oppn parties Low-Level Corruption Is Rampant In India

News Snippets

  • SP drops two candidates owing allegiance to Azam Khan from Rampur and Moradabad
  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
  • IPL: records tumble as SRH beat MI in a high-scoring match. SRH score 277/3 with 18 sixes and Mumbai score 246 with 20 sixes to fall short by 31 runs. Atotal of 38 sixes, highest in an IPL match were hit and both teams combined to score 523 runs, the highest aggregate in an IPL match
  • Amul will launch fresh milk in the US
  • IPL: RCB beat Punjab by 4 wickets as Kohli and Karthik shine with the bat
  • India strongly objected to German foreign office remarks over the arrest of delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, called it "biased assumptions"
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
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Low-Level Corruption Is Rampant In India

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-11-26 09:17:24

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

A majority of the people in India believes that Prime Minister Modi is not corrupt and has been doing much to bring about transparency in public affairs (the electoral bonds being an exception). He has been in office for the more than six years now. Yet, India ranks 80th on the list of 180 countries in the Corruption Perception Index and tops as the most corrupt country in Asia in the Global Corruption Barometer - Asia. Both these reports have been released by Transparency International after an extensive survey where respondents were asked about access to police, courts, public hospitals, procurement of identity documents and utilities. Nearly 40% of the respondents confirmed that they had paid bribes to get their work done. Although this a huge number, those familiar with India will not find it surprising as nothing gets done in most government offices without greasing palms. Another 46% claimed to have used personal connections to get the work done.

What does this signify? It shows that the government is so obsessed with projecting a clean image for itself that it is focusing entirely on big-ticket corruption or where there could be a loss to the exchequer. It has completely forgotten that it this petty corruption at the lowest level that affects the common man more. The common man is concerned if bribes are paid in defence deals resulting in procurement of either products whose price has been grossly inflated or a sub-standard product. But he is more concerned if the babu in a government office asks him to pay bribe for something which he should get as a matter of right. Rampant corruption at lower levels will never erase the perception of the government being corrupt even if the top leadership is perceived to be honest.

To do away with this corruption, the government needs to reform rules and further dismantle the license-quota regime wherever possible. It needs to take care that discretionary and arbitrary powers available to bureaucrats are withdrawn. It needs to ensure that all citizens are treated as equals and some are not allowed to jump the queue because they are wealthy or well-connected. For this to happen, laws need to be crystal clear and transparency needs to be maintained, and monitored, at all levels. Rules have to be simple and free of legal mumbo-jumbo. Also, vigilance departments and anti-corruption units must be freed from political pressures and empowered to play a more proactive role. Whistleblowers must be encouraged protected and rewarded.