NEW DELHI: Four years after the pioneering Right to Information regime came into force in India, many hurdles remain in the way of a citizen

accessing information. Just 27 people out of 100 get the information they ask for. And, even if an information commission rules in your favour, there is a 61% chance you won’t get the information because the rulings are not complied with.

These are some of the many interesting findings of the largest study conducted to assess the performance of Information Commissioners across India. Overturning many commonly held notions, the project led by RTI campaigner Arvind Kejariwal has ranked an unheard of information commissioner from Kerala, P Faziluddin, as the best in the country in terms of public satisfaction. Karnataka was found to have the best Information Commission.

The most public face of the Central Information Commission, its CIC Wajahat Habibullah, is placed fourth on the list in terms of public satisfaction while two IC’s from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra bring up the bottom. Former CBI officer M L Sharma was found to be the least popular among CIC commissioners on the same count.

Apart from analyzing public satisfaction, the ranking also took into account ‘effectiveness’ (whether information was made available or not), ‘deterrent impact’ (imposing penalties for non-disclosures) and ‘pro-disclosure factor’ (which looked at whether the order was in favour of the applicant or not).

The study throws up other interesting results. Violence-racked regions like Assam and Chattisgarh are blazing new trails in ushering in transparency with Information Commissions of the two states passing 98% pro-disclosure rulings. IC Anil Joshi from Chattisgarh has ruled 100% in favour of transparency, the study, that browsed through more than 50,000 rulings, discloses.

And, despite the much reviled system of appointing retired bureaucrats as information commissioners, Kejariwal’s Public Cause Research Trust found all the best performing commissioners were retired babus. The only commissioner with a background in activism, Shailesh Gandhi, was ranked at the bottom of the rung on each of the four parameters.

While releasing the findings, Kejariwal said the rankings may change once more feedback starts flowing in from all parts of the country. “We are asking just one question: Did you finally get satisfactory information after approaching the Information Commission?” Kejariwal said, explaining how his team of researchers wrote to each applicant who got a favourable order to find out what they thought of the interface with information commissioners.

“These findings are just the beginning of a process. The hope is citizens will constantly assess the performance of high public officials as an integral part of an effective democracy,” the RTI campaigner hoped.

Now that India is playing an ever larger role in the world economy, the issue of corruption, in both the private and public sectors, is coming into sharper focus. Two scenarios are possible: As India’s multinational corporations develop both economic and political muscle, they may act as a broom, sweeping corruption from the economic sphere.

On the other hand, entrenched practices may prove the stronger force, and corruption could end up being a significant brake on India’s economic rise.

The License Raj and the Spoils System

One strand in the knot of corruption is the legacy of the License Raj, which ended in the early 1990s. The system created bureaucracies that were all but self-perpetuating. In a context where government workers were routinely underpaid, graft became an industry all its own. Civil servants were, and remain, anything but disinterested administrators.

Wharton management professor Jitendra Singh and Ravi Ramamurti, professor of international business at Northeastern University, have been studying the emergence of multinational corporations in emerging economies such as India. In late June, they organized a conference on this topic in Boston; the conference’s papers will form the core of an edited volume which is planned for publication in 2008.

“In the bad old days,” Singh said in an interview, “particularly pre-1991, when the License Raj held sway, and by design, all kinds of free market mechanisms were hobbled or stymied, and corruption emerged almost as an illegitimate price mechanism, a shadowy quasi-market, such that scarce resources could still be allocated within the economy, and decisions could get made.

“Of course, this does not in any way condone the occurrence of such corruption. The shameful part of all this was that while value was captured by some people at the expense of others, it did not go to those who created the value, as it should in a fair and equitable system.”

The real failing, he said, “was a distortion of incentives within the economy, such that people began expending efforts toward fundamentally unproductive behaviors because they saw that such behaviors could lead to short-term gains. Thus, cultivating those in positions of power who could bestow favors became more important than coming up with an innovative product design. The latter was not as important, anyway, because most markets were closed to foreign competition–automobiles, for example–and if you had a product, no matter how uncompetitive compared to global peers’, it would sell.

“These were largely distortions created by the politico-economic regime. While a sea change has occurred in the years following 1991, some of the distorted cultural norms that took hold during the earlier period are slowly being repaired by the sheer forces of competition. The process will be long and slow, however. It will not change overnight.”

The costs of corruption are manifest in various parts of the economy. Inadequate infrastructure, of course, is widely recognized as a serious impediment to India’s advancement. Producing valuable goods is of limited utility if they cannot be transported in a timely fashion, for example. Transparency International estimates that Indian truckers pay something in the neighborhood of $5 billion annually in bribes to keep freight flowing. “Corruption is a large tax on Indian growth,” Ramamurti said in an interview after the conference. “It delays execution, raises costs and destroys the moral fiber.”

Corruption also cripples the effort to ameliorate poverty in India and to improve the country’s stock of “human capital.” The rate at which this happens varies tremendously from region to region. Edward Luce, for example, author of In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India, notes that “Rates of theft vary widely from state to state in India, with the better states, such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu, getting more than 80% of subsidized government food to their poor. Meanwhile, in the northern state of Bihar, India’s second poorest with a population of 75 million, more than 80% of the food is stolen.”

Indian MNC’s as Change Agents

“A few Indian companies,” Ramamurti said, “such as the Tata group or Wipro, have taken the high road, but most firms find it impossible to get anything done without greasing palms.” Wipro, headed by Azim Premji, is India’s third-biggest global tech services provider (behind Tata Consultancy Services (other-otc: TACSF – news - people ) and Infosys).

In Bangalore Tiger: How Indian Tech Upstart Wipro Is Rewriting the Rules of Global Competition, business journalist Steve Hamm writes that “Wipro is not just a company, it’s a quest.” That quest, according to some observers, is as much about moral rectitude as it is about business success. For example, according to Hamm, the company pays no bribes and has a zero tolerance policy for corruption.

“The paradox,” Ramamurti said, “is that even though India’s faster growth in recent years is the result of fewer government controls, most Indian managers would tell you that corruption has increased, not decreased, in tandem.

“How could this be? The explanation is that faster growth has created new choke points at which politicians and bureaucrats can extract payments, such as land regulation, spectrum allocation or college admissions–all of which have become much more valuable in [this century]. Faster growth has also raised the economic cost to firms of delays in public approvals, giving officials that much more ‘hold-up’ leverage over private investors.”

Austerity? Hundred relatives part of the President’s tour.

At a time when the government is practicing austerity, eyebrows have been raised on the composition of President Pratibha Patil’s entourage during her visit to Saurashtra. According to media reports, more than 100 persons were part of the entourage and this had started exerting strain on the Gujarat government.

India’s main problem is it’s so-called “democracy”.

India adopted “democracy” before it was ready for it. Both corruption and overpopulation are symptoms of India’s main problem, and not the main causes.

What India needed was an early period of benign and unifying dictatorship that focussed on eliminating societal divisions, eradicating illiteracy and creating employment, thus readying its people for meaningful democracy.

The word “democracy” stands for “people’s rule”. This implies that the people in question are capable of ruling, or, in other words, capable of voting for the right people to rule. Proper voting requires a certain minimum level of social awareness and sense of responsibility.

If the vast majority of a population is illiterate and uneducated, social awareness is poor, and elections have little meaning. Also, if the vast majority of a population is poor, social responsibility is low. When a person does not know where his next meal is coming from or when, he can hardly be expected to understand or worry about his vote.

Votes are therefore cheap in India. Anyone can buy them. The right price could be as little as a food packet or a pair of thongs (footwear) on election day. Truckloads of such items can be seen moving around towns and villages in India on election day.

Democracy in India is therefore a game that is all about numbers; about getting a majority vote in elections. It is not about HOW these votes are obtained.

How does democracy destroy a country if introduced prematurely?

I. Poor Infrastructure
Indian politicians have discovered that investment in important infrastructure does not necessarily get them elected in the next election. Handing out small gifts to poor people on election day gets them elected. The number of rich people directly using that infrastructure and therefore voting for them is much smaller than the number of poor people who vote for election-day gift-givers. Indian politicians therefore do not waste their energy on building infrastructure when it is much simpler to distribute tiny gifts on election day. Infrastructure in India has therefore remained very poor even after over 60 years of independence from British rule. Ironically, the best infrastructure in India, the Indian Railways, was created by the British.

By contrast, a country that has poor people, but where leaders do not depend on votes, is free to go ahead with important infrastructure projects. Example: China

Lesson 1: If a country adopts democracy before it is ready for it, its infrastructure will suffer badly.

II. Divisions in society
At the time of independence from the British, India was already a society divided on various factors, like religion, caste and language. Politicians took advantage of these divisions. They found that encouraging and furthering such divisions created permanent “vote banks” for them. The “arithmetic” for them was therefore very simple:

a. Promise all kinds of benefits to their chosen vote banks.
b. Get elected based on such promises.
c. Use public funds to provide the promised special benefits to their chosen vote banks at the cost of the rest of the country.
d. Generate resentment among the other groups that did not get these benefits, and further divide society to their own advantage.

Lesson 2: If a country adopts democracy before it is ready for it, its society will get heavily divided along every possible division (including language, caste and religion).
III. Overpopulation
Elections are all about numbers. The greater the number of poor and uninformed voters available, the better. Reckless population growth is therefore welcomed by corrupt Indian politicians, and even encouraged, especially within their chosen “vote banks”. Hard to believe, but governments in some Indian states actually pay money to certain communities (their preferred vote banks) to produce more children! India is therefore faced with the catastrophe of an out-of-control population growth — and no one seems to care. By contrast, China introduced a one child per family policy, as its leaders do not require vast numbers of destitute people in order to remain in power.

Compare 2008 figures:
China population 1,330,045,000; population density 138.6

India population 1,147,996,000; population density 349.2 (almost three times that of China)

Lesson 3: If a country adopts democracy before it is ready for it, its population will grow very rapidly and out of control.
IV. Corruption
The vast numbers of people competing for all kinds of services, leading to demand hugely outstripping supply, coupled with people’s ignorance and therefore lack of power, enables corruption to flourish in India. Providers of any service can demand bribes for just doing their job, and the public are willing to pay “extra” to get that elusive service. In a society that is poor, unaware and divided, politicians can afford to launch all kinds of huge public projects, steal staggeringly large amounts of money, and leave the projects incomplete.

Lesson 4: If a country follows democracy before it is ready for it, its society will be highly corrupt.

V. A continuation of these problems

It can easily be seen that India will always continue to have large numbers of poor, uneducated and ignorant people, as the survival of its politicians depends on these people. Education for all will continue to be given low priority in India.

Corruption hurts everyone, and it harms the poor the most. Sometimes its devastating impact is obvious:

• · A father who must do without shoes because his meagre wages are used to pay a bribe to get his child into a supposedly free school.
• · The unsuspecting sick person who buys useless counterfeit drugs, putting their health in grave danger.
• · A small shop owner whose weekly bribe to the local inspector cuts severely into his modest earnings.
• · The family trapped for generations in poverty because a corrupt and autocratic leadership has systematically siphoned off a nation’s riches.

Other times corruption’s impact is less visible:

• · The prosperous multinational corporation that secured a contract by buying an unfair advantage in a competitive market through illegal kickbacks to corrupt government officials, at the expense of the honest companies who didn’t.
• · Post-disaster donations provided by compassionate people, directly or through their governments, that never reach the victims, callously diverted instead into the bank accounts of criminals.
• · The faulty buildings, built to lower safety standards because a bribe passed under the table in the construction process that collapse in an earthquake or hurricane.

Corruption has dire global consequences, trapping millions in poverty and misery and breeding social, economic and political unrest.

Corruption is both a cause of poverty, and a barrier to overcoming it. It is one of the most serious obstacles to reducing poverty.

Corruption denies poor people the basic means of survival, forcing them to spend more of their income on bribes. Human rights are denied where corruption is rife, because a fair trial comes with a hefty price tag where courts are corrupted.

Corruption undermines democracy and the rule of law.

Corruption distorts national and international trade.

Corruption jeopardises sound governance and ethics in the private sector.

Corruption threatens domestic and international security and the sustainability of natural resources.

Those with less power are particularly disadvantaged in corrupt systems, which typically reinforce gender discrimination.

Corruption compounds political exclusion: if votes can be bought, there is little incentive to change the system that sustains poverty.

The conclusion – Corruption hurts everyone.

“I would go to the length of giving the whole congress a decent burial, rather than put up with the corruption that is rampant.” — Mahatma Gandhi May 1939

This was the outburst of Mahatma Gandhi against rampant corruption in Congress ministries formed under 1935 Act in six states in the year 1937.  The disciples of Gandhi however, ignored his concern over corruption in post-Independence India, when they came to power. Over fifty years of democratic rule has made the people so immune to corruption that they have learnt how to live with the system even though the cancerous growth of this malady may finally kill it.  The recent Tehelka episode surcharged the political atmosphere of the country but it hardly exposed anything, that was unknown to the people of this biggest democratic polity.  

Politicians are fully aware of the corruption and nepotism as the main reasons behind the fall of Roman empire, the French Revolution, October Revolution in Russia, fall of Chiang Kai-Shek Government on the mainland of China and even the defeat of the mighty Congress party in India.   But they are not ready to take any lesson from the pages of history.   

The history of corruption in post-Independence India starts with the Jeep scandal in 1948, when a transaction concerning purchase of jeeps for the army needed for Kashmir operation was entered into by V.K.Krishna Menon, the then High Commissioner for India in London with a foreign firm without observing normal procedure.  Contrary to the demand of the opposition for judicial inquiry as suggested by the Inquiry Committee led by Ananthsayanam Ayyangar, the then Government announced on September 30, 1955 that the Jeep scandal case was closed.  Union Minister G.B.Pant declared “that as far as Government was concerned it has made up its mind to close the matter.  If the opposition was not satisfied they can make it an election issue.”  Soon after on February 3,1956 Krishna Menon was inducted into the Nehru cabinet as minister without portfolio.   

In 1950, A.D.Gorwala, an eminent civil servant was asked by Government of India to recommend improvements in the system of governance.  In his report submitted in 1951 he made two observations: “One, quite a few of Nehru’s ministers were corrupt and this was common knowledge.  Two, even a highly responsible civil servant in an official report as early as 1951 maintained that the Government went out of its way to shield its ministers” (Report on Public Administration, Planning Commission, Government of India 1951)    

Corruption charges in cases like Mudgal case (1951), Mundra deals (1957-58), Malaviya-Sirajuddin scandal (1963), and Pratap Singh Kairon case (1963) were levelled against the Congress ministers and Chief Ministers but no Prime Minister resigned.   

The Santhanam Committee, which was appointed by the Government in 1962 to examine the issue of corruption in its report submitted in 1964 observed: “There is widespread impression that failure of integrity is not uncommon among ministers and that some ministers, who have held office during the last sixteen years have enriched themselves illegitimately, obtained good jobs for their sons and relations through nepotism and have reaped other advantages inconsistent with any notion of purity in public life.” 

The following comments of Nehru on the memorandum of charges against Pratap Singh Kairon submitted to the President of India by the non-Communist opposition in Punjab suggest his approach on corruption – “The question thus arises as to whether the chief minister is compelled to resign because of adverse findings on some questions of fact by Supreme Court.   The ministers are collectively responsible to the legislature.  Therefore, the matter was one, which concerned the assembly.  As a rule therefore, the question of removing a minister would not arise unless the legislature expressed its wish by a majority vote.” (Pathology of Corruption by S.S.Gill) 

Thus, we find that while Nehru’s tolerance of corruption among his ministers legitimized this malady, his daughter Indira Gandhi institutionalized it by holding both the posts of the Prime Minister and party president.  By doing so she was herself controlling the party funds, which gave birth to the money power in politics.  The famous V.P.Malhotra (Chief Cashier of State Bank of India) case in which he got a telephone call believing from Indira Gandhi to pay Rs,60 lakhs to one Nagarwal remained a mystery.   Corruption cases like Fairfax, HBJ Pipeline, and HDW Submarine deal came up since then.  The famous Bofor’s deal is well known.  Narsimha Rao was the first Prime Minister being prosecuted in corruption charges.  Cases like Rs.2500 crore -Airbus A-320 deal with France involving kickback (1990), Harshad Mehta security scam (1992), Gold Star Steel and Alloys controversy (1992), JMM bribery case, Hawala scam of Rs. 65 crore and Urea scam (1996) also came up during the period of Narsimha Rao Government. 

Criminalisation of politics is another facet of corruption.  N.N.Vohra, Union Home Secretary in his report (1995) on this issue observed:- “A network of mafias is virtually running a parallel Government pushing the state apparatus into irrelevance.  Quoting some ‘DIB’ sources, he added, “….there has been a rapid spread and growth of criminal gangs, armed senas, drug mafias, smuggling gangs and economic lobbies in the country, which have over the years developed an intensive network of contacts with bureaucrats, government functionaries at local level, politicians, media persons and strategically located individuals in non-state sector.  Some of these syndicates have also international linkages including the foreign agencies.” 

Against the above-discussed historical background of corruption during last fifty years, the only contribution of Tehelka is that the exposure has forfeited the right of the BJP to claim itself to be a party with difference.  So long the BJP was in opposition, it was by and large known as a party with moral integrity, but when it aligned with the political leaders with shady background for the sake of power, the malady of corruption infected this party too.  Once the moral integrity is compromised it opens the door of corruption.  Perhaps the BJP leadership deliberately went for ideological compromise for capturing power at centre.  L.K.Advani put the responsibility on middle class when he reacted to a suggestion by an important ex-National Executive member of the party against the “dubious coalition politics”.  Advani reportedly said: “ The middle class does not like compromises and tends to be idealistic.  At the same time, it is unhappy if we lose power.  It wants power as well as ideological integrity.  This is the dilemma of the party”.  ( Inside BJP by Dr. Jay Dubashi published in Times of India dated March 22,2001).  Advani might have philosophised the situation but he cannot escape from the responsibility for the ideological compromise the BJP made for the sake of power. 

Corruption is an abstract term.  According to World Bank report 1997 abuse of public power for private gains is described as corruption.  But this appears to be too simplistic explanation of corruption.  In fact it is a multi-faceted evil, which gradually kills a system.  A basic conflict between the ethos and system has weakened the Indian polity.  The feudal outlook of the ruling class polluted the people’s mindset, which judge the status of an individual on his capability to flout the law to favour them.  This is the reason why corruption is no more viewed by people with abhorrence in Indian society.  Leaders like Laloo, Jayalalitha, Sukhram and others, who are facing corruption charges, continue to have wide range of people’s support.  Transparency, responsiveness, accountability, probity in public life and good governance are now only slogans.  The legislature has failed to make the judiciary, executive and even media sensitive to the cause of the common people.  The failure of the political leadership to take a principled stand against corruption has clouded the system to the extent that it is now difficult to understand whether the system is alive or dead.  

In the present context corruption is so much linked with power that our politicians have adopted a cynical attitude toward political morality.  Maneuvering the anti-defection law for electoral politics with the help of both money and muscle power and other unfair means for the sake of power have affected the political morality of all the political parties and as such none of them can claim themselves to be faithful to nation in true sense.  It was pathetic to see an excellent orator  of congress struggling to brush away the past of the congress in the recent “Big fight” programme of Star TV.  

The collapse of  the Janata Party Government (1977-80), fall of V.P.Singh and Chandrashekhar Government (1990-91), turning his minority Government into majority by Narsimha Rao, split in Telugu Desam Party (1994), defection of Ajit Singh with his supporters to Congress (1993), defection of S.S.Vaghela from BJP, maneuvering defection by Kalyan Singh to keep the BJP led Government in power in UP are some of examples to prove that a sizeable number of our politicians are not immune to corruption.   

With Tehelka exposure, we may like to refer to our ancient law book, which said, “That monarch, whose subjects are carried from his kingdom by ruffians, while they call aloud for protection, and he barely looks on them with his ministers, is a dead, and not a living king.” (Manusmriti VII/143)  Tehelka is simply an addition to thousands of past and present eruptions in the cancerous body polity of the country. 

 Manu may not be relevant to the present century, but as human nature more or less remains same and states either in monarchy or democracy are governed by the same human beings, he is still relevant.  License to govern does not mean license to be corrupt. Mahatma Gandhi believed in the need for creating a social climate against corruption, which meant creation of an atmosphere in which the corrupt could not thrive.  The need of the hour therefore, is to wipe off the tormenting system, which could be possible only after its thorough overhaul.   For this our national leadership is expected to devise a political mechanism to create a social atmosphere by empowering of people.  The on going war cry against corruption, which is nothing but a mad fight to replace one corrupt system by another is not going to transform the beleaguered nation to a sustainable social order.

Hard to believe, but true! Most of the times you use public transport in the Capital, you are at the mercy of a drug addict behind the wheel. The majority of public transport vehicles plying on Delhi roads, especially at night, is driven by drug addicts who care two hoots for the lives of their passengers. Be it an auto-rickshaw driver or a Blueline driver or conductor, they ply their trade on the city’s roads openly under the influence of tranquillisers and sedatives.

According to a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, nine of 10 substance abuse cases relate to drivers and conductors. “About 90 per cent of the total cases are those of drivers, conductors and other transporters,” said Dr Ved Prakash Singh, the medical officer of Navjyoti India Foundation, a rehabilitation centre run by Delhi Police.

Adding that over-exertion was the main cause for their taking to drugs, Singh said the drivers generally stayed away from homes for long periods and long hours at work urned them into drug addicts. “Sedatives help them feel fresh as they work overnight or nearly 18 hours a day,” he said. Besides consuming liquor, these people were also addicted to narcotic and psychotropic substances, such as smack and opium, which they had easy access to.

Sumble House Rehabilitation Centre director Dr Vijay Kumar said that deprived of proper care and affection, such people get hooked to drugs for the ecstasy and enjoyment that they miss in their daily lives. Moreover, consuming drugs makes them feel rejuvenated at night, he said. “The apathy of vehicle owners towards drivers and conductors and the pressure on the latter to earn a livelihood gets to them and they start taking drugs,” he added. Of the 150 cases registered with the centre, over 100 were those of auto and bus drivers. He, however, clarified that this was not the case with DTC drivers and conductors, as they worked for the stipulated eight hours a day.

Senior police officials in the Capital too admit the fact. “The problem of drug addiction does prevail among most drivers and some such cases have also been registered,” said SN Srivastava, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic). He said the drivers caught under the influence of drugs are penalised under similar Sections as those in the case of drunken driving.

However, the number of prosecutions of drivers using drugs is quite low since it is not easy to identify them, unlike in the case of liquor users, who reek of the substance,” Srivastava added.

As a Blueline driver admitted, drugs provided them with “stamina” to work long hours. “We work over 16 hours a day and sedatives help us beat the physical and mental stress,” he claimed. An auto-rickshaw driver said the vehicle owners did not employ drivers in shifts because that would mean paying more on salaries.

The most disquieting aspect of the widespread corruption in India is the fact that it is not anymore confined to politicians or the government machinery alone. It is prevalent amongst almost every section of the society at every level.

As the practice of corruption is a dishonest act, one has to think that most of the Indians are dishonest, which could be different only in degree between the individuals. As the reason for the dishonesty is greediness and the desire to get things done at any cost one can think that most of the country men are greedy and do not anymore think that the means should justify the ends. This is not a flattering statement and many readers would desire that it would not be so and such statement could have been avoided. But, the fact is that most of the Indians are involved in corrupt practices in one way or the other, either due to greed or due to so called compulsion. In any case, the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of not getting involved in corrupt dealings is conspicuous by its absence amongst the most.

Today, if one would say that any particular Indian is honest to the core, it could only be a case of exception rather than a rule.

The study of world phenomenon on corruption has repeatedly branded India as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Unfortunately, this view has not disturbed most of the Indians at all and they do not seem to care as to what others think of them; so long as the existing systems and practices would allow them to make money and get things done in one way or the other.

The irony is that India is still considered to be a very religious country and it is still widely believed that the religion is the basis of Indian life, thoughts and actions. This is obviously true, considering the fact that there are hundreds of temples, churches and mosques spread all over the country and they are all densely visited day in and day out by the feverishly praying Indians.

Is not religious ethos contrary to corruption and dishonest practices ?The unfortunate situation in India is that those who call themselves most religious are often found to have indulged themselves in dishonest practices on many occasions. Several of the religious centres, of all religions, are suspected to be steeped in nepotism, as such incidents have been repeatedly published in the press.

It does not shock Indians anymore to know that not only the politicians, ministers and IAS & IPS officers are corrupt but even the judges, professors, doctors and NGO organisations are.

Corruption is not only prevalent amongst rich who are greedy in spite of possessing enough but also prevalent amongst poor.

Now, what can be the future of the Indian society in such conditions? It can be only frustration, chaos, unrest and even bloodshed in the not too distant future. This kind of corruption in the national polity and public and private life cannot go on for ever, without disturbing the overall peace in the society. It is sad that those who are in charge of the nation today do not appear to realise this and still are merrily going ahead with their dealings unconcerned about the harm that it would inevitably do to the larger national cause.

What is very sad and extremely disquieting about this country is that Ministers suspected to be involved in murder. Chief ministers of swindling crores of public money, senior police officers of molestation charges are all living in comforts and enjoying positions, thus effectively exposing the fact that the crusade against corruption has finally failed in India.

Even as the vicious cycle of corruption would continue with one swindling the other, there could be a number of persons who would be left out of this cycle due to inefficiency or commitment to the cause of truth and such persons would be driven down to despair.

The incidents of history indicate that some of such persons who are out of the corruption loop could take up the war against corruption at one time or the other. But, they would find that in a corruption entrenched system, they would not be able to improve the conditions and therefore, a few of them may finally take to physical attack on corrupt and dishonest persons, leading to violence and bloodshed. Security, dogs and mere police rifles will not be able to beat down such determined crusaders.

The politicians and bureaucrats would call such crusaders as arsonists or terrorists. But, history would judge them differently. There are a number of determined isolated war groups already existing in the country and they are generally branded as terrorist groups and treated brutally by the state machinery, without investigating the reasons for their existence. One would shudder to think as what would happen to the peace of the society, if such groups would enlarge in size and number.

Those holding the positions of President, Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of this country and Chief Ministers of the states should have the wisdom to realise the potential dangers facing this corrupt ridden Indian society. They should not remain as small people who would compromise with the aspects of good governance for the sake of remaining in power for a few number of days more.