Politics of Corruption—The Democratic Angle!

Article first published as Politics of Corruption: The Democratic Angle on Technorati.

In a democracy power is always decentralized—from the highest level of the Prime Minister to the grass-root level of a village chieftain. So in a similar way corruption has to get decentralized too specifically at every level.

The village chief enjoys lot of powers to take decisions, settle disputes and negotiate for development projects. If, in the process, s/he takes bribes or bribes someone the higher authority at the district level cannot necessarily be implicated criminally in that corruption. A local boss at a town office similarly enjoys absolute discretionary powers in regard to his/her office. Now, if s/he indulges in corrupt deals the town chief or the district collector cannot necessarily be held criminally responsible. Accordingly, the chief minister of a state cannot necessarily be implicated criminally if the collector creates scams and scandals.

So, if local authorities wield so much power one can well imagine what a minister of a state or of a country can do. This becomes basically a power to be corrupt and it may or may not be a racket reaching the top. An endless stream of corrupt power-groups thrive democratically and any fight against corruption could get diluted in the process of making charges and allegations creating an equally never-ending stream of court cases, pleas, litigation and unrest. The problem here is that nobody can be conclusive about it. Politics has to naturally take over from hereon...

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Now Showing: Democratic Circus!

An exemplary circus is running very successfully in India and today it has completed 15 days of unmitigated popularity. It’s exemplary because instead of the usual circus tent you behold the esteemed Parliament House. No problems, only humans are performing since animals are already banned from circus shows due to cruelty. Oh yes, India is the largest democracy of the world.

The backdrop is the 2G Spectrum scam that cost the country thousands of millions of rupees and gave unbelievable windfall profits to the telecom companies that were endowed with the 2G licenses.

Right, opposition is justified considering the level of corruption. But at what cost and whose cost? Opposition should be righteous, not politically motivated. For the 15^th day today, the same absurd routine is followed in both houses of Indian Parliament. Speaker comes in at 11am sharp, opposition members stand with raised hands and shouting, Speaker beseeching them to sit and calm down so that work begins, house adjourned till 12 noon and later for the day.

The Government of India had initiated investigations and canceled a number of licenses which could make it possible to recover some of cost and anyway, investigations must be allowed to proceed to be effective. But the opposition leaders just want Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for their enquiry and the government not giving it. They want JPC so that they can put the ruling party in a spot since even the Prime Minister was dragged into it and get unprecedented political mileage, strong political motives. The government is not giving JPC for equally strong countering political reasons. Nobody is willing to give a take on the cost the country is put to on a daily basis apart from the cost of the scam.

Let the circus bloom. This is everybody’s democratic right! But hey common man, do you have any kind of rights in the largest democracy?