get a 10
per cent or so “success fee” if a contract goes through and who have
access to the necessary “slush funds” to ensure that it does. Bribery
is also increasingly subtle.… Until recently, bribery was seen as a
normal business practice. Many countries including France, Germany and
the UK treated bribes as legitimate business expenses which could be
claimed for tax deduction purposes.
In India, corruption is something we all learn to live with.
Corruption in India has even crossed the alarming stage. From the
officials of the highest rank to a peon everyone is corrupt. Many big
problems such as poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, pollution,
external threats, underdevelopment etc. are posed in front of the
Indian government. But having a glimpse at all these problems faced by
India, one might notice that corruption plays an important role in
making these problems even bigger. India is still facing poverty due
to corruption. The government and its employees all are corrupt so the
schemes floated by the government for the betterment of poor are not
properly implemented and just because corruption comes into play the
grant advanced to the poor does not reach them and they remain the
same and so does the problem of poverty.
A country where leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Lal Bahadur
Shastri and Kamraj have taken birth and led a value-based is now
facing the problem of corruption. Many new leaders when come into
power declare their determination to eradicate corruption but soon
they themselves become corrupt and start amassing huge wealth. It has
been seen the officers who are deputed to look into the matters of
corruption turn out to be corrupt. Our leaders too are not less
corrupt. Thus the network of corruption goes on as usual and remains
undeterred.
The most effective thing that individuals can do is to complain when
they see corrupt acts occurring. This can be difficult when your
superiors are the ones who are misbehaving! Make sure there is no
innocent explanation of the activities you see happening because what
less senior people see is not necessarily the whole story. You don’t
want to confront an honest boss with a complaint that they are
corrupt! Yet unless people have the confidence to raise their concerns
with people they trust and are in a position to do something about it,
nothing is ever going to get better.
Corruption is an intractable problem. It is like diabetes, can only be
controlled, but not totally eliminated. It may not be possible to root
out corruption completely at all levels but it is possible to contain
it within tolerable limits. Honest and dedicated persons in public
life, control over electoral expenses could be the most important
prescriptions to combat corruption. Corruption has a corrosive impact
on our economy. It worsens our image in international market and leads
to loss of overseas opportunities. Corruption is a global problem that
all countries of the world have to confront, solutions, however, can
only be home grown. Responsiveness, accountability and transparency
are a must for a clean system. Bureaucracy, the backbone of good
governance, should be made more citizen friendly, accountable, ethical
and transparent. We have tolerated corruption for so long. The time
has now come to root it out from its roots.
The End
