INDIAN WAR AGAINST CORRUPTION

Corruption and black money menace has been the biggest stumbling block in the Indian march to the status of a global economic superpower and it is in fact corruption and corruption alone which is blowing away Indian dream of getting prosperous. This fact is very well known to all citizens of the country endowed with even an iota of common sense but somehow or the other has been escaping the attention of the ruling class because of their selfish hidden agenda, for

• War against corruption is a war against their own prosperity
• War against corruption is the first and last nail in the coffin of the polity's capability to win elections and grab power
• War against corruption is perhaps the antidote to all the baser human instincts like wine, woman, money power, criminality etc which sadly form the foundations of governments and governing process in the country.

During the last few years some constitutional bodies like Election Commission, Comptroller and Auditor General and the Judiciary have taken upon themselves the task of cleansing the election process, legislature, governance and policy making much to the chagrin of rulers of the country who see these as means of transforming them into servants of people as envisaged in a democracy. They see in all these an end to  their illegally assumed role of masters of general masses and are resisting the change tooth and nail.
During the last few days, supreme court has announced two landmark judgments which can have a far reaching effect on the country's war against corruption. In the first judgment on Wednesday that could cleanse the Indian political system from criminal elements, the Supreme Court held that if a sitting member of either House of Parliament or a state legislature is convicted, the member would be immediately disqualified. And in the second delivered on Thursday, a person, who is in jail or in police custody, cannot contest election to legislative bodies, bringing to an end an era of under trial politicians fighting polls from behind bars.The court, however, made it clear that disqualification would not be applicable to person subjected to preventive detention under any law.

Though the decisions have been welcomed by the common man, the politicians of all hues gifted with their wonderful gift of gab and an extraordinary ability of resorting to all kinds of logic that can put an end to the cleansing process initiated by the above mentioned agencies. It is a pity that the polity and rulers instead of working for what is best for the country devote all their time, energy and wisdom on promoting everything that is harmful for the nation through political manipulations and distorted logic.The nation is always reminded by clever, wily and self centered Indian polity about the basic postulate of jurisprudence that let thousands of guilty men go free  but no innocent man should be imprisoned. And as per the ethics of polity these thousands of guilty men who simply went free for lack of evidence or some flimsy technical grounds are all entitled to most lucrative and rewarding positions in legislature and legislative executive. For these men who have been elected to rule the country, the word doubtful integrity has no meaning and is in fact as good as having integrity beyond doubt. 

CORRUPTION BLOWING AWAY INDIAN DREAM OF GETTING PROSPEROUS

21st century belongs to Asia , the oft repeated words of Indian prime minister along with a host of other assessors and analysts of world economy and on paper India is perhaps the strongest contender. This global opportunity because of a combination of  factors like favourable demography, cheap labour, abundant human resource of all skills and levels and above all perhaps the right time for an impending change in global economic order because of slowing down of developed economies, depletion of their resources and gross overspending on social welfare measures.

The Indian nation and polity understands this fully but the polity chooses  to ignore comfortably the first and foremost condition of corruption mitigation and good governance for such revolutions to occur in the history of a nation. Not even a single day passes without the surfacing of a new scam or reports of large scale corruption by mighty and powerful of the nation. The apathy of the government is reflected in the fact that hardly anyone gets punished or money gained through illegal and dubious means recovered. On the contrary the whole polity divides itself into two teams, one vouching for that nothing has gone wrong and that the powerful are not involved while the other raises the rhetoric of  asking for the head of individual name involved. The mudslinging and rhetoric created goes on with complete understanding that the gains and losses must be confined only to the aim of getting votes. It is always ensured that no personal or financial harm should come to any individual.

The nation, citizenry and the common man is suffering because of corruption, bribe and black money generation and is well aware of the massive magnitude of these problems. But strangely, the total polity of the country makes an all out effort to undermine the extent, so much so that it is taken to be a minor aberration in the total financial activity of the nation. The most recent case of involvement of a relative of a minister involved in a bribe for the promotion of a railway officer is a typical eye opener to the extent this malaise is eating into the national wealth and hampering India's dream and chance of becoming world leaders. This particular officer's total earnings of the last ten years will not amount to the princely sum of Rs. 90 lakhs, the amount paid as the bribe. This throws open two basic questions. Firstly, the amounts that are being earned through dubious means in this country and secondly the scope of earning much bigger amounts with the likely promotion.

This is as far as the colossus bribe is rampant in Indian government and is a minuscule sample of what has come to light. There is another angle to this which is all the more shameful and deleterious to the growth of nation. The minister in question says that he has no business dealings with this relative as if corruption is a business and he wants the country to believe that all corrupt people have scripted business partnerships with their relatives, cronies and stooges for bribe and corruption money. The officer who paid the bribe was an idiot who paid the bribe without ascertaining that it will produce the desired result by reaching the person concerned.

The country is getting ruined in this game and corruption is blowing away Indian dream of getting prosperous. Corruption has given two separate and distinct methodologies for the functioning of executive and the legal process. Executive thrives on the motto of  'How not to do a thing instead of how to do it' and the legal process thrives on 'How to save a guilty rather than how to nail him' and this is such a win win situation for the persons who are mired in corruption. They not only eat, drink and sleep corruption, they breed corruption too. If such are the nationalists of this country, the persons working under oaths, persons subject to some semblance of controls and accountability, imagine the state of persons who are under no oath and are accountable to no agency.

BLACK MONEY: A CURSE ON INDIAN DEVELOPMENT STORY

In one of the latest reports by a Washington based research and advocacy firm, Global Financial Integrity (GFI), India lost $123 billion in black money in a decade in illicit outflows. "While progress has been made in recent years, India continues to lose a large amount of wealth in illicit financial outflows," said GFI director Raymond Baker.
There has been a lot of hue and cry on the recovering of Indian black money stashed abroad but surprisingly not much has been said about curtailing the ongoing outflows of this money and the creation and supply of this black money within the country. According to some estimates, India's underground economy has grown to a huge figure of about 50% of the Indian GDP. Imagine what could be achieved had this been taken care of by successive governments. And what can be achieved in future by putting this money as investment in various urgent needs of the country like education, infrastructure, healthcare etc. etc.. In fact the principle of compounding holds very well in this case and in about five years time perhaps the category of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families would vanish.

Black money creation is a result of corruption, bribery, kickbacks and tax evasion and affects the GDP growth directly by making available less funds in the exchequer and simultaneously increasing the expenditure on every new implementation and maintenance. Its potential to blunt the Indian march to prosperity through deleterious effects of fiscal and current account deficits, inflation and rupee devaluation is immense and is being felt by the nation as in actual terms the growth rates are quite dismal.

 If somehow or the other Indian government can control corruption, bribery, kickbacks and tax evasion, country's face and the plight of teeming millions could be changed in no time through good governance, good economics and good politics in that order. What ails India and the remedies thereof does address majority of these problems and how to overcome them. It is a well known fact that the Indian government and Indian polity understands all this but for some reason known only to them are dilly dallying on this issue of prime and utmost interest to the future of this country, its citizens and even their respective vote banks.

ON CORRUPTION IN INDIA

Indian prime minister today made a passionate speech at the 19th conference of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state anti corruption agencies wherein he laid stress on the ill effects of so called atmosphere of negativity and pessimism. He has either failed to realize the correct picture and magnitude of the malaise or is deliberately downplaying  it or perhaps it was not the forum where he could lay bare the naked reality of the extent of corruption menace prevailing in the country. As a general citizen of this country, one cannot but scoff at such attempts when corruption and corrupt practices are a rule rather than an exception in business, administration and governance.

These anti corruption agencies no doubt have to upgrade their skills in order to achieve greater success but the real answer has to be found with some out of the box thinking on the part of government. In my opinion  following things are a must if India wants to tackle this menace in a big way. Firstly the anti corruption agencies and related judiciary must be beefed up to an extent that no case drags beyond two years.It is a pity that many times the cases hang on for decades in various courts for one reason or the other. We often hear that justice delayed is justice denied but what about punishment delayed or denied? In my opinion it is a slur on the name of governance, a slur on the name of investigating and convicting agencies and in short on the government.

Secondly, all asset classes real estate, gold, investments in stocks and commodity market, trusts and even the companies should be linked to Unique Identification Number so that at the click of a button total value of an individual or a business entity can be found out year wise along with tax liabilities, tax remittances as also pointers to an economic offence if any.

And lastly the government should not shirk its responsibility to unearth corruption even when two private parties are involved. If it fails to do so, it is giving a unique methodology to all powerful members of the polity and bureaucracy to do everything shady in the name of their near and dear ones ( private parties ) and government just becomes a mute spectator to the rape of country's rightful monetary accruals/gains.

CORRUPTION MITIGATION IN INDIA : A DREAM LIKELY TO REMAIN UNREALIZED WITH PRESENT POLITY

Corruption mitigation and recovery of black money can perhaps be the biggest growth engine of the Indian economy. With a history of scams coming to light one after the other everyday and nothing worthwhile coming out of the probes because of ulterior motives and hidden agenda of one set of polity or the other or powerful bureaucracy on frivolous grounds and with the help of total government machinery and might the solution to this malaise remains a mirage.

It is really surprising that the moment a scam involving some bigwig of the country is brought to light by the efforts of media, some organisation or an individual on the basis of circumstantial or derived evidence, all big wigs of the government jump in to say that no crime has been committed or there is no case of corrupt/ illegal practices followed in the deal or decision. They have never realized that such certificates of clearance can only be given by the person concerned, his accountant, his attorney or his accomplices who no the truth. Others who hold very high offices in the government or happen to be national leaders forget that from them the "country expects loyalty to the nation and not to the chair or the party as is expected out of lowly placed workers". These mighty individuals very conveniently forget that they are enjoying tax payers money and lofty positions to mitigate all wrong doings on the economic front, be it corruption, graft, bribery or black money creation and not for making use of their gift of the gab and legal profession knowledge to help criminals and law offenders.

Recently in the case of 2G scam and Coalgate scam, the ruling polity is taking shelter behind supreme court decision on allocation vs auction route for country's national wealth and natural resources. The court gives a ruling on whatever it is asked. Has the court said that in the name of policy a route will be followed that is detrimental to the national exchequer and in the name of policy a route will be followed that will benefit the kith and kin of those in power, their cronies and stooges. In the most recent case involving Robert Vadra dealings with DLF, the topmost real estate company of the country, government is not willing to probe saying that the dealings between two private parties don't fall under the purview of the government agencies. If this is the case only a couple of thousand individuals in this country fall under the purview of government agencies, for all relatives, friends and near and dear ones of those in power are private citizens of the country and enjoy immunity against probe by government agencies.The millions of people actively involved in corruption, graft and economic offences are left to flourish in this country. For whose benefit? Your guess is as good as mine.

But the fact remains that with this polity who has no inclination, no sincerity and no will to fight and eradicate  the rot of  corruption, corruption is going to stay and flourish in India and the Indian masses will keep on suffering through poverty, harassment at all levels and giving bribes for even their legitimate rights.

DEMONS of INDIAN ECONOMY and GOVERNANCE

In spite of the wonderful opportunity knocking at the doors of Indian economy to catapult per capita income of India to a level at par with many of the prosperous countries as a result of huge technical and management resource, an awesome demography advantage coupled with an enormous demand for all kinds of consumer goods, infrastructure, housing and healthcare needs.Gods in the shape of global economic health and commodity prices are helpless in the current scenario and the various demons of Indian economy and governance are pulling it down  with all their might and the Indian government appears to be a moot hapless observer to the whole process. The various demons are described in the following paragraphs:

• NATIONAL DEMONS comprising of 

Politicians of all hues who are only clamouring for their own share of the  pie of national loot by providing oxygen to the sick government through their votes and support. Sharad Pawar, Ajit Singh, Mulayam Singh and Ms Mamta Banerjee are guilty of asking for plum ministries and huge packages for their states. In  normal parlance such activity  would be termed as blackmail. But strange are the ways of polity and they like to term it as politics. So much so every single vote owner, be it from the main ruling party or its supporting parties, has to be kept in good humour at the cost of good economics, good governance and good politics.

• CORRUPTION and BLACK MONEY DEMONS 
• Individuals including a vast majority of legislatures, members of executive machinery dealing in public works, procurement and inspection, excise and taxation, law enforcing agencies.
• Realty sector including sale purchase, renting etc. and all businesses associated with construction, materials, fittings etc that go in a building.
• Natural resource sector allocations: A few notable examples are spectrum, coal and iron ore, river bed quarries etc..
• Tax avoidance by a vast majority of self employed professionals including architects, advocates, medical practitioners, businesses in the small and medium sector particularly in the auto parts, hotels, restaurants, Dhabas, sweets/confectionery, snacks, savouries producers and sellers to name only a few.
• POLICY DICTATING DEMONS
• Nuclear industry lobby
• FDI in retail lobby
• POLICY PARALYSIS DEMONS
• Inflation
• Current account deficit
• Fiscal deficit
• Oil imports
• Governance motivated by corruption
• BAD ECONOMICS and BAD GOVERNANCE

Good Economics and Good Governance is Ideal;
Bad Economics and Good Governance is A Compromise;
Bad Economics and Bad Governance is A Disaster;

Corruption Mitigation and Good Governance - The Biggest Growth Engines for Indian Economy

The Indian dream of becoming an economic superpower and a prosperous nation appears to be a distinct reality in the light of government's compulsion to address the expectations of the masses and the compulsions of the advanced industrial nations of the world to move manufacturing bases to low wage economies with strengths of a broad based human resource and large captive markets. The resulting Indian growth story is here to stay for the next three decades provided the Indian governance can take care of the stumbling blocks in the path of this growth trajectory with correct policies, financial and administrative reforms, human resource development, massive up gradation of infrastructure and above all good governance.Out of this large wish list, Corruption Mitigation is perhaps potentially the biggest growth engine with a large weightage and can contribute 50% extra towards annual Indian budgets in the following manner.Corruption Mitigation and good governance are interdependent and measures like strict policing, quick judicial disposal of economic offences backed by corruption mitigating administrative reforms are the very backbone of this fight against corruption and black money.

• The direct and indirect tax collections will increase by a minimum of 25% annually for the next twenty years.
• The overall subsidy budget comprising of gas, oil, food etc can reduce by 50%.
• Through the same annual budgetary allocations for infrastructure, an extra 25% infrastructure development can take place.
• The annual maintenance cost allocations for infrastructural assets of the nation could be reduced by 90%.
• The annual savings on petrol, diesel and repairs of vehicles could be as high as 25%.

This effort alone can catapult the Indian growth story potential into growth rates of low teens.We can only hope, wait and watch how the Indian polity puts into action corruption mitigation programs for which a lot of rhetoric has been raised by one and all of the Indian polity. On top of it India can manage to recover a substantial amount of black money stashed in foreign countries as well as in Indian households and businesses, the miracle of propelling India into the developed nations' club will be realised much sooner.

CORRUPTION IN INDIA

All politicians in the India have shown a lot of concern on the black money stashed in foreign banks but very conveniently forget the amount of black money available in the country through corruption and graft alone. If only we take into account the executives and functionaries of Indian central and state governments we can realise how big the corruption demon is and what could be achieved for the prosperity of the country and its hapless poor millions if only we manage to recover a major proportion of it. The recent cases of an engineer, a clerk and a peon who have amassed tens of crores of rupees through misuse and abuse of their positions in the government are real eye openers in this regard. These cases are certainly not the isolated cases of corruption but lead to the logical conclusion of organised and systematised corruption at all levels of government. If these insignificant government officials can amass crores and crores of rupees, imagine the extent of money gobbled by the higher ups in bureaucracy and polity.

In India there are about 10 million government servants. If one assumes that only 50% of them have the opportunity to amass wealth through corruption because of their involvement with high value programmes and public services and out of these 5 million only 10% indulge in such loot which is far from truth. In fact very few Indians will agree to such a small percentage of corrupt officials. With a measly sum of rupees 1 crore as the average figure of disproportionate asset and wealth available with these employees we get a staggering amount of Rs 5 Lakh crores. This amount is extremely conservative by all yardsticks and is still equal to half the annual budget of India, more than covers the fiscal deficit estimate (5% of GDP), can help in doubling the annual outlays of infrastructure sector and social programmes of the union government.One sincere and honest step of the government can catapult the march of the Indian nation towards being a prosperous country for one and all. If government takes on itself the mitigation of corruption and black money demon in the next year or so, it need not resort to populist hollow vote catching slogans and actions to the detriment of the country. The masses will give them the next government on a platter. Let them have a positive approach rather than the present negative and easy approach to fool the people to remain in power.

Corruption, Black Money in India : Aadhar the only Viable Solution

Corruption amongst politicians, bureaucrats, technocrats, other government functionaries and corporate world is rampant in India. Though the cases that come to light through media everyday are a minuscule sample of the menace of Corruption, Black Money and Bad Governance, the government and the polity have shown scant concern in this regard. A few raids, some action on the part of vigilance authorities and once in a while expose by media efforts cannot produce any meaningful dent on the extent of corruption, black money and bad governance malaise which is deeply rooted in all aspects of Indian economy, governance and day to day lives of all Indians. To whatever extent we may reinforce our anti corruption machinery, judicial system and laws we can only manage to put a scratch on the problem. The real fight against corruption and black money will come through good governance and administrative action only.
Aadhar project of the Unique Identification Authority of India can be the real aadhar of the nation's fight against corruption and black money. The project was given concurrence by the government as an exercise to give identity proof to 1 billion Indians. Slowly and slowly when the total repercussions of the Unique Identification Number started unfolding themselves, the polity seems to have developed cold feet suddenly.Firstly because it takes away the punch from the slogan of inclusive growth and social, economic and political empowerment and secondly it puts their survivability in politics in question as major support to elections comes through these cadres and such tainted money. The amounts involved are simply mind boggling. A sum of Rs 1,50,000 crores which goes into corruption and black money through leakages, bribery and pilferage in welfare benefits such as subsidies, pensions, NREGA, India Awaas Yojna, mid day meals and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. After all these are the only sops that can be offered to their political loyalists at 2nd and 3rd level. In this country who wants to have power without any financial gains attached to it? Who wants to serve the nation and its masses free of cost? The UID project has come under attack from all flanks. The very basis of of unique identification number i.e. procedures for data collection and potential errors therein as well as concerns over privacy are being challenged. What kind of hidden agenda or ulterior motives are behind this, is any body's guess.

Real estate along with all other asset classes is the other main source of corruption and black money. The only viable solution seems to be through linking of all immovable and movable assets with UID number. These assets will include all commercial and residential property, all agricultural land, gold and jewellery, all vehicles ( commercial and private ), all luxury items, DMat accounts, investments in commodities, banks and mutual funds etc. etc.. Along with these linkages the following steps are also a must.

• Government should have the power to acquire about 5-10% of real estate deals in the secondary market by paying 10% premium to the declared value of the deal.
• Practice of power of attorney in respect of real estate should be abolished.
• All Discretionary powers in the hands of government functionaries should be withdrawn because in India they are always used for one's own hidden agenda and ulterior motives.

Once the investment avenues of ill gotten money are plugged, we can see a ray of hope in improving the living standards of Indian masses at a much faster rate.

TRUE FACE OF INDIAN POLITY

The winter session of Indian Parliament has started last week. The government proposes to introduce a large number of bills which are meant to address the hot issues of corruption, graft, black money etc., as also various others meant for the good of Indian economy and progress of the nation. Surprisingly, ten days have passed without any business being conducted in the parliament.

The government blames the opposition parties whereas these parties blame the government for this logjam. The fact of the matter is that politicians by and large are just playing dirty politics over frivolous matters so that somehow or the other Lok Pal bill, Citizen Charter bill, Judicial Accountability bill, Whistle Blower bill etc., in fact everything connected with corruption, graft and black money do not come up for discussion in the parliament. As if opposition's stance on black money and price rise was not enough, government ill timed the issue of FDI in retail to add fuel to fire.After all most of them have their vested interests. They all know the answer to ailments of Indian economy  but who wants to cut the branches of the tree of corruption, who wants to cut the limbs of graft and black money demon. None of them, for this in essence is the golden hen which provides them personal prosperity. It also provides them security to survive in the power game through so called inclusive growth of their near and dear ones, cronies, stooges, loyalists and political brokers.

Indian Governance:Motivated and Guided by Corruption

The menace of corruption should only be talked of and should never be addressed to is the guiding principle of all political parties in India. If it were not true we would have seen some measures, some activity to fight it and reduce it over the last six decades. If only our rulers were  a little sensitive to this problem or in fact not motivated to let it escalate for their personal,  party or political gains, it would not have grown exponentially. Even to day when we have a very large parallel economy affecting the achieving of social and economic goals  at the desired speed, there seems to be little effort to put even a symbolic control on corruption, an effective control is perhaps expecting too much from our motivated politicians.
Corruption results in black money which in turn is a result of discretionary powers vested with the authority in our country where discretion is only motivated by self interest rather than the good of organisation and country. This fact is known to all those in power whether in States or Centre but self interest and political interests and compulsions force them to keep their traps shut and make them insensitive to the demons of corruption and black money.The total polity of this country talks only of black money stashed in foreign banks, for getting it back is a long drawn affair and is riddled with so many international complications and the time so gained gives them a golden opportunity to carry on endlessly in mud slinging on each other and keep all avenues of earning ill gotten money for themselves, their parties and their relatives, friends, cronies and political clout.
We have never heard of 10 to 15 lakh Crores of black money being generated every year which is almost equal to our annual budget and it requires action solely by the Centre and State governments. Surprisingly no politician of this country has ever talked about it. The reasons for not doing so are best known to them but do not require any rocket science for a common man to guess their ulterior motives. Imagine how fast  poverty eradication, education and health care for one and all and giving a comfortable and meaningful life to the have nots of this country can progress if our annual budgets can be doubled through controlling black money generation.
Sisters and brothers of India, whether from villages or cities, from  any religion, caste or creed,rich or poor, don't be taken in by any of the tricks of politicians, for end of corrupt people  and corruption will be the end of your poverty and miseries.Your poverty is a direct result of  corruption  by  those in authority and power.

Indian War against Corruption - Whose War

Surprisingly we have many voices from polity of the country and intelligentsia of the country who tell us that corruption will not end by having a strong Lok Pal but still nobody seems to have the inclination or honesty of purpose to spell out what measures are required. The aim seems to scuttle the movement against corruption by not letting materialise even the first important step towards the ultimate goal.
These politicians through their cronies and stooges along with certain persons with distorted thought process and vision are making the last ditch losing battle to ensure that Anna's ( India's ) fight for corruption does not culminate into a success story. Ever since Jan Lok Pal Bill draft has come into public domain and war against corruption has gained momentum, we are hearing all kind of bizarre, crooked and distorted arguments against Anna as well as the bill. It all started with the rhetoric of the movement being anti Parliament, anti constitution, anti people and what not. Then it was called the tyranny of the unelected and unelectable. Next attack was on the honesty of the the whole team Anna and because they were falsely labelled as corrupt they had no business or right to talk about mitigation of corruption. Perhaps that is the reason all our politicians have never tried any meaningful approach to fight this menace. Suddenly some people came up with the idea that since foreign countries are not happy with the  rapid progress being made by India, they are trying to destabilise the government of the country. What rotten argument ! These foreigners are wise enough to understand that if India can destroy the demon of corruption and black money, it can progress at may be double the present pace. Or may be they are wise enough to understand the pulse of Indian Polity, in that, these people  will hang on to any straw to maintain status quo. After all we all know that there is no business that gives returns higher than the business of politics. One earns tons of money without any investment, without any professional earning ability, only through unabashed use of associated power and authority, discretion and manipulations of rules and regulation, nepotism and favouritism etc. etc.. Lastly it is being made out by a few   that this is a movement of middle class urbanites as if the benefits of ending corruption will accrue only to this class and as if the downtrodden have nots will be more miserable  if this fight succeeds. What dirty politics to divide the masses! Sisters and brothers of India, whether from villages or cities, from  any religion, caste or creed,rich or poor, don't be taken in by any of these tricks of politicians, for end of corrupt people  and corruption will be the end of your poverty and miseries.Your poverty is a direct result of  corruption  by  those in authority and power.

Corruption in India:Apathy or Compulsion of politicians

Corruption is the biggest menace and enemy of our country. You hear this day in and day out from politicians of all shades and colours. BJP the main opposition party says that they have been raising this issue all along and have been fighting tooth and nail in parliament on various scams that have rocked the country in recent times. BJP, Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (M) and Bahujan Samaj Party are only maintaining an anti government stance on the issues of Lok Pal and fight against corruption. They do not want to take any initiative in these issues of utmost national importance.Because both, those in power and those out of power cannot win elections unless they give corruption empowerment to their cronies and followers down to the level of village and mohalla leaders. The government on its part claims to be equally concerned about corruption and quotes the prime minister message on this independence day wherein he declared war on graft. Surprising still no word on black money. Is it a slip or a calculated omission? 

Some excerpts from PM's speech :

"In the last few months many instances of corruption have come to light. In some cases, functionaries of the Central government face allegations of corruption. In other cases, it is the functionaries of various State governments".

The Extent of Corruption Menace is being undermined in this statement. There may not be even 5% cases where  corruption is not there.

"Any government awards contracts worth thousands of crores every year. There are frequent complaints of corruption in these decisions. We had constituted a committee to suggest measures to reduce corruption in government purchases. The committee has recommended that, like many other countries, we should also have a public procurement legislation which lays down the principles and practice with regard to government purchases. We will introduce a Bill in Parliament by the end of this year to enact such a law".

 As if the country did not have procedures and principles all these years.This just appears to be an effort to show some thing to the simple masses of the country so that they remain silent for another six decades. Incidentally, all government contracts are awarded through various committees and after getting a certificate from the chairman that the prices are reasonable.

Sometimes the government talks about compulsions of coalition governments when dealing with corrupt people. The same is said when some path breaking economic or administrative action is to be taken. Are we not being made to pay too high a price for coalition governments.Why can't the government or any other party  put up bills in the parliament with an honest approach to kill corruption from this country and show it to the country once and for all who wants to kill this demon and who wants it to grow.This has not been done in the last six decades and is perhaps not likely to be done in future also for they know that someone out of them only has to be the winner in elections irrespective of whether ninety percent vote or abstain during elections.  

Indian Governance - A Corrupt governance

We have heard of good governance and bad governance. A good governance is desirable to achieve best possible results, a bad governance can be forgiven and tolerated to some extent for in this case the decisions of the government do not originate out of ulterior motives but are the result of wrong judgement. The agony of Indian Governance is that all decisions are a result of corrupt motivation in one form are the other.

The scams like 2 G, CWG, Adarsh or the mining scam in Karnatka and other states are just a few samples of thousands of such scams going on in this country where the country's resources like minerals, land, spectrum etc. and tax payers money is being wasted at whims and fancies of political bigwigs using all discretionary powers to favour themselves directly or indirectly. The present day government takes credit for the action taken by it in these cases. But imagine the  amount of effort that was needed to convince the government for action by media, opposition, civil society, CAG, CVC and even the Supreme Court. The extent of involvement of judiciary, CBI, and other government organs only suggests that they cannot handle five more such cases in a reasonable period of time particularly looking into the attitude and sensitivity of the government in all these cases.

The discretionary powers of the authority are meant to safeguard the interests of the nation, whereas in all these cases discretion was used to favour one party or the other. The nation is given to believe that in 2G spectrum allocation, the decisions were taken in the light of of prevailing government policies on the matter, the policies which were framed some fifteen years back looking into the requirements of that time. These powerful politicians and bureaucrats bend the rules under the garb of discretionary powers to help themselves, their near and dear ones or their favoured ones when looting this nation but when it comes to do the same for the good of the nation they behave worse than clerks even and go verbatim by the rule book. The motivation for doing so is not very hard to understand.
The CAG report on CWG mess is said to be pointing out to procedural irregularities only and there is no mention of the word scam. Even a clerk in the government won't succumb to procedural irregularities unless and until he has his axe to grind. The motivation on the part of of all bigwigs involved to commit such irregularities is not hard to understand. Incidentally even if no procedural irregularities are resorted to, there is still a corruption margin of 30 % of the project cost because of use of less quantity, substandard materials and not adhering to construction specifications which cannot be checked once the civil work is finished.
To control such occurrences we require some sincerity of purpose on the part of those who rule this country. This cannot happen till such time we advocate the motto ' Loyalty to the chair and not to the nation ', and the political parties do  rely on persons wedded to moral ethics and who have some substance, sincerity and honesty of purpose in their thought process and not on persons who have been bestowed only with extraordinary gift of the gab to defend even their wrongful actions. Incidentally majority of spokespersons of all political parties are advocates who adhere only to professional ethics where their utmost priority is to defend their client irrespective of the fact whether the client is right or wrong. The moral ethics take a back seat in their profession and they carry the same during their governance stints also.
As a first major step towards fighting corruption let us do away with all discretionary powers so that we graduate into the realm of bad governance from the present state of corrupt governance. By doing so we will only be causing damage to government kitty that too in some cases and will not be filling the coffins of corruption money which has spiraling damaging effect on the economy.

Corruption in India:Our Birth Right

The events of last few months involving the drafting of the Lok Pal Bill, the actions of the government on the 2 G Scam, Adarsh Housing Scam, CWG Scam and the views and actions of Indian Polity on the biggest menace eating into our struggle of developing India gives an impression that we are fighting for Our Birth Right --- i.e. CORRUPTION. In this endeavour all political parties and all politicians seem to be contributing with all their might, passively, actively or silently like they were contributing when Bal Gangadhar Tilak  gave the slogan ' Swaraj is my birth right and I shall have it' way back in 1898 irrespective of their political and economic ideologies. The government claims that it has taken action against senior ministers and politicians but only when it became clear that shielding them will be their Waterloo. Who found out these scams? The government with all its powers and machinery never bothered to find out as to what is going on in this country. It was only press and media who exposed manipulations and corruption in these scams. Are these the only scams and corruption cases that have happened in this country during last five years? When black money issues are raised we talk only of Rs 70 lakh crores which is stashed away in foreign countries and the government expresses its helplessness in bringing it back because of international laws and procedures. Government, opposition and everyone in the country who matters does not talk of  Rs 10-15 lakh  crores being generated every year for it requires action solely on their part.

What should we expect from these people when the first small step towards having an effective Lok Pal has generated so much of commotion in political circles that erosion of parliamentary system and democracy are talked about when it comes to incorporating suggestions by a group of people invited by government itself to prepare a blue print of the bill, suggesting thereby that wisdom, morality and national concern are the sole propriety of handful of these politicians half of them are members of parliament through appointment ( indirect election) while the others carry at best a backing of 25% of electorate of their constituency.

It is surprising that every body in politics claims to be gravely concerned about corruption and having a powerful Lok Pal but nobody seems to have even a basic blueprint of the bill ready and are working in damage control mode after the issue has been thrust on them by team Anna. The total effort is not concentrated on having an effective Lok Pal institution but on scoring political points over rivals and ultimately whom to blame for not getting the bill through. In the worst of the circumstances if the bill has to be passed the aim is to have a lame Lok Pal standing on one leg waiting to fall with the slightest whiff of air.

By excluding CBI  from the ambit of  RTI, while the intentions of government about fighting corruption and bringing in transparency in governance are clear, the silence on the part of other parties on the matter only smells of a collusion amongst the polity for maintaining status quo in all matters of national interest. The lame excuse of CBI handling cases involving national security is just a ploy for keeping it outside the purview of RTI, for separate wings must be dealing with cases of corruption and national security and even if this is not the case, separate wings could be created for strengthening the claim of good governance and transparency.

Indian polity has a flair for coining high sounding vote catching slogans. These days we hear a lot about inclusive growth and empowerment of masses. In principle both the phrases are wonderful but in a country where 70% of the money is known to be going into individual pockets when accountability on ground cannot be established. Is it not an effort to establishing your political clout through indirect bribe. Or in simple words, you participate in the national loot in a small way and allow us to grab the major chunk peacefully. We have heard programmes and slogans like Community Development, Roti Kapda aur Makan, Jai Jawan Jai Kissan, Garibi Hatao and we are not any better on these fronts. Similarly after five years or so we will come across some new vote catching phrases and generation after generation the poor will have to live as poor and be at the mercy of free India's democratically elected masters.
In the end one could only say ' God bless this country and millions of deprived, starved and hapless citizens who are being condemned to this fate by the rulers of this country.

Corruption and Black Money:Our Main Priority

It is not a coincidence that India is one of the most corrupt nations on our globe. With the kind of people ruling this country and the concern they show to the burning issues of corruption and black money we are bound to improve upon our ranking in the list of most corrupt nations in the coming years. These days there is a lot of hue and cry about corruption and black money and the issue is being constantly raised by media and non political civil society. While Anna Hazare led a Dharna and fast for impressing upon the government to have an effective Lok Pal in the country, Yoga Guru Ramdev fasted for government action on curbing the demon of corruption and retrieving black money.The reaction to these two small initiatives on the biggest menaces eating into the nation's wealth and resources has been simply pathetic. Everyday a multitude of ministers of Central Government and party spokespersons of Congress talk of law making being the purview of the elected members only.It is not understood how Anna Hazare and Ramdev are going to enact laws concerning Lok Pal and fight against corruption. May be our politicians are simply reminding themselves about their powers and duties towards the nation which they have not cared to exercise during the last sixty years. None of these leaders can absolve himself of the responsibility of failing the nation on these counts for most of them have been in the government for more than twenty years.

Both Anna Hazare and Ramdev  have been termed to be the mouthpiece of BJP and RSS. Therefore their Satyagrah is a danger to the security, integrity, communal harmony and democracy. First of all it is not  certain whether BJP and RSS are any more serious about these issues, for over the years they also have kept these as sparring weapons to gain politically. Secondly does the issue becomes unimportant, loses relevance and is not in national interest if BJP and RSS are seen raising it or are associated with it. Thirdly if these two are so dangerous to the country, the government is failing in its duties by not banning them and is not working for the country but against it.
Let us have an effective Lok Pal. Let us have effective laws to take care of corruption and black money or face the nation's fury for not doing what is in the best interest of the country. This can be done only if the political might of this country decides to serve the country instead of serving the interests of their political clout, for all dubious economic activity always has a political backing.

Corruption In India - The Fight Against

After the government order on formulation of the Lok Pal Bill draft, there have been all kind of reactions from politicians, intelligentsia and journalists. Some think that the drafting is the job of legislatures, some think that Lok Pal institution cannot put an end to corruption while a few think that there is not much of corruption in the country. The vast majority of Indian citizens however are aware of the huge corruption in the Indian economic system with its tentacles rooted deep in all walks of life as also the fact that Lok Pal Bill if at all it comes into force will be like touching the tip of the iceberg in our fight against this demon called corruption. A lot more legislation and governance methodologies will have to be adopted to put an end to corruption practices. The noise being made about the individual members and the kind of aspersions being cast on them does not give much hope to poverty ridden millions of this country. In fact the concerted effort being made by the polity of the country in maligning these members is aimed at nipping this evil of an effective Lok Pal Bill in the bud. After all we should not forget that these very politicians have seen to it that nothing happened on this front for the past forty years. It is well known that India does not have men at the top who could be called incorruptible. For some money is their waterloo, for some wine and woman and for some it could be the lust of power. In India the mighty and the powerful are all guilty on one count or the other otherwise they will not be either silent spectators or partners to the rot of corruption engulfing this country.
I was naive when I wrote in these columns that fighting corruption will in no way clash with the political, economic, social or any other policy agenda of any party or politician. But I was absolutely wrong, in fact I  realize that maintaining status quo in this matter is the topmost agenda for all of them. The script of the story of Lok Pal Bill should be clear to any Indian even with an iota of intelligence. In the first instance a draft will be formulated ( that too if the pressure by civil society and media is maintained ) leaving enough scope for other parties to find faults and not to vote for it. This will be managed in such a subtle manner that the country will never know as to who was for it and who was against it. In fact the unwritten collusion amongst all politicians of this country over corruption has been so strong that we have no winners and no losers in this issue even after forty years of dilly dallying. If any sincerity to the country and its masses is still left in these politicians, let them come out openly with their vision of the bill and commit publicly that they will see the smooth passage of this bill in parliament provided it contains all features  mentioned in their vision. Incidentally the strength of all national and major regional parties in both the houses is much more than what is required for enacting this bill. The country is witness to their  being unanimous and behaving as constituents of a national government when matter relating to their salaries, pension and perks were taken up in the parliament. Let them for once show the same attitude towards this national cause of fight against corruption.

Corruption and Black Money -The Big Guzzlers & Creators

You open any newspaper, you switch on any TV news channel, a day cannot pass without a few headlines about corruption and bribery scams. Such scams will invariably be connected with land, housing and real estate. In fact all activity related to this one particular sector be it allotment, sale and purchase, construction, purchase of material or renting and hiring brings in corruption, black money generation and deployment, tax avoidance and criminal activity. This sector and its progress are said to be the index of economic health of a nation. Imagine the extent of degradation of economic health of a nation when the same sector is under the cloud of corruption and bribery scandals one after the other particularly when only a negligible percentage of such cases catch the eye of media. In fact for every case that comes to limelight thousands of cases go undetected.

Buying and selling of property normally involves 30% of payments through banks and the rest is by cash. It gives huge opportunity of absorbing ill gotten money ( be it from bribery, corruption, tax avoidance or any other illegal activity) to the buyer and simultaneously produces the same amount of black money in the hands of seller.

In the construction business also cheque payments and receipts are kept to a bare minimum. Material purchases worth 10 lakhs are normally made against a bill of may be1.5 to 2.00 lakhs. This is true about all materials starting from bricks, timber, plumbing and hardware accessories, electrical fittings etc. to name only a few. The advantage to buyer and seller both can be understood by anybody for it does not require expertise in rocket science. Similar are the facts when it comes to hiring or renting of property.

Gold is the next big culprit when it comes to absorbing of black money and its creation for gold buying and selling is also mainly in cash. As a general rule all asset classes are equal culprits in this game of black money generation and absorption.

Corruption and Black Money In India:Control Through Good Governance

The Finance Minister and the Indian Government is all the time boasting of a GDP growth rate of about 8.5% per annum and a promise to maintain the same for coming few years. Can they in the same breath talk of any one  particular value addition in this process excepting one fact that they have not totally frittered away the national resources in doling out concessions in the name of Aam Admi in form of subsidies, freebies etc. etc.. The golden opportunity that the compulsions of high wages in advanced nations has given to India with its cheap and qualified work force with the right demographic profile as also the limited privatisation in the early nineties is certainly not being properly utilised. Imagine if the opportunity is backed by good governance as was done by Japan and Singapore, where we will be after a decade or so. Needless to emphasize that presently we are being plagued by real bad governance.

A few suggestions from an Aam Admi which can catapult the GDP growth and fate of  have nots of this country in a manner much beyond our imagination.

• Declare a war on Corruption & Black Money. ( All Political Parties and MP's should not have any objection to this for it cannot come in the way of their political and economic agenda )
• Make necessary arrangements to get back all black money stashed in foreign countries.
• Do away with Quotas and Discretions of all political appointees and officials.
• UID project should be given topmost priority so as to be completed in two year time. ( Make available all resources and money ) Its role in achieving better tax compliance, controlling subsidy leakages and midday meal program leakages cannot be undermined as it can certainly reduce them by 25%. But what about the balance 75% and we can make an even bigger dent in such dubious earnings if only we make it a point to link UID number to all immovable property and all major asset classes as also luxury items like cars, motor cycles, refrigerators, tv's, watches etc..
• Government should acquire powers to buy minimum 2% of property and land deals in secondary market every year at 1.1 times the declared value (chosen by a random number generation technique).
• Power of attorney in respect of immovable property should be done away with.
• All reinforcement directorates to be beefed up many folds.
• Three tier checks on economic status of general public individuals, government officials, politicians, business and corporates.
• Reinforcement of judiciary to take care of economic offences and disputes to a level so that no case hangs in the courts for more than nine months.
• And lastly all rags to riches stories and exponentially growing businesses should be reviewed for ascertaining their tax compliance.

Corruption and Black Money:The Ultimate Solution

Various scams like CWG scam, 2 G scam, Adarsh Housing Society scam and the cases of huge wealth accumulation by Hasan Ali, Shahid Balwa and many others are just the tip of the iceberg of this menace.After engaging all the enforcement, vigilance, investigation and judicial authorities of the country we are still not sure as to what will be the outcome of this. These are just a few isolated cases of something which is rampant in the country and out of which only these few have come to light somehow. In fact the the scale and magnitude at which corruption and black money generation is going on in this country may be tens of thousand times the combined scale of these scams.

The colossus effort involved in unearthing corruption and black money and the time frame in which something can be done can be gauged by the number of agencies involved, number of persons to be interrogated and the amount of raids carried out in dealing with these few cases. For Commonwealth Games with a budget of few thousand crores, top bureaucracy, CPWD, DDA and other officials were interrogated and many times raids were also conducted on their premises. Imagine if similar problems of CPWD, DDA, and their counterparts in all states and other ministries like railways, defence, road transport and highways etc. are to be dealt with, where the construction and infra development budgets run into lakhs of crores of rupees. The quantum of corruption money and black money generated in this activity can be easily assessed through a small basic calculation. A meagre 5% extra derived from the rates, 5% from the measurements and another 10%  from relaxation of specifications and material quality and quantity used makes available a whopping sum of Rs 50000 crores as the loot being shared between contractor, political bosses, bureaucracy and technical personnel involved in various facets of  the activity. It will be worthwhile to add that these percentages are  almost impossible to detect and prove but are a routine in these activities. The only way they can be checked is through strict monitoring of assets of connected people. Similar loots are going on in excise and taxation, income tax, food subsidy, midday meal scheme. Imagine how difficult it is to keep a check on millions of people involved in this loot. Even if we increase our enforcement staff and judiciary tenfolds we may end up by reducing this menace by a small 5-10%. Therefore some innovative and sincere methodology should be thought of in fighting this demon.

The only viable solution seems to be through linking of all immovable and movable assets with UID number. These assets will include all commercial and residential property, all agricultural land, gold and jewellery, all vehicles ( commercial and private ), all luxury items, DMat accounts, investments in commodities, banks and mutual funds etc. etc.. Along with these linkages the following steps are also a must.

• Government should have the power to acquire about 5-10% of real estate deals in the secondary market by paying 10% premium to the declared value of the deal.
• Practice of power of attorney in respect of real estate should be abolished.

Once the investment avenues of ill gotten money are plugged, we can see a ray of hope in improving the living standards of Indian masses at a much faster rate.