Politics is not a SERVICE anymore but a PROFESSION!!!

An Important Issue!

Salary & Govt. Concessions for a Member of Parliament (MP)

Monthly Salary : Rs. 12,000/-

Expense for Constitution per month : Rs. 10,000/-

Office expenditure per month : Rs. 14,000/-

Traveling concession (Rs. 8 per km) : Rs. 48,000/-

(eg. For a visit from South India to Delhi & return : 6000 km)

Daily DA TA during parliament meets : Rs. 500/day

Charge for 1 class (A/C) in train : Free (For any number of times)
(All over India )

Charge for Business Class in flights : Free for 40 trips / year (With wife or P.A.)

Rent for MP hostel at Delhi : Free.

Electricity costs at home : Free up to 50,000 units.

Local phone call charge : Free up to 1, 70,000 calls..

TOTAL expense for a MP [having no qualification] per year : Rs.32, 00,000/-

[i.e. 2.66 lakh/month]
TOTAL expense for 5 years : Rs. 1, 60, 00,000/- 

For 534 MPs, the expense for 5 years :
Rs. 8,54,40,00,000/-

(Nearly 855 crores)
AND THE PRIME MINISTER IS ASKING THE HIGHLY QUALIFIED, OUT PERFORMING CEOs TO CUT DOWN THEIR SALARIES…..

This is how all our tax money is been swallowed and price hike on our regular commodities………
And this is the present condition of our country :

855 crores could make their lives livable!!
Think of the great democracy we have…

When I heard that Indian government is planning for a focused strategy to bring M F Hussain back. My immediate thought was,
Does the Home ministry has nothing else to do?

Leaving all the current and critical issues including the latest West bengal crisis , home ministry is very keen to bring Hussain, just because the 94-year-old Hussain, who has been living in exile for the last few years, wants to come back to India and had recently made an emotional appeal  in this regard.

The home ministry is contemplating approaching the Supreme Court for expeditious disposal of all cases arising out of Husain’s controversial paintings. Several cases were filed against Husain for his paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses. Husain has been in Dubai since 2006 after his paintings were repeatedly vandalised.

When a person who has no regard or respect for emotions of more than half the people of this country why should we be concerned of this man who created troubles for himself ?

 

What should  I call this – favoritism to a VIP and sense of secularism ?

Goddess Durga in sexual union with Tiger	Prophet’s Daughter Fatima fully clothed
Goddess Lakshmi naked on Shree Ganesh’s head	M.F. Husain’s Mother fully clothed
Naked Saraswati	Mother Teresa fully clothed
Naked Shri Parvati	Husain’s Daughter well clothed
Naked Draupadi.	Well clothed Muslim Lady.
Naked Lord Hanuman and Goddess Sita sitting on thigh of Ravana	Muslim poets Faiz, Galib are shown well-clothed
Full Clad Muslim King and naked Hindu Brahmin. The above painting clearly indicates Husain’s tendency to paint any Hindu as naked and thus his hatred.	Naked Bharatmata – Husain has shown naked woman with names of states written on different parts of her body. He has used Ashok Chakra, Tri-colour in the painting. By doing this he has violated law & hurt National Pride of Indians. Both these things should be of grave concern to every Indian irrespective of his religion

Paintings by Raja Ravi Varma	Paintings by MF Husain
Goddess Lakshmi	Goddess Lakshmi naked on Shree Ganesh’s head
Famous Saraswati Painting	Naked Saraswati
Ravan, Sita and Jatayu (As per Ramayana)	Naked Lord Hanuman and Goddess Sita sitting on thigh of Ravana

Even 5th Standard kid knows how to portray a lion , elephant and a lady , people who understand the so called drawings call it as “Modern Art”, Are we so mean that we have nothing else to portray other than the god and goddess. Shame for the people who think so and also who thinks he is a great artist. If “such” Art is artists way of expression (Freedom of expression ) , people who are hurt with this, have another way of expressing anger , that also comes in Freedom of expression . So best thing will be to let him allow to come to India and prosecute.
Note : I am not against any religion but i don’t want anyone to exploit any other religious sentiments. Not everyone can be good artist , it really require skill and i am damn sure he is not the Tara Zameen Par like Ishan Awasthi.

It was a day of shameful firsts.

A member of the legislature was assaulted inside the Assembly for the first time in Maharashtra’s legislative history, by four debutant MLAs whose party — the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) — is being represented for the first time in the House.

On Monday, four MLAs from Raj Thackeray’s party assaulted Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi after he refused to take the oath of office in Marathi.
The Speaker has suspended all four — Shishir Shinde, Ram Kadam, Vasant Gite and Ramesh Wanjhale — for four years. The MNS has 13 legislators in all.

Though a standoff was expected as Azmi, a migrant from Uttar Pradesh, had insisted on taking the oath in Hindi and Thackeray had demanded all MLAs take the oath in Marathi, nobody had anticipated violence inside the legislature.

The suspended MLAs were also charged with manhandling a woman MLA, Meenakshi Patil from the Peasants and Workers Party, who tried to help Azmi.

The drama began when Azmi started reading the oath in Hindi.
Before he completed the first sentence, Wanjhale rushed to the dais and uprooted the podium. Within seconds, his colleagues stormed the well, displaying pro-Marathi banners and shouting slogans.

As they tried to pull Azmi down from the dais, members of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Republican Democratic Left Front ran up to help him. Surrounded by others, Azmi completed his oath in Hindi but as he walked to his seat he was manhandled by Shinde and slapped more than once by Kadam.

The MNS remained unrepentant of its MLAs’ actions.
“We are proud of our act and will repeat it if anyone dares to insult Maharashtra,” MNS spokesman Shirish Parkar said.

CM Ashok Chavan and his deputy, Chhagan Bhujbal, condemned the incident and asked protem Speaker Ganpatrao Deshmukh to deal with the attackers strictly.

The MNS has decided to appeal before the high court. INFAMOUS FOUR SHISHIR SHINDE: Constituency: Bhandup, Northeast Mumbai A ex-Shiv Sena activist who shot to fame for digging the pitch at Wankhede stadium in 1991 to protest against Pakistan’s cricket tour of India.
RAM KADAM: Constituency: Ghatkopar (East), NE Mumbai He shot to fame during the Dahi Handi festival last year offering prize money of Rs 25 lakh.
Defeated the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan’s daughter Poonam in the last elections.
RAMESH WANJHALE: Constituency: Khadakwasala, Pune A contractor, Wanjhale is referred to as `golden boy’ for wearing 2 kg gold on his person.
VASANT GITE: Nashik. Former Mayor of Nashik, he was blamed for threatening North Indian labourers in the city during the MNS’s agitation against North Indians a year ago. OPTIONS FOR MNS It can apologise to the assembly and try to get the suspension reduced or revoked. How the Congress-NCP will respond is anybody’s guess.

It may challenge the decision in the High Court. But constitutional experts say the court is unlikely to overrule the assembly’s decision.

It may ask its suspended MLAs to resign from the Assembly, and face by-elections, making a political issue of the suspension.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THEM The MNS will surely try to derive political advantage from the incident. It has already forced the Shiv Sena to reluctantly support its demand that all MLAs take their oath in Marathi.

Losing four MLAs out of 13 will also impact the party’s relevance as a political force. If it wants the suspension revoked, it will have to soften its stand.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MLA Ram Kadam who allegedly slapped Mumbai Samajwadi Party president Abu Asim Azmi in the assembly for taking oath in Hindi on Monday said he had no regrets for his action and was ready for any sacrifice to uphold the glory of Marathi language.

When asked if his actions were not an insult to the assembly, Kadam said Azmi had insulted the 11-crore Marathispeaking population of Maharashtra in the 50th year of the state’s formation.

“It is Mumbai and Maharashtra that has made him big and can’t he take the oath in the local language? He had lots of spare time and couldn’t he mug four lines of the speech in Marathi?” Kadam asked.

When pointed out that it was not appropriate to act violently in the assembly, he said, we had to teach Azmi a lesson in the language he understood.

Once a close associate of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, Kadam shot to limelight when he sponsored a Rs 25-lakh prize for Dahi-Handi festival last year.
He defeated Mahajan’s daughter Poonam from the Ghatkopar East seat. A builder by profession, he was arrested a day after the election for allegedly manhandling a constable.

Ironically, Kadam was addressing the media in English and Hindi, besides Marathi. “The Shiv Sena-BJP did not utter a word despite tall talks of Marathi pride and it is for the Marathi manoos to see,” Kadam added.

Echoing Kadam, MNS spokesperson Shirish Parkar said: “We are proud of our act and will repeat it if anyone dares to insult Maharashtra.

“For years, this man has been intimidating Maharashtrians and today he crossed the limits,” Parkar said. “If he does not understand civil language, we have to make him understand in a language he understands.”

NEW DELHI – Twenty five years after the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, those who lost their family members have not given up hope of getting justice, and are pinning their hopes on the court hearing the case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler.

“We are left with only one hope of getting justice and that is from the court. We are praying to god that court should help us in punishing the guilty. The last 25 years was a terrible experience for all of us, said Amrit Singh Lovely, a resident of Tilak Vihar in west Delhi.

He said some of the victims’ families will protest outside the court Saturday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had, at the last hearing, said the witnesses, who deposed about the alleged role of Tytler in the anti-Sikh riots, were “not reliable”.

Additional CBI public prosecutor submitted before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Rakesh Pandit that the two witnesses, Surinder Singh – who died recently – and Jasbir Singh, were unreliable as they have contradicted their statements on various occasions.

Citing the case of Surinder, who had deposed against Tytler, the CBI counsel said Surinder, in his first affidavit before the Nanavati Commission in January 2002, had stated that Tytler along with others had attacked Gurdwara Pul Bangash in north Delhi and killed Thakur Singh and Badal Singh. But in another affidavit in August 2002, Surinder had denied Tytler’s role, he added.

The probe agency will Saturday continue its argument on the version given by Jasbir Singh.

Jasbir too claimed to be witness to the Nov 1, 1984, incident when a mob had set on fire the gurdwara, killing three people.

The CBI had last month during the hearing also placed before the court audio visual evidence showing that Tytler was near the body of assassinated prime minister Indira Gandhi at the time of the incident.

CBI, which had April 2 sought to close the case against Tytler claiming there wasn’t sufficient evidence against him, had questioned the jurisdiction of a magisterial court and sought the matter to be transferred to a sessions court.

The court, however, was not convinced with the CBI’s arguments and decided to hear the closure report.

Over 3,000 Sikhs were killed in the riots in various cities following the assassination of Indira Gandhi on Oct 31, 1984.

A 14-page complaint of fraud has been filled at the Babupurwa Police Station in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur District against Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh, his wife Pankaja Kumari Singh and cine icon Amitabh Bachchan.

Shiv Kant Tiwari, the person who filed the complaint, claimed that all three had been involved in a financial fraud amounting to about Rs 500 crore. They have been charged with amalgamating companies for converting black money into white between 2003 and 2008, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal and DIG (Kanpur) Neera Rawat said.

The companies named in the FIR included Energy Development Company Limited, EDCL Power Limited, Pankaja Art and Credit Limited, Sarvottam Cap Limited, EDCL Infrastructure Limited and Eastern India Company, all owned or run by the Singh couple.

Lal claimed that 25 companies have been amalgamated into Sarvottam Cap Limited.

“The FIR has been lodged under various sections of IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Laundering Act,” he said.

Candidates organise sexual favours for political workers during campaign trail

As much as the voter, every candidate standing for any election knows, his fate can be decided by the political worker.

A neta can have anywhere between 20 and 500 chamchas working for him and it’s their involvement during the campaign trail that decides the leader’s success.

 For a month now, these political workers have been swamped by sexual favours.

Sources say, during every election, and this one is no different, political workers are given incentives to keep them happy by servicing them with prostitutes.

These political workers hold the key to a candidate’s success during the campaign trail, which begins approximately a month before poll day.

Said Tejaswi Sevekari, who runs Saheli HIV AIDS Karyakarta Sangha, an NGO for sex workers, “A month before the elections, the demand for sex workers is huge.

A representative of the political workers scouts the red light areas and books women at least a month before the polls.”

Rendezvous fixed

Sources added that the rendezvous is generally fixed at resorts, bungalows and farmhouses in the outskirts of Pune and that Mumbai is generally not part of the scheme of things.

The women normally spend two days with the client and they normally attend in groups of at least six, if not more.

In Pune, most of the sex workers are sourced from the Budhwar Peth area, which has at least 5,000 sex workers.

“Around 1,000 sex workers have been booked by political parties,” said a source.

Sevekari added that the sex workers are also paid huge tips. “Only after they return, are we told that they were servicing political parties.

All their expenses travel to the resort, and all incidentals are taken care of,” added Sevekari.

More Money

Mary D’Souza, president of the same NGO, said, “Most  girls are Nepalis or Bengalis. The girls are also expected to dance.
 
A sex worker who earns between Rs 600 and Rs 2,000 per night at other times, earns more than Rs 4,000 at such parties.” When the candidate wins, the parties are organised once more.

Hotbed

Sangli has the highest number of AIDS cases after Mumbai in the state and is also a hotbed for prostitution.
 
“Most of the deals are now done on the phone. Local political workers source sex workers from here, but the rendezvous is at a far away place.

The demand is as much as festival time,” said Kamalbai Pane, from the NGO, VAMP, which works for sex workers in Sangli. 

Added Shashikant Mane, from the NGO, “There may be a local demand for sex workers, but they do not travel for parties.”

In New Delhi, Raman Verma from DelhiEscorts, said, “After the announcement of the Haryana elections, once the names of the candidates were finalised, the demand for call girls increased.

As Haryana politicians have a good network in Delhi, most of their demands are placed in the capital.

No less than 30 to 35 call girls were sent to different parts of Haryana every day. Otherwise just 10 girls are sent.”
“As the date of the poll drew close, the demand fell.

Initially, I could not relate to this sudden change, but later, we realised most of the clients were associated with some political parties and the demand upped because of the elections,” said Anshuman from Escorts4You, another agency.

Why are Political workers Important?

Political workers are particularly important to politicians as they canvass for them, do the ground work (from door-to-door campaigns, distributing pamphlets, handing over voter slips to citizens, taking part in road shows, getting numbers to attend rallies) making it impossible to participate in an election without their help.

Most workers remain nameless, but the power they wield is considerable. In fact, they also coax the voter to go to the booth.

The Other Side

It’s very irresponsible and derogatory to make such statements. And even if the workers indulge after campaigning, why are parties held responsible. It’s an insult to say political parties indulge in such things.
Madhav Bhandari, BJP spokesperson

I am not aware about such parties, neither do I nor the MNS ever attend such parties.
Nitin Sardesai, MNS spokesperson
 
This is unheard of and I cannot imagine any political party doing this in Maharashtra. No political party would indulge in this and the Shiv Sena will never do it.
Neelam Gorhe, Shiv Sena spokesperson
 
In my 25-year-old political career I have never heard about this. This is totally false and nothing of this sort happens in Maharashtra. 
Dinkar Tawde, NCP spokesperson.

Only a dalal can think of resorting to such measures to win the confidence of workers. This has nothing to do with politics and politicians.

Nizammudin Ryeen, MRCC spokesperson

Election Rates

Pune
> Rs 600 to Rs 2,000 per night
> Between Rs 3 000 and  Rs 4,000 for attending two-day parties

Sangli
Rs 1,000 per night at lodges

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.”

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.

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.