2010- year of Corruption

2010-The Year of Corruption

The year 2010 can be easily called as the year of the corruption. Eversince the month of November, Scam after Scam has surfaced from the dark underbelly of the Indian politicians, businessmen and bureaucrats. The cauldron of corruption, which in India is always bubbling quietly in the background, suddenly erupted -- not once, but several times, in headline-hitting but unconnected instances. While the most recent scandals were surfacing, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in Washington published a report whose findings show that, India lost a total of US$213 billion dollars due to illicit flows, the present value of which is at least US$462 billion. "The total value of illicit assets held abroad represents about 72% of the size of India's underground economy which has been estimated at 50% of India's GDP (or about US$640 billion at end 2008)," says the report. Interestingly, the outflow of illicit funds has actually gone up in the post-liberalization period. Liberalization has produced greater income inequality. The number of high net-worth individuals (HNIs) has gone up. Capital exodus is caused primarily by private companies and HNIs. After liberalization and the rise of adulation for the wealthy, regardless of how that wealth was acquired, there seems to be no social penalty attached to having illegal wealth, and it is rare for anyone -- businessman or politician -- to be caught and penalized for corruption. Lalu, Jayalalitha, Mayawati, Koda, Kalmadi, and Raja are all examples of it.
Clubbed with the rampant corruption is the frustration of Parliament logjams. The winter session of the parliament ended without any debate. The common man watched the issues being debated everywhere from TV studios to Business forums but not in the Parliament.
At the end of the year let us ask ourself if there is hope in Indian democracy. The exposure of the 2G and CWG scams are positive signals. The way scams are exposed suggests that there are some self-correcting features in the Indian system, even if they work in a less predictable manner. There is hope for all of us.