India has the dubious distinction of being among the top most corrupt nations of the world. There is corruption in every walk of life here. You look from top to bottom or the vice versa, corruption is visible everywhere. Often it displays itself shamelessly.
Corruption’s most ugly and vulgar display is seen in the political class of the country. Hardly a year passes without a politician being caught with huge money amassed illegally: Citing one or two examples here would be an injustice to many a dozen politician, so we avoid it.
Bureaucracy is not far behind. It often rubs shoddier with the political class and competes in corruption with them. Bureaucracy is a privileged class in our country. Politicians, if not caught by CBI and other investigating agencies, are tried in people’s court after every five year. People, when duly informed about their corrupt leaders muster courage, exhibit intelligence and reject them. But the bureaucracy has no such trial courts to face, so they go on indulging in corruption unless caught red-handed. It must be kept in mind here that the CBI and other investigating or vigilance agencies normally go after the big fishes; small fries are generally ignored.
It must also be noted here that CBI, the country’s premier investigating agency is not without black sheeps. There is corruption in it as well. Moreover, CBI is often alleged to be functioning under political influence. Nevertheless CBI alone is reliably effective investigating agency and functions honestly as and when it is free of political pressure and biases.
The saddest aspect is that corruption has crept in judiciary as well. Lower judiciary has always been prone to bad influences. Now the higher judiciary itself has spoken of freeing itself of corruption which amounts to accepting the presence of bad elements in Supreme and High Courts. Corruption in upper judiciary often appears in the form of twisting the law to favour one or another party. One wonders why judges are so reluctant to disclose their assets while they want all others to do it. The judiciary must clean its house as soon as possible for the temple of justice now remains the only source of hope for the common people.
The political class with legislative and executive powers is always powerful enough to indulge in corruption. They are also quite intelligent to find out new methods of corruption. Arm-twisting the industrialists, businessmen and film-makers is an out-moded method of corruption. The ingenious method is to pump black money in new kinds of business which are dubious and yet protected by law. The Indian Premier League (IPL) that organizes T-20 cricket is such a venture.
Until now cricket was a game with money for players and entertainment for public. Betting and match-fixing were never considered part of the game but these were always sought to be eliminated as bad practices. But the IPL has changed the rule of the game; it has changed the game also. The entertainment side of the game is, no doubt, still there. But just a look on one IPL game is enough to convince beyond doubt that it has become more a business and sleaze than a game of cricket.
The head of a union minister has already fallen and two are under cloud. This is not an ordinary situation and the government must capitalize on the opportunity that has come its way to clean the mess and reshape cricket just as a source of public entertainment. The detestable parties held to celebrate victory after every match involve a lot of sleaze, wine-drinking and other varieties of vulgarities and deserve to be banned with immediate effect.
A deeper, and perhaps a philosophical, question needs to be asked here: why India ranks among the top most corrupt countries of the world. Is it olny because our political class, industrialists, businessmen, bureaucrats and technocrats are corrupt and all others, especially the common people are honest? There is no denying the fact that there are corrupt and dishonest in the ranks of common people also.
[April, 2010]
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