WHY INDIA'S EXPONENTIALLY RISING CORRUPTION COULD/WOULD NOT BE CURBED

No change in corruption is possible unless the government is really willing to curb corruption. In the author's opinion, no approach or law except the presented preventive methods to corruption control can effectively be success in Indian situation.

Haridwar, India (prHWY.com) June 14, 2011 - WHY INDIA'S EXPONENTIALLY RISING CORRUPTION COULD/WOULD NOT BE CURBED



The various news-papers and media reports indicate that corruption in India had been increasing exponentially after independence. It is only recently that the public has manifested its disapproval to the said state of affairs. No change in the situation is possible unless the government is really willing to curb or even eliminate corruption. In the author's opinion, no approach or law except the presented preventive methods to corruption control can effectively be success in Indian situation




In India, to get a preferential treatment any where and in any situation, one has to pay a price which compulsion manifests corruption. Corruption corruption everywhere, not a place to serve or get served without bribe. How true for India where corruption had been increasing exponentially after independence. Media reports suggest that corruption existing at all levels has not spared a single office, organization, or system in India. Even judiciary is not white and fingers were raised even at some Chief justices of India. Just as the mind controls every organ in the body, the temples of justice also likewise influence and encourage the various systems in the society.

To curb or control any evil, there are two approaches, viz. the preventive (the defensive) or the curative (the proactive or offensive). The preventive approach would mean a system where no one needs to give or take bribe, but the curative approach would require the framing of legislation and its appropriate implementation. The latter approach is the one which most countries and governments follow only to face problems related to the degree of implementation (including the mode, manner and system of fine collection) of the framed laws. Control over the implementation of the laws require other tools such as the right to information (RTI) Act which helped many countries to effectively control corruption long back. But in India we are still struggling to make legislation to curb corruption, vide the recent Anna Hazare movement manifesting the sincerity level of the government as well as the government's political will. The effectiveness and appropriateness of the preventive or curative approaches greatly depend on the country, its people, their culture, habits etc. In the author's opinion, the preventive approach would be more suitable for India in respect of the effect, impact, implementation, etc. due to rampant corruption prevailing everywhere and at all levels.

Corruption comes into picture whenever some decision like selection though interview or awarding contracts or acceptance of some application, etc. is based on manual judgment. This is where one can not only prevent but even eliminate the corruption through a system in which the stated selection, etc. would be based on a quantitated number such that the judgment factor (and hence the corruption) is totally eliminated. In other words, for every candidate for a certain position, an index would be evaluated which will manifest the integrated effect of all the specified requirements of the said position/job. The selection will thus be done by a duly and appropriately programmed computer which will calculate the said index of every candidate from the candidate's biodata and give a print out of the order of merit list of all the candidates, and this way the manipulative human factor will be totally eliminated . This is necessary and most appropriate in a country like India where merit is the last word which fact is best manifested from the fact that India is branded as a third world developing nation despite possessing the highest manpower of most qualified hard working genius people in almost all disciplines in the entire world. Another manifestation of this aspect is evident from the fact that India gets defeated in cricket or diplomacy or neighborly relations by countries that are much smaller than India in size, resources, manpower, literacy, etc. This is because those smaller countries are merit minded while India is not. In any discipline for a given position, a smaller but merit oriented country selects their best available person who may be much inferior to numerous Indians, but for the same position in India, only a mediocre (who will be much and extremely inferior to the counter part appointed to the similar position in the said smaller but merit oriented country) having high contacts or high money power to give bribe or highly placed relatives gets appointed. As a result, the real merited persons in India find their habitat only in dust bins or migrate to other countries only to be exploited by way of half salary with double work compared to their local equivalent counterparts. All this clearly manifests logic to say that if merit is adopted in India in the above stated manner then corruption will automatically go away or get prevented.

Such a prevention of corruption strategy will be much more foolproof when compared to the curative approach based on laws and their implementation, because in this corruption infested country, law or rules will not be obeyed or will be suppressed through a bribe. A recent case example manifests glorifies and testifies this aspect when the Hon'ble UttraKhand High Court at Nainital upheld (after intensive arguments) a reply to a RTI query made in the year 2007 that "an information pertaining to the year 1994 was more than twenty years old in the year 2007" (vide the Writ Petition No.726 of the year 2008) and such a whimsically arbitrary judgment could be given because the Hon'ble courts in India are not obliged to give reasons for their decision or judgment and on top of this, asking for such reasons is like touching a live naked electric wire. Therefore, in India, giving reasons for a decision/judgment should be made mandatory as the decisions mostly dependent on the amount of bribe. Likewise, for the implementation of laws, say in respect of fine collection for some legal violation, the Indian fine collector will take bribe to let you go scot free. Therefore, in the heavily corruption ridden India, the fine collection strategy would be a success only when the fine collector is paid a hefty bonus (say in lieu of a salary or with a very nominal salary) which will ensure him to be duty bound, honest and sincere to such a level that not even a single law violator would escape and the people will become disciplined in no time. Similarly the Hon'ble judges can be given a bonus amount per case as an incentive (a form of legalized bribe) for deciding each case in time and punished if the case is not decided in time and with honesty. All government employees be paid this bonus (form of legalized bribe) for processing each case and their salaries may be reduced appropriately and this will ensure better efficiency and more work as the employees will sit even late to process more cases in order to earn more. With such strategies, corruption in Indian situations will vanish or reduced to the minimum tolerable level.

The problem of political will to make laws for abating corruption shall require political reforms in India. The most significant reform needed is to make a direct election of the Prime Minister and State Chief Ministers by the entire appropriate electorate. This will eliminate the problems of instability of the top ruler who .in the present form of Indian democracy is always dependent on the majority support and remains busy only to keep his chair intact and save himself from possible blackmails through the withdrawal of support. The problems related to money power. muscle power, regionalism (hindi speaking persons who are highly tolerant enough to accept persons from all regions in their states, were maltreated and driven away in Maharashtra, Assam, Punjab, Delhi, etc), casteism, etc. can be easily eliminated in India through a concept of weighted votes wherein every voter will have different equivalent votes depending on his credentials as also they are paid differently based on their job related credentials. In that case, an entire village may equal one person of higher caliber/credentials in respect of the votes and thus no politician will waste time in villages for caste or community voters.

Unless the above stated reforms and changes are made in India, the menace of corruption will not stop or even reduce, as has been time tested thus far after the independence.







Prof. (Er.) Dr. Devendra S. Bhargava, BE (Civil), PGD (Public Health Engg), ME (PH Engg), PhD (Environmental Engg), D.Sc (Env Sc) had been teaching after post-graduation in 1960 at several Insttutions including BITS Pilani, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, Asian Institute of Technology Bagkok etc. and retired as Professor (Environmental) from Roorkee University (now an IIT) in India (now residing in Bhargava Lane, Devpura, Haridwar-249401 with a mobile No.+91-9412074331). He had authored 460 researh papers and received 32 academic awards including the UGC's most prestigious swami Pranavananda award as well as the Institution of Engineers India's National Design award in Environmental Engg. He had been researching Ganga river's various aspects for the last 35 years. He is included in the prestigious Marquis Who's Who in the world and is part of interdisciplinary panel and jury member for the World Cultural Council awarding the Albert Einstein award in science.

###

Tag Words: prevention of corruption, fine collection, corruption, corruption control

Categories: Law

Press Release Contact
Professor (Er.) Dr. Devendra S. Bhargava former environmental professor of IIT Roorkee & AIT Bangkok, author of 460 papers, resides in Bhargava Lane, Devpura, Haridwar, India. Mobile: +91-9412074331

Link To This Press Release:

URL HTML Code