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archive: CORRUPTION & COMMUNALISM

CORRUPTION & COMMUNALISM

M.G. Devasahayam
The Tribune
July 1, 1999


    Title: CORRUPTION & COMMUNALISM
    Author: M.G. Devasahayam
    Publication: The Tribune
    Date: July 1, 1999
    
    Value-judgement in politics
    
    
    THE last thing the people of this country expect the politicians to do
    is to pronounce value-judgements. Yet this is precisely what the
    politicians seem to be doing, if the recent spate of statements on
    corruption vs communalism is any indication.
    
    In the seventies, during the JP movement, Jayaprakash Narayan had
    written, "As I diagnose the root cause of the country's critical state
    of health, I identify it unhesitatingly as corruption and precipitous
    fall in the moral standards of our politics and public life." Now, a
    quarter century after these anguished words were written by the Second
    Mahatma, peddlers of coalition politics are traversing the length and
    breadth of the country, propagating the "gospel" of venal corruption.
    Statements and pronouncements like "corruption is preferable to
    communalism", "corruption is not a public issue" and "corruption cases
    against Ms Jayalalitha are nothing but political vendetta", are
    ringing loud in the electronic media and staring from the newspapers
    almost every day.
    
    Ironically, of all the politicians, communists, once known for probity
    in public life, are turning out to be the greatest apologists for
    corruption! From the"venerable" Harkishen Singh Surjeet to the local
    factotum N. Shankariah, almost the entire Left appears to be working
    over time to sanctify corruption and give respectability to Ms
    Jayalalitha and others, who are facing charges of bribery, criminal
    misconduct and misappropriation of public funds.
    
    Afflicted by this virus and emboldened by the weakness and meekness of
    our judicial process, several other political entities have entered
    this bandwagon and are flooding the media. There are any number of
    people with sanctimonious statements of value judgement. The most
    distressing statements to emanate thus far are from Dr Manmohan Singh
    in his capacity as Mrs Sonia Gandhi's emissary to Ms Jayalalitha and
    certain functionaries of the Tamil Manila Congress (TMC). These are
    distressing, in fact agonising, because while Dr Manmohan Singh
    commands high respect for honesty and integrity in public life, the
    TMC is a movement born out of a public backlash against the Congress
    party's striking electoral alliance in 1996 with the "Queen of
    Corruption", as they used to describe Ms Jayalalitha! Considering the
    fact that they are doing this just to get a handful of seats (not more
    than 10, as reported) to contest in the forthcoming Lok Sabha
    elections is, indeed, unfortunate.
    
    Be that as it may, these statements sanctifying corruption and giving
    certificates to its avid practitioners cannot be allowed to go
    unchallenged and unquestioned. While the ills of communalism are known
    and should be countered effectively, it need to be realised that
    corruption is like AIDS which sucks up and destroys the basic value
    system on which a society is founded and has no cure if allowed to go
    beyond a certain stage. Furthermore, unbridled corruption in
    government and public life could be a major causative factor in
    instigating and inflaming communal passions and disturbances. Besides,
    corruption, by slowing down economic development and accelerating
    poverty, is a major factor in causing and sustaining social
    inequalities and tensions.
    
    Nobel laureate, Gunnar Myrdal in his famous treatise, "Asian Drama -An
    Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations", has candidly brought out the
    political and economic dangers of corruption. According to him, on the
    political side, "the significance of corruption in Asia is highlighted
    by the fact that wherever a political regime has crumbled- in Pakistan
    and Burma, for instance, and, in China - a major and often decisive
    cause has been the prevalence of corruption and misconduct among
    politicians and administrators and the resulting spread of unlawful
    practices among businessmen and the general public. The problem is of
    vital concern to the governments of South Asia, because the habitual
    practice of bribery and dishonesty paves the way for an authoritarian
    regime, which justifies itself by the disclosures of corruption and
    the punitive action it takes against the offenders. Elimination of
    corruption has regularly been advanced as the main justification for
    military takeovers."
    
    Turning to economic development, Professor Myrdal has this to say:
    "Corrupt practices are highly detrimental to any efforts to achieve
    modernisation ideals. The prevalence of corruption raises strong
    obstacles and inhibitions to development. The corruption that is
    spurred by fragmentation of loyalties acts against efforts to
    consolidate the nation. It decreases respect for and allegiance for
    the government and its institutions. It often promotes irrationality
    in planning and limits the horizons of plans."
    
    India, being ranked among the 10 most corrupt countries in the world
    by Worldwatch, always has the danger of collapsing politically and
    economically if corruption is allowed to survive and sustain itself in
    the system of governance. A recent World Bank study on the impact of
    corruption in developing countries, including India, depicts the
    following picture:
    
    * Macroeconomic stability is undermined due to the loss of government
    revenue, excessive spending and leakages. The costs of this
    instability are mostly borne by the poor.
    
    * Foreign direct investment is severely constrained. Sometimes even
    stopping totally.
    
    * Since corruption increases the costs of doing business and small
    firms bear a disproportionately large share of these costs, small
    entrepreneurs are badly affected.
    
    * Since corruption compromises on pollution norms, the environment is
    endangered.
    
    * The poor suffer the most since they get to low quality public goods
    and services, and have no "exit" option such as private schooling and
    healthcare.
    
    * There is a negative correlation between the level of corruption and
    the level of investment in the economy. This severely constrains
    economic growth and employment generation.
    
    Besides this negative impacts, large-scale corruption can be
    instrumental in causing death and destruction like illicit liquor
    tragedies, accidents due to faulty construction/equipment and the
    consumption of spurious drugs and medicines. What is worse, by
    spawning inequity and injustice, corruption many times is the
    underlying cause for the growth of terrorism and militancy, that have
    taken a heavy toll of human lives.
    
    Corruption is the single major factor in keeping India poor and
    backward despite having the best of natural and human resources. It is
    a major destabilising factor in politics and economics. If the modern
    day "advocates" of corruption are allowed to have their way, they may
    as well wind up the Indian judiciary and scrap all the laws and
    statutes that help in punishing the corrupt. By pronouncing that
    "cases against Ms Jayalalitha are politically motivated", they are
    casting aspersions on the independence and integrity of India's higher
    judiciary, which has more than once held that there is prima facie
    case for the trial of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
    
    By stating that "corruption is not a public issue", these worthies
    are, in fact, clamouring for this heinous practice to be declared
    legal and respectable! They are also insulting the intelligent , and
    indeed mocking at the common man who is carrying the burden of "the
    loot of the public exchequer" on his frail and slender shoulders.
    
    It is a fallacy to compare corruption with communalism and pronounce
    value-judgement. In fact it is a crude attempt to hoodwink the people
    and institutions of this country and to protect the venal elements
    that have brought the nation to such a sorry pass. Those who state
    that "corruption is not a public issue" should remember the fate of
    Rajiv Gandhi in the 1989 elections and of Ms Jayalalitha in 1996, when
    corruption was the major issue and led to their downfall.
    
    Communalism is no doubt a scourge and a menace that needs to be
    combated with all our might. But by no stretch of the imagination
    could this be made into a smokescreen for justifying corruption at
    high places, which is far more venal and debilitating to the nation
    and its civil society.
    
    At the height of the national Emergency in the seventies, a set of
    Congress sycophants had sought to make pronouncements like "discipline
    is preferable to democracy." But the electorate in the ensuing 1977
    elections roundly and soundly repudiated this. This time around also
    the Indian electorate, known for its innate wisdom, will surely reject
    attempts by political busybodies to "dry-clean" corruption using
    communalism as the "washing agent."
    



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