India got independence on 15th august 1947.
63 years seem to be not enough to eradicate or at least minimise the menace of corruption in Indian society. India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world. It is also one of the most fortunate nations of the world as it has abundant natural resources, high quality human resources, Comparative advantage in producing many products, etc. But corruption seems to be one of the obstacles for a speedy economic development. India is also native of many world famous prominent people like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Manmohan Singh, Amartya Sen, Sachin tendulkar, and many more popular personalities from different walks of life, for instance, Indian bollywood hero Shahrukh Khan is known by the people of most countries of the world.
The following are some of the most important or prominent recent incidents of corruption in India.
- Sports and games unite peoples of the world. They also help in understanding each other better, increase competitive nature and game spirit among the sportpersons through out the world. India has got an opportunity to host one of the popular tournaments, namely the commonwelth games that were commenced from 3rd October 2010.
Unfortunately, there are reports of misappropriation of funds allocated for the development of sports infrastructure of international standards like stadiums, etc. According to media reports, some senior bureaucrats and experienced politicians are involved in this scam!. The ruling UPA government responded by saying that the allegations of corruption would be enquired only after the games are over!.
- There are also reports of illegal mining activities by some of the most prominent politicians in south India.
- The whole world knows about the Satyam Computer scam. The CEO of this company who was arrested a few months ago by the police but was released without much of punishment though the scam amounts to a huge sum!.
A lot has been done on paper to eradicate corruption in India. But practically, this menace has been a way of life for many greedy officials and ignorant politicians since independence. Corrupt activities among the senior officials and lack of punishment are responsible for encouraging corruption among the newly recruited officials too. There is also no proper security for the whistle blowers. One of the most important pillars of democracy, i.e., the Judiciary too is not effective in India due to many reasons such as political and monetary influences. Lack of evidences, wrong witnesses, and other social, economic, and cultural factors influence the final judgment. According to some reports, deposits by Indians in Swiss banks are over $ 1,456 billion. India tops the list of depositors of slush money!.
India adopted the parliamentary form of democracy. The general elections and the regional elections are held for every 5 years and are most expensive as many politicians buy voters. The election commission too did a lot on paper to reduce the election expenditure but practically this menace could neither be reduced nor completely eradicated due to lack of political will. Some educators opined thatshifting to the presidential form of democracy would minimise the menace of corruption in India.
Globalisation policy is responsible for the abundant supply of goods from different parts of the world. Hence, many people are also after such better products from different parts of the world. Such a competition among consumers is also encouraging corruption.
Teaching the moral values followed by great leaders like Gandhi, leading a simple life, reducing elections expenditure, political will to reduce or eradicate the menace of corruption, punishing the corrupt strictly, effective utilization of media like news papers, internet, television to educate the masses on the ill effects of corruption, correcting the loopholes in the laws, transparency and accountability by the officials and politicians, etc, are some of the effective measures to eradicate or at least to reduce the menace of corruption in India.
