CORRUPTION WILL CONSUME YOU, DON'T TAKE IT IN YOUR STRIDE
THE FACTS
In 2005, Transparency International said more one out of every two Indians had firsthand experience of paying a bribe or peddling influence to get the job done in a government office. That includes getting a ration card or a marriage certificate or registering an FIR.
In 2009, a survey of Asia's leading economies revealed that Indian bureaucracy was the least efficient and working with Indian babus was a "slow and painful"process.
Last year, India was ranked 84 out 180 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index. The biggest victim of corruption is the poor. Every year, people who live below the poverty line have to pay more than Rs 9 billion rupees in bribes just to avail of the basic services they are supposed to get for free.
Corruption is creating an underground economy and it's engulfing us all. According to Global Financial Integrity, rampant corruption resulted in an estimated illicit outflow of $125 billion from India between 2000 and 2008.
THE RESULT
We set up commissions to look into allegations of corruption. Nothing happens. Reports by the hundreds of commissions set up in the last 60 years gather dust. Not a single major politician or babu has ever been convicted and the abuse of public money continues unchecked.
The Commonwealth Games were our best chance to prove to ourselves – and the world — that we can handle public money honestly. We blew it. Even before bridges began collapsing, there were rumours CWG money was being squandered. "Ab to baraat aa gayi hai, hamara farz hai hum sab uska swagat karein (The bridegroom's procession has arrived and we must all welcome it)," Union sports minister M S Gill told Parliament during a debate on CWG corruption. Congress president and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi has promised that "those found guilty will be punished after the event". That will be too late. We ignored corruption and it has consumed India's biggest showcase event in decades.
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