Save India from Corruption

Corruption refers to the dishonest acts by those in power. It has become part of the Indian administrative system. There is a need to save India from corruption. The structure of the Indian policy is such that people on all rungs of government has satisfied their conscience one way or the other that graft and bribery are the only way they can make a decent living with.

A political culture has been built up over the years that ridicules honesty and generates admiration for smooth operators. The cancer spreads with geometrical progression as more and more people are sucked into this corrupt brotherhood. As such, when the new Prime Minister cries halt, we all feel a sense of relief.

But how public life is to be cleansed is a question that is difficult to answer. That is because the roots go so deep and demand such a radical reordering of, among other things, the distribution of wealth in our developing economy and a fair distribution of political power and patronage that the mind boggles just to think about it.

How to stop or save India from Corruption?

Corruption is deeply present in India. All Indian should come forward to pave out the way to save India from Corruption.

1. Stop paying high prices in the black-market: Our house builders, for instance, did not attack the black-market in cement in the days when it was controlled, because they were contributing to the corruption themselves by paying high prices in the black-market in despair. Citizens would have long ago revolted against the bungling, meandering, apathetic ways of our huge bureaucratic maze, if everyone did not have a nephew who would get the job done or if someone could not be bribed to do it.

2. Cleaning up the administration process: While the new government is making much of cleaning up the administration, it cannot do so without tackling such subtle psychological factors. Unless a bureaucrat gets rid of his sense of grievance about being underpaid, and gains some sense of commitment or pride in the government, there is no reason for him to stop being corrupt. This, precisely, is what the communist parties seek to achieve by massive indoctrination campaigns in socialist countries. How it can be done in India is not an easy question to answer.

3. Eliminate graft: The private sector in India would certainly agree. Graft in getting licenses or getting import-export quotas sanctioned is so common that every firm budgets for it.

4. Eliminate political patronage: India has, compared to, say, Latin America, very little presence of foreign business. Aspiring indigenous capitalists do not need to get political patronage to compete with well-established monopoly houses.

5. Don’t allow corruption to continue: To state a fact, however, is not to condone it. So long as we are aware of the harm corruption is doing to the body politic, we cannot allow it to continue. Corruption may be a global phenomenon, but so long as the reasons for it are rooted in the system, something can and should be done about it.

6. Bureaucrats and general people should act as partners: Corruption is primarily a product of bureaucraticculture which continues to be colonial in nature. The administrative personnel do not perceive their role as catalysts in the task of national reconstruction and development and, therefore, fail to relate to the people as important partners in this exciting and gigantic patriotic enterprise. Government servants see themselves as dispenser in favour and treat the people as recipients of patronage. In the event, extortion of a share of the gains percolating to the potential beneficiaries does not disturb them as morally abhorrent.

7. Transformation in attitude: There is need for change in attitude towards corruption at all level. Complete transformation of attitude becomes an essential ingredient of training and orientation programmes of the services. The system of evaluation of performance is radically altered by making performance and achievement of targets the main criteria.

8. Reward the honest: A major drawback in our administrative system and procedures pertains to reward and punishment. To reward the honest and the competent is extremely difficult under service rules based on seniority and hierarchy, especially because of the absence of a worthwhile mechanism for automatic recognition of merit and consequent career promotion. On the other hand, dishonest but clever government servants manage to shield themselves behind dilatory procedures. Procedure and not objectives are treated as sacred. The system dampens initiative and makes innovation a risky adventure.

9. Assignment of Responsibility: Even senior officials consider it prudent to avoid taking responsibility. Since precedents have acquired their sanctity, there is no incentive for making efforts to break new ground. While corruption is rampant in many departments, it hurts most where the administration comes into direct contact with the poor illiterate masses. This is why revenue and police departments have earned notoriety as centers of harassment of common people. While political interference in day-to-day administration should no doubt be discouraged, the success of this principle will depend upon the impartiality and efficiency of senior officers. If they protect the corrupt and the inefficient, it will be the duty of people’s elected representatives to raise their voice.

10. Transformation of bureaucratic culture: The outcome of the battle against corruption will depend on a basic transformation of bureaucratic culture and sweeping changes in rules and procedures. The people will await the implementation of the decisions on the ground before they say three cheers for the resolutions of the Chief Secretaries’ conference.