I was surprised to read someone calling India a hub or epicentre of corruption. The truth is that no economy of the size of India or bigger is free from this global menace. I sympathise with the author and his examples of IPL and CWG. He could have gone even further by adding almost all the defence procurements and others. Look at some of the places like Congo, Seara Leone etc where entire national economy is run by the despots supported by the powerful oil and gold/diamond lobbies. What would you call those countries? Corruption has become part of routine life in all the major developing nations including India. Look at our eastern and western neighbours. The political, military and civil people literally milk these economies every day. Yes, the corruption is highly restricted in developed World not because people here have aversion for money but purely population in general is reluctant to encourage it here. Indian corruption is manifold. Foreign suppliers of goods and services provide corruption money to seek business from the top politicians. Indian business houses pay similarly to get hand on money making projects. Government servants from a peon onwards collect corruption money to provide you service which you rightfully deserve without it. This class of corruption is all pervasive in every developing nation like India. General public gets affected by such corruption and very few even dare go to anti corruption people for help as anti corruption establishments are simply populated by very people who used to take this ill-gotten money prior to postings anti corruption departments. I have very personal exposure with the happenings for more than two decades working in Indian establishments. Many a times, postings in such areas like CVC or anti corruption units of states are meant to punish an officer (so that s/he can not get plum positions with lot of money. But, these very corrupt officers know how to collect money from other corrupt executives using anti corruption laws. In North America, average citizen gets available state services without such corruption issues for the reasons of efficiency and effectiveness of the system. For example, obtaining a driving licence is almost impossible using corrupt means in Canada or US but matter of just a phone call from anyone away in India. People do not encourage corruption in West whereas in India mostly it is general public who make system corrupt. People do not like to stand in line to buy tickets, getting ration cards made without proper documents, expecting VIP treatment are some of the serious personality and life style issues with average Indian. These very people make the entire system corrupt. Should we still blame others for corruption? My answer is emphatic 'NO'.
Look at the scenario at CWG, suddenly everyone started showing interest in corrupt practices at Commonwealth games jobs. CVC and even CBI became active when all is over or almost over. Where were these bodies when payments were made to all and sundry? Was it not sports minister taking special interest in setting all these sports body in order and facing flake from these well entrenched folks?? Sports minister knows well to deal with all such people. He was an IAS himself and very close to the political establishment of today. People have very short memory that the incumbent sports minister was instrumental in making life miserable of the then CEC Sheshan who went all out against corrupt practices in elections of India. This is all about playing games!! People change overnight when this change benefits them or the party. IPL and Modi corruption would never have seen the day, had Modi not played spoilsport. He went all out against Mr. Tharoor and result is obvious for all to see. No party in power would dump its very strong member like this. Now, govt has gone all out to see how Modi and his supporters are shown their places. It is called 'witch-hunt' in Indian politics and nobody calls it corruption per se!!!
Remember that even minor indiscretions of public servants are viewed seriously in US and other developed nations. Media is very strong but it does not mean corruption is almost always reported. No, as media too has its vested interests and would support only its well wishers. Law enforcement agencies like India, are equally responsible for drug and prostitution trade in every country. It is a dream of every politician to hold 'home' or its equal portfolio as it controls the law enforcement agencies. Look at our very own CBI functioning and see, how selective are these in cases for investigation. Let the opposition come to power and these very cases in public domain would disappear overnight!! Where is the independence granted to these agencies? What happened when CEC Sheshan started flexing his musceles, everyone went against him but at the end of the day, electoral system improved and very rarely we hear of 'booth capturing' during elections in India.
India is an example of corruption but should not be called an epicentre as almost all the developing nations are corrupt courtesy the developed world business interests, and lack of individual character and moral value system. Our society at large has no mechanism to imbibe values and ethical conduct which leads to the exponential growth of corrupt minds copying corrupt role models.
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