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THE GROWING COLLAPSE OF VALUES
The first decade of the 21st century has seen India that is Bharat slipping into scam-dom to an extent never before seen or felt in the country. This has coincided with the liberation of the economy and the great rush to make money – at any cost. Morals have been pushed aside as a mindless hurdle. Just in the last four months the country has been rocked by five major scams; the IPL ‘cricketainment’ involving Lalit Modi, the Commonwealth Games scam involving Suresh Kalmadi, the Adarsh Housing Society scam involving the then Chief Minister Ashok Chavan (and any number of top bureaucrats and senior army officers), the 2G Spectrum allocation scam involving not just A. Raja but a whole lot of others as well and the Housing Finance scam involving Ramachandran Nair. India has slipped to 87th spot in Transparency International’s latest ranking of nations, based on the level of corruption. And if one is to believe Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based research group, India is losing about $ 16 billion (Rs 72,496 crore) a year for outflows related to tax avoidance by the rich, whether individuals or companies. Around 1983-84, the black money in circulation was calculated to be anything between Rs 31,584 crore to Rs 36,786 crore. Now, a quarter century later, the guesswork is that the amount has grown ten times. If we go by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s estimate, the loss of revenues to the State from the mispricing of 2G spectrum alone is Rs 1.76 lakh crore or close to 10% of Gross Fixed Capital Formation in the economy in 2008-2009. One can get away with anything. Ketan Deasai, the former president of the Medical Council of India (MCI) who was arrested by the CBI for seeking a bribe from a private medical college and barred from private practice has been elected unopposed to the Gujarat University Senate. He is reported as possessing over one tonne of gold and cash worth several crores of rupees. He should have been in jail. The Supreme Court, in one of its strongest indictments in the annals of the highest judiciary has damned the Allahabad High Court, saying something is rotten there and badly needs “house-cleaning”. It would seem that the judges in Allahabad are favouring parties represented by the lawyers known to them. The Supreme Court Bench averred that “the faith of the common Man in the country is shaken to the core” considering that the kith and kin of some judges are practicing before them, many judges have become “filthy rich” and suffer from “Uncle Judge” syndrome. Can anyone conceive of an officer, accused in a criminal case, involving corruption, being appointed as Chief Vigilance Commissioner? What kind of vigilance can one expect from him? As one commentator noted “a person who is suspected of wrong-doing cannot credibly pursue the wrong doings of others”. The reference is to one P.J. Thomas, and, at least as of the moment, his appointment has not been deferred. No Party is free from corruption charges. Following charges made against Karnataka’s Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, the latter has attacked former Chief Minister H.D. Kumarswami among others in the matter of land allotment. As Yediyurappa saw it, when Dharam Singh was Chief Minister, he allotted 76 sites belonging to the G-category, S.M. Krishna allotted 334 such sites and Kumaraswamy 350, all to friends and relatives, Yediyurappa admits to allotting only 136 sites, committing, one supposes, a lesser crime, therefore to be excused. It is to such a states that we have been reduced. To cap it all is the latest news from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is on record as saying that Rico-Deepali, the firm that bagged the controversial Rs 230 crore overlays contract for the Commonwealth Games does not exist! India has become a banana republic. So where do we go from here? According to a media report (Nov. 30 The Hindu) quoting the Drivers and Dynamics of illicit Financial Flows from India 1948-2008, 68 per cent of India’s aggregate illicit capital loss occurred after India’s economic reforms in 1991, indicating that deregulation and trade liberalisation actually contributed to or accelerated the transfer of, illicit money abroad”. Are we then to presume that Indians, by nature, are corrupt, and given a chance they are not averse to stooping as low as possible to make a dishonorable buck? Let it be said here and now: it is not that India has turned corrupt overnight and has become irredeemable. Nor can it be said that it is the only country among the 192 members of the United Nations General Assembly that has come to this stage. It’s poor standing now can be attributed to three factors: One, the decline and collapse of the over-a-century old Indian National Congress as the leading party, always guaranteed to gain a majority in elections. Two, lack of a vision, Nitish Kumar has a vision and he sought to apply it in Bihar, with what success, is now public property. Where there is no vision, parties tend to fall back on caste and ethnic considerations as Karunanidhi does in Tamil Nadu, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan did in Bihar and Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy do in Karnataka, and, to take another example, the Shiv Sena does in Maharashtra. Voters are gathered on whether the leader is a Dravidian, a Gowda, A Lingayat or a Maratha, not on whether the leader works for the state or the country as whole. Narendra Modi has been showing over the last few years that what matters is not caste but peoples’ progress and state’s economic development. If Congress has been failing, it has shown itself to be a party singularly lacking in a vision for the country and largely depending on the disputed power of dynasticism. Rahul’s failure in Bihar tells it all. The Indian people are getting mature day by the day. Corruption cannot be fought by weak parties; actually they unconsciously contribute to it, as we have been witnessing in Delhi in recent times. With the Congress so totally dependent on minor regional parties like the DMK to carry on the UPA administration, its subservience keeps increasing by the day to the detriment of good government. And that is what we have been observing in recent times. And this, in turn, has led to the media getting increasingly powerful, and sad to say, losing its sense of direction. If this continues uninterruptedly, the country could well break up. It is time for political parties – and the media – to mull over these issues for their own sake as much for the betterment of the country. Let it not be said that they have not been warned.
The first decade of the 21st century has seen India that is Bharat slipping into scam-dom to an extent never before seen or felt in the country. This has coincided with the liberation of the economy and the great rush to make money – at any cost. Morals have been pushed aside as a mindless hurdle. Just in the last four months the country has been rocked by five major scams; the IPL ‘cricketainment’ involving Lalit Modi, the Commonwealth Games scam involving Suresh Kalmadi, the Adarsh Housing Society scam involving the then Chief Minister Ashok Chavan (and any number of top bureaucrats and senior army officers), the 2G Spectrum allocation scam involving not just A. Raja but a whole lot of others as well and the Housing Finance scam involving Ramachandran Nair. India has slipped to 87th spot in Transparency International’s latest ranking of nations, based on the level of corruption. And if one is to believe Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-based research group, India is losing about $ 16 billion (Rs 72,496 crore) a year for outflows related to tax avoidance by the rich, whether individuals or companies. Around 1983-84, the black money in circulation was calculated to be anything between Rs 31,584 crore to Rs 36,786 crore. Now, a quarter century later, the guesswork is that the amount has grown ten times. If we go by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s estimate, the loss of revenues to the State from the mispricing of 2G spectrum alone is Rs 1.76 lakh crore or close to 10% of Gross Fixed Capital Formation in the economy in 2008-2009. One can get away with anything. Ketan Deasai, the former president of the Medical Council of India (MCI) who was arrested by the CBI for seeking a bribe from a private medical college and barred from private practice has been elected unopposed to the Gujarat University Senate. He is reported as possessing over one tonne of gold and cash worth several crores of rupees. He should have been in jail. The Supreme Court, in one of its strongest indictments in the annals of the highest judiciary has damned the Allahabad High Court, saying something is rotten there and badly needs “house-cleaning”. It would seem that the judges in Allahabad are favouring parties represented by the lawyers known to them. The Supreme Court Bench averred that “the faith of the common Man in the country is shaken to the core” considering that the kith and kin of some judges are practicing before them, many judges have become “filthy rich” and suffer from “Uncle Judge” syndrome. Can anyone conceive of an officer, accused in a criminal case, involving corruption, being appointed as Chief Vigilance Commissioner? What kind of vigilance can one expect from him? As one commentator noted “a person who is suspected of wrong-doing cannot credibly pursue the wrong doings of others”. The reference is to one P.J. Thomas, and, at least as of the moment, his appointment has not been deferred. No Party is free from corruption charges. Following charges made against Karnataka’s Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, the latter has attacked former Chief Minister H.D. Kumarswami among others in the matter of land allotment. As Yediyurappa saw it, when Dharam Singh was Chief Minister, he allotted 76 sites belonging to the G-category, S.M. Krishna allotted 334 such sites and Kumaraswamy 350, all to friends and relatives, Yediyurappa admits to allotting only 136 sites, committing, one supposes, a lesser crime, therefore to be excused. It is to such a states that we have been reduced. To cap it all is the latest news from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is on record as saying that Rico-Deepali, the firm that bagged the controversial Rs 230 crore overlays contract for the Commonwealth Games does not exist! India has become a banana republic. So where do we go from here? According to a media report (Nov. 30 The Hindu) quoting the Drivers and Dynamics of illicit Financial Flows from India 1948-2008, 68 per cent of India’s aggregate illicit capital loss occurred after India’s economic reforms in 1991, indicating that deregulation and trade liberalisation actually contributed to or accelerated the transfer of, illicit money abroad”. Are we then to presume that Indians, by nature, are corrupt, and given a chance they are not averse to stooping as low as possible to make a dishonorable buck? Let it be said here and now: it is not that India has turned corrupt overnight and has become irredeemable. Nor can it be said that it is the only country among the 192 members of the United Nations General Assembly that has come to this stage. It’s poor standing now can be attributed to three factors: One, the decline and collapse of the over-a-century old Indian National Congress as the leading party, always guaranteed to gain a majority in elections. Two, lack of a vision, Nitish Kumar has a vision and he sought to apply it in Bihar, with what success, is now public property. Where there is no vision, parties tend to fall back on caste and ethnic considerations as Karunanidhi does in Tamil Nadu, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan did in Bihar and Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy do in Karnataka, and, to take another example, the Shiv Sena does in Maharashtra. Voters are gathered on whether the leader is a Dravidian, a Gowda, A Lingayat or a Maratha, not on whether the leader works for the state or the country as whole. Narendra Modi has been showing over the last few years that what matters is not caste but peoples’ progress and state’s economic development. If Congress has been failing, it has shown itself to be a party singularly lacking in a vision for the country and largely depending on the disputed power of dynasticism. Rahul’s failure in Bihar tells it all. The Indian people are getting mature day by the day. Corruption cannot be fought by weak parties; actually they unconsciously contribute to it, as we have been witnessing in Delhi in recent times. With the Congress so totally dependent on minor regional parties like the DMK to carry on the UPA administration, its subservience keeps increasing by the day to the detriment of good government. And that is what we have been observing in recent times. And this, in turn, has led to the media getting increasingly powerful, and sad to say, losing its sense of direction. If this continues uninterruptedly, the country could well break up. It is time for political parties – and the media – to mull over these issues for their own sake as much for the betterment of the country. Let it not be said that they have not been warned.
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