We Indians have never been known for taking credit or showcasing our achievements unless a white guy from western world approves it, as we have been always a very polite and humble lot. This should change and that is the only way forward in the 21st century, and Corruption is one such thing. Only India has the potential of developing this in a very refined art/science form. Corruption is something which influences every walk of life in more ways than we think and in itself deserves systematic study. Once Indira Gandhi had told, "corruption is not any problem; it is all over in the world" we need strong individuals like her to identify this as natural progression of human civilization.
India never had any dearth of corruption or corrupt person ever; many natural talents have always found their way to the top without any formal training or university degree in corruption. Time is ripe that India starts building on these assets and gives something to the world which the future generation will benefit from. Corruption has established itself as well oiled mechanism in India and everybody recognizes it; call of the hour is to formalize it. All of us know that “chai pani” has to be paid when you go to government office to apply for new telephone connection, electricity connection, create domicile certificate, character certificate, police verification for a government job, police verification of passport application, apply for driving license, getting admission for your kid in a school to as simple as getting a seat in the government hospital, I can just go on and on. Also the rates vary depending on the service, which is totally justified based on the profits involved like paying for the copy of FIR at a police station to paying the ministers for the lease of coal or copper mine. The problem is not the corruption itself but creating the standard of it and recognizing it as the right of individual. For example a poor peon in an office has been giving out copy of different application to the people without asking for any “chai-pani” or “mithai” he tends to loose, he is not aware that it is his right to charge for this service and it is totally acceptable. It is for these kinds of losers we need to put a system in place to educate everybody about corruption and regularize it. Sometimes people are also not aware that exactly how much should be paid for a particular service, setting up rates for the different services will setup a fair play standards and nobody will feel cheated.
Corruption is not limited to just paying or taking bribe, it very intricately affects the life of common man therefore it becomes all the more important that common man be made aware of the principles of corruption right from the beginning. This includes getting a “sifarsh” (Recommendation) from an MLA for your kid’s admission in a school, granting voter’s ID card and ration card to illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, to mass irregularity in filling the job vacancies in the government jobs. It makes life of everybody simple and protects them from the lengthy process and should be recognized as most efficient way of solving the people’s problem.
There is a long list of achievement India has to it’s credit starting from scams like Bofors scams(14.2 million), Fodder scam($250 million), Satyam scam($1 billion), Telgi stamp paper scam($40 million), Hawala Scam, UTI scam($ 1.1 Billion), Securities Scam(770 million), Telecom Scam ($400 million), Madhu Coda scam($900 million) to name just a select few.
How can we forget influencing judicial and the security system in the famous murders cases of late 90s and early 00s ( Jessica Lal Murder, Priyadarshini Matoo Murder, Nitish Katara Murder ) are example of how those same people responsible for maintaining law and order had to resort to corruption because the justice was inconvenient for them. Corruption came as panacea for them otherwise how else they would have saved their skins? Although jealous media and people played spoiled sports which turned the table but they are no mean champion of corruption and definitely deserve their names in golden letters in corruption text books. Oops I almost missed Ruchika Girhotra, DGP SPS Rathore should not be missed.
Former law minister Shanti Bhushan has submitted a list of corrupt chief justices of the Supreme Court before one of the court’s benches. He identified eight CJs as "definitely corrupt"!! Well that is no mean achievement. KG Balakrishnan leads the pack here. It only proves that corruption in India is really on the fertile grounds and has taken deep roots.
We might be a pack of poor Indians where 320 million Indians live on less than a dollar a day but not to be misguided that we do not have money to put in Swiss banks and other tax havens. India tops the list for black money in the entire world with almost US$1456 billion in Swiss banks ($ 1.4 trillion approximately) in the form of black money!! If that money is distributed in the 320 million so called laggard Indians they will become lakhpati overnight!! But no the talent must be rewarded those Individuals have mastered the art of corruption to reach to these heights and their interest must be protected, even our foreign minister agrees that their names cannot be disclosed "Mukherjee, however, said that it was not possible to reveal the names of those who have stashed money in overseas banks."
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/black-money-govt-says-notices-served-to-17-people-prosecution-on/746459/0
One such champion of this movement is Hassan Ali Khan who has contributed to swiss bank to the tune of $9 billion and nobody including govt. of India has any freaking clues as to how he created that much of the wealth, now that is called natural talent!! It is even debatable whether British could generate that much of wealth out of India in their 200 years of rule! Which we Indians have already generated through corruption in mere 60 years of Independence and are already poised to teach british a lesson or two in it!
Year 2010 has really been a watershed year in the glorious achievements in the sphere of corruption for India. Four Major corruptions materialized in this year (1) 2G scam ($39 billion) -- A. Raja champion of the scam (2) Commonwealth Games ($6 billion) – Suresh Kalmadi’s claim to the fame (3) Loan Bribery Case ($?00 million) – (4) Adarsh Society scam – Not only the chief minister but even Army participated in this scam wholeheartedly, hitherto it seemed that they were totally oblivious to this growing potential of India. Another first to the credit of India.
India should start with adding a subject in the matriculation curriculum for corruption and should be made compulsory. There should be courses at every level up to post graduation. Premier institutes likes IIMs should start specialization in corruption, so that we can produce highly skilled management executive who can work with our politicians and bureaucrats shoulder to shoulder who are very efficient corruption machines. There is no lack of faculty members to start the program, Lalu, A. Raja, Quottorochi, Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh will come handy. These pioneers of corruption should be encouraged to write text books for the various degree and elementary courses to be started. They should be awarded with Honorary Ph.D. from JNU for their outstanding contribution in this field.
There is a need to come up with standards of corruption and we should update civil code and penal code of our constitution to add appropriate provisions of corruption. Provisions should be added like a clerk with 15000 rs per month salary can do corruption of 5000 rs per month and no legal action could be taken. This is in the context like one telecom minister A. Raja is taking bribe to the tune of 3000 crore rupee for 2G scam is fine but we must ensure that the benefit of corruption is passed to the masses transparently. Therefore with 3000 crore and above provision 5 lakh clerks will draw benefit annually.
I think India is at such a crossroad of history that entire world is looking up to it to redefine corruption and setup an example for the rest of the world to follow. India cannot afford to let down the world, it would be sheer waste of the accumulative knowledge and expertise which India has gained through hard work, persistence, exemplary talents. I only hope that India stands up to the challenge and delivers, Good Luck India!
