Corruption – A critical Viewpoint.
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– Arup Baisya, written for Pragyan, A quarterly academic Journal, Tinsukia College.
The oligopolies and their
hangers-on are up in arms to dismantle the system of constitutional democracy
and the people with their increasingly loosening grip over the system have
upped the ante and started coming out to the streets. Only a move from a
‘democracy deficit’ to ‘democracy surplus’ through a process of severing the
linkages of the system with the forces of globalization striving with a neo-liberal drive can only lead us out of this
crisis. But for this, we have to pause, ponder and position ourselves to
organize new initiatives and thoughts. New characters other than ‘Sandeep &
Nikhilesh’ of Tagore’s ‘Ghore-Baire’ from among the social-groups who remained
the object of Tagore’s narration, along with rejuvenated & invigorated ‘Vimalas’
can be the torch-bearer of new dawn out of the crisis of darkness.
Aristotle
ranked historical writing known to him as philosophically inferior to poetry
and tragedy, in view of the anecdotal particularism of such storytelling
accounts of events & circumstances in tune with the original Greek term of
history - “istor” – which means “eye witness”. But the ancient art form cannot
be compared with a modern branch of social science like history. With the advent
of the concept of dialectical materialism, study of history becomes a tool to
understand the development of human civilization and to form our vision to open
a discourse on any social phenomenon. As corruption is a social phenomenon,
it needs to be viewed from historical perspective.
In
Webster’s dictionary, we get the general meanings of the word “Corrupt” from
which corruption is derived as (1) Changed from a sound condition to an unsound
condition (2) deteriorated from a normal or standard. Though giving or
taking bribes falls on the second category, it is to be judged within the ambit
of general definition, especially when corruption at high echelons unveils the unholy
alliance of politicians, bureaucrats and corporate giants. Anti-corruption
movement in India India India
So,
at all these levels mentioned above, the society does not recognize it as
corruption, as these are considered as normal or standard.
The
first reverberation in the Indian Society was the Gujrat’s Navanirman movement
that subsequently turned into a popular anti-emergency (Indira-fascism)
upheaval under the leadership of Joyprakash Narayan and then after the eighties
we witnessed V P Singh’s anti-Bofor-scandal stir that resulted in the change of
guard at the centre with new dispensation and subsequently culminated into
Mandal – Kamandal conflict. Now again at this juncture, we are witnessing the
anti-corruption movement under the leadership of ‘team Anna’. ‘Team Anna’ is
very meticulous when they state “the latest draft report of the Comptroller
and Auditor General of India(CAG) on hydrocarbon production showing contracts
and the transfer of officials to Reliance is only the latest of the mega scam
to surface in the country. The breadth and depth of corruption in India
The
exploits of Mundhras in Nehru-era looks like kindergarten staffs compared with the
achievement of their present successor. The high-level corruption is increasing
leaps and bounds with the increasing accumulation of capital in few hands
globally as well as nationally. When other India is starving and dying with
mal-nutrition, when real India in the villages & shanty-towns is witnessing
resurgence of killer diseases in epidemic-like situation, shining India cannot
enjoy their pelf & perks disregarding the conspiracy at the diktat of
IMF-World Bank to show very low number of BPL – people with a rat-eaten &
sluggish PDS to feed them with a view to transfer the bigger slice of public
exchequer for serving corporate world. Along with other means, huge black money
is also generated continuously through the holes in the PDS system. If this
money is piled up at a place, the mundane & rustic Indians will definitely
feel dwarfed in front of this currency’s peak. In an empirical study on the
transfer of Black money from India
during the period from 1948-2008 published in EPW, April 9, 2011, Dev Kar
estimated that a total of $ 213.2 billion was shifted out of India or about 17.7% of India
All
these show what was within our system in a rudimentary stage during the
transfer of power from British colonial master has now grown to a big banyan
tree spreading its branches horizontally and vertically to all spheres of
lives. What appeared to the people as the “bags of wool” have now turned out to
be packs of wolves in sheep’s clothing. The high-level corrupt-bandwagon in the
present day has the skills in financial manipulation and sophisticated tool of
self-aggrandizement in their arsenal to continue their corrupt practices in
meteoric speed.
But
the moot question is when the society recognizes this as a corruption i.e.
deviation from standard or normal so that we can hear a social cacophony. Or
conversely, what does it indicate when society recognizes this and makes it an
issue. At the time of Jayprakash
Narayan, there was a systemic crisis that ended up with the promulgation of
emergency that was defeated by the people’s upheaval under JP’s leadership.
During V P Singh’s time, it indicated another phase of systemic crisis that
ended up with a transition from overwhelming upper-caste hegemony in the system
to a loose conglomeration of various caste groups. The post-reform period is
also the very beginning of the erosion of the edifice of our state-structure
based on constitutional democracy. The neo-liberal order of the present era of
globalization is not compatible with our constitutional system of surveillance,
regulation and control. It’s a crisis that has been emanating from a situation
where the neo-liberal forces are innovating various sophisticated tools to
dismantle the existing structure without any stable alternative structure in
sight. Corporatocracy without state-control is giving no solution, rather
creating new conflict zones with food riot, land riot, ecology riot in tandem.
Lokpal Bill is for introducing another
institutional structure to contain the erosion of the constitutional democracy.
But the cracks within our systemic-structure are so wide and deep that mere
tightening of the nuts & bolts cannot rescue it from its collapse.
