CORRUPTION AND GOVERNANCE
Corruption in India or elsewhere is recognised as a complexphenomenon,
as the consequence of more deep rooted problems of policy distribution,
institutional incentives and governance. It thus cannot be addressed by
simple legal acts preventing corruption. The reason behind it is that all the
enforcement institutions, police and other legal bodies are affected by the
social environment. The social environment in India is not too much
averse of malpractices in their dealings with authorities. It becomes very
difficult to implement the policies in such circumstances. Hence, the
government fails and the corruption erupts.
Supreme Court of India in a judgement gave its comment on corruption –
The socio political system exposed to such a dreaded communicable disease is likely to crumble under its own weight. Corruption is opposed to democracy and social order being not only anti people but also aimed and targeted at them. It affects the economy and destroys the cultural heritage. Unless nipped in the land at the earliest. It is likely to cause turbulence shaking of the socio – economic political system in an otherwise healthy, wealthy, effective and vibrating society. (AIR 2000, SC870).
FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT IS EQUAL TO CORRUPTION
The experience of post – independence India is a case of policy failures. As stated above the example of India is not the good example of Good Governance. Several analysts believe that there are numerous factors of policy failures: -
1. Population Pressure
2. Political Behaviour
3. Bureaucratic elites and business elites
4. Legacy of colonialism
5. Domineering policies of rich countries and their multilateral global oranization
6. Lack of technical expertise to take narrow vested interests
7. Lack of Transparency
Seeing it as the history of India after Independence these factors are continuously working counterproductive of good governance. We have been in a habit of ignoring these factors as root causes of Corruption.
Another big question related with failure of policy is Parallel Economy. The Indian Economy can’t be understood and analyzed without explicitly taking into account formal, informal and illegal sectors. This criss crossing creates the parallel economy in India where a huge sum of money plays its role in policy making, governance and public finance. This intermittent problem is growing continuously and if it is not stopped it will eat out our basic political, social and moral values.
YOUTH AND CORRUPTION
These days corruption has become a buzzword. The youth of India are seeing the corruption as the biggest impediment in the development of nation. The LOKPAL BILL (or Jan Lokpal), the stashed money in Swiss bank, has captured the imagination of youths. They have taken out candle light marches in their institutions and in their cities.
But it is still a big question that whether we want to defeat corruption or we need it in disguise?
The present generation of India has been brought up in the environment of corruption. Their lives’ delicate and important lessons have been tuted by corrupt environment and system. They know how to get a driving license issued in a fortnight, passport issued without verification, voter I card; ration card and even railway tickets are issued with the use of jacks beneath ordinary efforts. This generation breaths in and out some suspended particles of corruption while inhaling the life saving oxygen.
For that matter it is hard to believe that youths do not want corruption in any form. The candle light marches can fill plenty of pep in their efforts but can hardly help them in getting to the roots of the problem. The corruption is now in our habit but for youths, it is very difficult to identify those corrupt habits because they haven’t seen the non – corrupted and honest practices in their surroundings. Hence, we believe those youths at first need to identify all forms of corruption. They have to participate in public domains to get better understanding of corruption.
TOOLS TO FIGHT CORRUPTION
After a long time, India has realised that a transparent governance system will create a popular governance system. Thus, RTI has come into being. Similarly, LOKPAL which will work as a check on the government will also help in good governance. But the best tool is awareness and education of our huddled masses for which whole system has been made and youths have to take onus on themselves.
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