BaKhabar, March 2011, Page-4

better light a candle than curse the darkness

Nationalism of Corruption and Scam

--- Mohammad Allam (mohammad_allam@rediffmail.com)

The eruption of a series of big scams in India involving defense personals, legislature & judiciary have questioned the integrity of our system of governance. A country that is in line of to be “super power” of world, can sustain for 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. Corruption in India is flourishing on the 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, the overnight quick rich mentality, absence of differentiation of right and wrong endowment in the religion of the majority, the weakling of the faith in God, the economic interest of the multi-national corporations, dishonest politicians, parasitic bureaucracy, absence of a honest and powerful judiciary and the rising materialistic attitude of the people.

The series of scam that came into light, disclosed the role of all the above factors in spread of germ of 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 bank and stock exchange is matter of lesson to the controller of economy. In the same way Ketan Parekh digested crores of rupees from 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) 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 involvement of big bosses, the above mentioned scams could be materialized? Any one can say just by looking at the scams that how patriotically they have been accomplished by the so called true Indian. Do they really have any mercy for India and Indian people?

The entire system of Indian political and economic

India of Corruption and Scam

establishments is interlinked in such a way that without cleaning both, nothing can be done for a fair system of governance. Why is the condition of India so pitiful?

The answer is very simple, that with the spread of corruption in all walks of life, no system can remain immune. Judiciary which is not only the guardian of Indian constitution but also the main pillar of strength of governance, is a part and parcel of these scams. God knows that who is going to clean the entire system. The echoes of revolution of the Arab people could be listened. But the question is that India which is the next super power can face a revolution like a few Arab nations are going through now? What will be impact of this sort of revolution?

The cases of corruption degraded the standard of morality from all walks of public life. The trust that works in a system of governance between the rulers and the ruled has lost somewhere. The rise of poverty at lower level and the rising number of billionaires at upper level is a matter of concern. According to Forbes magazine the rising number of Indians in the richest is amazing. An amazing fact is that the wealth of ten 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 between the poor and the rich in India will create severe socio-economic problems which may destabilize the Indian political system by paralyzing the core elements of governance like social, economic and cultural equality.
The case of Indian economic prosperity is matter of concern for the rest of 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 of Indian political and economic establishment. According to data 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? It is FDI that has glorified the economic and political stature of India around the world. This is the liberal economic policies 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 state of corruption and scam and help to clean the system. So that, the nation can march on the path of prosperity and occupy a place of dignity, globally. If we don’t come forward to stop these scams and corruption to come out from the corrupted nations league, we shall prepare ourselves to lose dignity and our claim to be a permanent member of the Security Council as a super power.