Season of scams

My Take…
A very familiar "season of scams" has returned in a depressing re-run. The sweet background music of Obama’s successful visit had barely faded in our memories, that it was taken over by the loud & ugly shrill of corruption. The landmark right to information law, which was praised by Obama in the parliament, has been mocked by its own creators. A Raja’s blatant disregard for any transparency and accountability has proved right the famous anonymous saying that “Corruption is authority plus monopoly minus transparency”. Alas this cancer continues to spread, eating into the vitals of our life and polity.

I remember Verappa Moliy’s repeated rhetoric of zero tolerance for corruption at a meeting of federal investigators last year. In a forceful pitch to stamp out corruption, the erudite Mr Moily invoked some 15 writers and leaders, including Plato, Gandhi, Lincoln and Gladstone, to drive home the point that endemic corruption destroys societies. "While we all know that the cancer of corruption has seeped into the blood stream of our polity, the million dollar question that stares us in the face is what can be done other than what we have been doing in the name of combating this evil all along," wondered Mr. Moily with his characteristic flourish. Well good question but no answers.
The web of Corruption has spread to every area of life. From Politicians and sports officials in CWG to retired senior army officers and relatives of senior politicians who are accused of helping themselves to apartments meant for war widows in Mumbai. A building in Delhi collapses - killing more than 60 people - because municipal officials and police apparently looked the other way as the builder kept adding illegal floors. Two top teams of our showpiece private cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League, are expelled after they are accused of fudging their ownership and financial details. Political corruption is rife: in the current elections in Bihar, our poorest and most backward state, more than a quarter of candidates from the main political parties, by their own admission, are millionaires. The icing on the corruption cake has been the Judiciary and the indictment of Justice Soumitra Sen’s in the misappropriation of public funds.
The symbiotic relationship between the corruption of the poor and the corruption of the rich is where it all begins. One trades political power for money; the other trades money for political power. But in both cases, as an analyst says, "something public - a vote or an office or decision - is sold for private gain". No wonder we rank at 87 on the Transparency International's latest Corruption Perceptions Index, below Ghana and Rwanda.

Our records of prosecuting people for corruption show our sorry state. There are more than 9,000 cases brought by the CBI pending in various courts. More than 2,000 of these cases have been pending for more than a decade. A large number involve public servants and their aides and associates who have been caught with their hands in the till. With a conviction rate of 42% one of the lowest in the world the wheels of justice grind so slow that most victims give up. This war has to be fought by the people. Right now, it's only a section of the media and a clutch of brave freedom of information whistle-blowers who are fighting the battle. We - especially the consenting middle-class India of empty Face book rage - has to begin believing that it doesn't have to live with corruption. We need to destroy this highway to power and wealth.