By Mohammad Allam for TwoCircles.net,
The disclosure of a series of big scams in India involving the defense personal, legislature, judiciary, and media have questioned the integrity of our system of governance. A country that is in line of to be the super leader of the global world, can sustain for how long in the international arena by bursting of so many scams in all walk of life? How it will affect the economic development, social progress and political maturity of the country?
The main cause of scam is the presence of rampant corruption. The corruption in India is flourishing on a large scale encompassing all segments of the society from top to bottom. The causes of the corruption in India are the loopholes in the system of laws, the get-rich-quick mentality, the absence of the idea of right and wrong, the economic interest of the multi-national corporations, the dishonest politicians, the parasitic beaurocracy, the absence of an honest and powerful judiciary, and the rising materialistic attitude of the people.
Former Minister for IT and Communications, Mr A Raja being taken to the court by the CBI officials in the Rs 22,000 crore 2G spectrum scam
The series of scam that came into light, disclosed the power of all the above factors in the spreading of the germ of the corruption in all walks of life. The scam of Ramalinga Raju which is the biggest corporate scam in India comes from one of the trusted business house of the nation. The amount of scam is around 8000 crore(Rs 80 billion).The scam of Harshad Mehta which coasted the nation around 4000 crore with the help of the nexus of the bank and the stock exchange is matter of lesson to the controller of the economy. In the same way Ketan Parekh digested the crores of rupees from the small stock exchange by floating numerous non-existent companies. The case of Bhansali Scam which amounted to 1200 crore to the public was another case of financial bungling of Indian money market. The cases of IPO (involving 1496.34 crore), Dinesh Dalmia (595 crore), Uday Goel (210 crore), Sanjay Agarwal (600crore), Dinesh Singhania (120 crore) all are related to Indian financial sector. The case of Abdul karim Telgi (171.33 crore) for fake stamp, the case of Virendra Rastogi ($1 Billion) for excess duty and UTI scam (32 crore) for buying on higher price show how the Indian financial market works. Is it possible that without involving of the big bosses, the above mentioned scams could be materialized? Any one can say just by seeing the scams that how patriotically they have been accomplished by the so called true Indian.
The entire system of Indian political and economic establishments is interlinked in such a way that without cleaning of both nothing can be done for the fair operating system of the governance. Why is this the condition of India? The answer is very simple that with the spreading of corruption in all walks of life, no system remains immune to it. The judiciary which is not only the guardian of Indian constitution but also the main pillar of the strength of governance becomes part and parcel of the scam. God knows that who is going to clean the entire system of governance. The echoing sound in the air for the revolution of the people like Arab could be listened. But the question is that India, who is now a super power in waiting could face the revolution like Arab? What will be impact of this sort of revolution?
The cases of corruption snatched away the standard of morality from the walk of public life. The trust that works in a system of governance between the rulers and the ruled has lost somewhere. The rising number of poverty at lower level and the rising number of the billionaire at upper level is matter of concern. According to Forbes magazine the rising number of richest Indian is amazing. The amazing fact is that the wealth of the top ten of richest Indian is equal to 12% of GDP of India. While in China the top ten has 1%, in Brazil 5% and in Russia 9%.The widening gap in India between the poor and the rich will create social and economic problems which will destabilize the Indian political system by making the core of the governance like social, economic and cultural equality non- workable.
The case of Indian economic prosperity is matter of concern for the rest of the leading powers like America, China, France and Britain etc. The huge FDI inflow in India for the last twenty years is based in the faith on Indian political and economic establishment. According to date released by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) the cumulative amount of FDI equity inflows from August 1991 to April 2010 is US $ 134,642 million. India is considered among the five top favorite destination of high return for the investors. In such a case of rampant corruption and scam could India enjoy the same trust as enjoyed for the last twenty years? This is the FDI that has enhanced the economic and political status of India around the world. This is the liberal economic policy that forced the foreign powers to listen India’s voice during critical hours of Pokhran nuclear test of BJP government and the Mumbai terrorist attack. This is the duty of every Indian to save the nation from the state of corruption and scam and help to clean the system. So the nation could march on the path of prosperity and occupy the place of dignity among the nations. For this purpose we have to control the trend of nationalism of scam and corruption started by the different classes of the people in whole India and in all walks of life. Otherwise we should be ready to lose our status of dignity and our claim to be a permanent member of the Security Council as a super power. If we are not ready to stop this internalisation of scam and corruption and come out from the group of corrupt nations then who are going to hand over the fate of humanity of global world to us?
{Photo by thehindubusinessline.com}