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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