India also has corruption
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Transcript of India also has corruption
Misappropriation of public funds
Oh! It happens many times
in many places
We shall change
Yes U can!
After the establishment of the Republic of India there is a
widely shared desire in the country to evaluate the
gains made as also to assess our future.
• Undoubtedly, the people of the country and
the managers of society can be congratulated
on many counts for India's achievements since
independence which include (i) self-sufficiency
(in fact surplus generation) in food-grains, (ii) a
strong industrial base, (iii) a rising expectancy
of life, (iv) a higher percentage of literacy, (v) a
united and better integrated India and (vi) a
growing recognition by the world of our
capabilities and potential.
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On the negative side, one could count the
nagging problems of unemployment, illiteracy
and poverty accentuated by an ever increasing
population.
Also, a low per capita income, inadequate
infrastructure, feudalistic tendencies and worst
of all a pathetic contempt of rule of law and
ethics in public life.
Finally, an administration which is perceived as
self seeking and citizen unfriendly.
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"WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute
India into a SOVEREIGN
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC, and to secure to all its
citizens :
JUSTICE, social, economic and political;
LIBERTY of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship;
EQUALITY of status and of opportunity; and to promote among them
all;
FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity of
the
Nation:
IN OUR CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY this twenty-sixth day of
November, 1949, do HEREBY ADOPT, ENACT AND GIVE TO
OURSELVES
THIS CONSTITUTION."
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Corruption in public life in India
As a recent editorial in a leading newspaper
observed:
Corruption in public life is one of the most
daunting issues facing the country. Things have
come to such a pass that all politicians evoke
public ridicule.
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Mahatma Gandhi:
Corruption will be out
one day, however much
one may try to conceal
it, and the public can,
as its right and duty, in
very case of justifiable
suspicion, call its
servants to strict
account, dismiss them,
sue them in a law court
or appoint an
arbitrator or
inspector to
scrutinize their
conduct, as it likes.
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Edmund Burke: All that is necessary for the forces
of evil to triumph in the world is for enough good
men to do nothing. [India, please note.]
1. Satyagraha is a tapasya (penance) for truth;
there is no room for untruth or violence in a
Satyagraha.
2. In Satyagraha, there is no enemy.
3. A Satyagrahi knows no defeat.
- Mahatma Gandhi
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• The Transparency International (TI) Corruption
Perception Index (CPI), ranks countries in terms of
the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist
among public officials and politicians. It is a
composite index derived from 15 different polls and
surveys from 9 independent institutions carried out
among business people and country analysts.
• CPI defines corruption as the abuse of public office
for private gains. The index provides an annual snap
shot of the views of business people and analysts
like bribing of public officials, kickbacks in public
procurement or embezzlement of public funds.
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• Of the 102 countries surveyed in 2002, seventy countries
– including many of the world’s most poverty stricken –
score less than five out of a clean score of ten.
• Corruption is perceived to be rampant in Indonesia,
Kenya, Angola, Nigeria, and Bangladesh, countries with a
score of less than two.
• Countries with a score of higher than 9, with very low
levels of perceived corruption, are rich countries, namely,
Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore, and
Sweden. 9
• There is nothing to be proud of India's ranking in the
Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index
2009.
• The country ranked low also in the Bribe Payers Index
among emerging economic giants.
• The use of public funds for private gain is common.
• The misuse of power, position and privilege is widespread.
• Corruption seems to be a fact that affects all sections of
society
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PEOPLES’ PERSPECTIVE
Indians think ( some even hope) that corruption cannot be eliminated in India – at least not in their lifetime. This pessimistic and cynical perception of the people is largely an outcome of confusing corruption with all kinds of illegal actions and activities by individuals.
Are you aware corruption accentuates poverty,
aggravates economic disparity, thwarts development,
undermines democracy and is a threat to national
security and, destroys the moral fibre of the Nation?
No, corruption will NOT destroy India. Why Not?
Because, much of India functions, 'oiled' by
corruption. It damages India, for sure. But just as the
average Indian has more of a 'natural immunity' to
TB, Asthma, Dengue, Malaria, Conjunctivitis, 'Delhi-
Belly' and other 'gastro viruses and bacteria', than
other peoples, Indians have found ways of
continuing to work around this corrupt system.
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Most illegal actions, many of which are private actions, are
confused with corruption.
The Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and Indian Penal
Code clearly distinguishes between corruption indulged by
public servants for private gains and illegal actions by
individuals.
There are separate Acts in India for dealing with different
kinds of illegal actions of private individuals. For example, if
a public servant amasses wealth disproportionate to his
known sources of income then he can be tried under
Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
However, if a businessperson amasses wealth
disproportionate to his known source of income he will be
dealt under Income Tax Act for concealing his income and
not under Prevention of Corruption Act. 13
TYPOLOGY OF CORRUPTION
Corruption is defined as the use of public office for private gains
Scales of corruption can be Grand, Middling or Petty and payment of bribes can be due to collusion between the bribe taker and the bribe giver, due to coercion or even anticipatory.
Existence of corruption implies that there are corrupt people, there are also corrupt practices, and there is a corrupt system.
Therefore, all the three have to be fought simultaneously to eliminate the vice of corruption.
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• The present system provides for taking on the
corrupt persons through a legal mechanism,
which has not been found to be very effective.
• Many corrupt practices fall outside the
purview of existing laws and need to be
tackled by people themselves.
• The responsibility for dealing with corrupt
people, corrupt practices and corrupt systems
devolves equally on individuals, civil society
institutions, legislature, executive, and the
judiciary.
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CORRUPTION IN INDIA: A scenario
India is one of the most regulated economies of the
world with powers concentrated in few hands. It is a
poor country with scarce resources where demand is
always more than supply. The receivers of the public
services are largely poor, ignorant, and illiterate. There
is also absence of transparency and accountability of
the public servants. There is no system of rewards
and punishments for the public servants.
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CORRUPTION IN INDIA: A scenario
There was also no right to information. The license-permit-quota-inspector regime was pervasive in India since independence and continues under a different nomenclature even after liberalization and globalization of 1991.
In addition, there are 3000 central statutes and 10 times as many state statutes plus subsidiary and administrative laws (most of them archaic), with several exemption clauses and discretionary powers sans accountability. All these conditions are fertile breeding grounds of corruption.
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Adopting this strategy, we can definitely see India becoming a less
corrupt, progressive and developed country in the next 10 to 15
years.
Om Shanti! Shanti! Shanti
A Prayer for Wisdom
(Let us come together. Let
us enjoy together. Let our
strengths come together.
Let us move from
darkness to light. Let us
avoid the poison of
misunderstanding and
hatred. That way lies
progress.)
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Good Governance Agenda
The growth of civil society networks engaged in anti-corruption work has played a useful role.
The last decade has seen the rise of NGOs involved in a broad range of anti-corruption activity at the village, city, regional and national levels.
These organisations are active on many fronts and are increasingly networking and provide useful role models for anti-corruption campaigners throughout the country.
The rise of civil activism has been accompanied by demands for greater transparency in public life.
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Akbar "the Great," who governed
India for half a century (1556-1605)
and by a wise, gentle and just reign
brought about a season of prosperity.
This man, whose memory even to-day
is revered by the Hindus, was named
Abul Fath Jelâleddin Muhammed. And
truly he justified the epithet, for great,
fabulously great, was Akbar as man,
general, statesman and ruler.
AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA
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AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA
Akbar succeeded in establishing order, peace, and prosperity in his regained and newly subjugated provinces. This he brought about by the introduction of a model administration, an excellent police, a regulated post service, and especially a just division of taxes.
Up to Akbar's time corruption had been a matter of course in the entire official service and enormous sums in the treasury were lost by peculation on the part of tax collectors.
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• AKBAR, EMPEROR OF INDIA The corruption in the finance
and customs department was abolished by means of a
complicated and punctilious system of supervision (the
bureaus of receipts and expenditures were kept entirely
separated from each other in the treasury department).
• Akbar himself carefully examined the accounts handed in
each month from every district, just as he gave his
personal attention with tireless industry and painstaking
care to every detail in the widely ramified domain of the
administration of government.
• Moreover the Emperor was fortunate in having at the head
of the finance department a prudent, energetic, perfectly
honorable and incorruptible man, the Hindu Todar Mal,
who without possessing the title of vizier or minister of
state had assumed all the functions of such an office. 22
INDIA can become a Nation, which is best described in the
words of Rabindranath Tagore
"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by
narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards
perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into
the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led by thee into ever widening thought
and action- Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my
country awake."
Source: Gitanjali, verse XXXV.
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