INDIA & CORRUPTION

Corruption in India

Political corruption and bureaucratic corruption in India are major concerns. A 2005 study done by Transparency International in India found that more than 15% of the people in India had firsthand experience of paying bribes or peddling influence to get any type of job done in a public office. Taxes and bribes are a daily life fact, common between state borders; Transparency International estimates that truckers pay annually US$5 billion in bribes. For 2010, India was ranked 87^th of 178 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. As of 2010, India is amongst the most corrupt governments in the world, though one of the least corrupt in South Asia.^[4][5] India needs to deal with the malice of corruption and improve governance in Asia's third-largest economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on 18 March 2011 Criminalization of Indian politics is a serious problem. In July 2008 The Washington Post reported that nearly a fourth of the 540 Indian Parliament members faced criminal charges, "including human trafficking, immigration rackets, embezzlement, rape and even murder". An international watchdog conducted a study on the illicit flight of money from India, perhaps the first ever attempt at shedding light on a subject steeped in secrecy, concludes that India has been drained of $462 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) between 1948 and 2008. The amount is nearly 40% of India's annual gross domestic product.

India tops the list for black money in the entire world with almost US$1456 billion in Swiss banks (USD 1.4 trillion approximately) in the form of black money. According to the data provided by the Swiss Banking Association Report (2006), India has more black money than the rest of the world combined. Indian Swiss bank account assets are worth 13 times the country’s national debt. Indian black money is sometimes physically transferred abroad. The CEO of a Mumbai-based equity firm recently told journalists that the money is flown abroad in "special flights" out of Mumbai and Delhi airports to Zurich. Indeed Indians would be the largest depositors of illegal money in Swiss banks, according to sources in the banking industry. The estimated average amount stashed away annually from India during 2002-2006 is $27.3 billion US dollars.

Independent reports have recently calculated India's traditionally ruling family's (Gandhi's) financial net worth to be anywhere between $9.41 billion (Rs 42,345 crore) to $18.66 billion (Rs 83,900 crore), most of it in the form of illegal monies. Harvard scholar Yevgenia Albats cited KGB correspondence about payments to Rajiv Gandhi and his family, which had been arranged by Viktor Chebrikov, which shows that KGB chief Viktor Chebrikov sought in writing an "authorization to make payments in US dollars to the family members of Rajiv Gandhi, namely Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Paola Maino, mother of Sonia Gandhi from the CPSU in December 1985. “The recent scams involving unimaginably big amounts of money, such as the 2G spectrum scam, are well known. It is estimated that more than trillion dollars are stashed away in foreign havens, while 80 percent of Indians earn less than 2$ per day and every second child is malnourished. It seems as if only the honest people are poor in India and want to get rid of their poverty by education, emigration to cities, and immigration, whereas all the corrupt ones, like Hasan Ali Khan are getting rich through scams and crime. It seems as if India is a rich country filled with poor people,^[20]” the organisers of Dandi March II in the United States said.^[21]

Despite this, India is sitting on unused foreign aid of over 100,000 crore (US$22.2 billion) reflecting inadequate planning by ministries like urban development, water resources and energy, a report by government auditor Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has said. “As on March 31, 2010, unutilised committed external assistance was of the order of Rs.1,05,339 crore,” the CAG said in its report tabled in Parliament on 18 March 2011. In fact, the Indian government has paid commitment charges of 86.11 crore (US$19.12 million) out of taxpayer-money during 2009-10 in the form of penalty for not timely utilising the aid approved by multilateral and bilateral lending agencies.

Overview of the index of perception of corruption, 2010

Contents ·         1 History o    1.1 Politics o    1.2 Bureaucracy §  1.2.1 Land and property §  1.2.2 Tendering processes and awarding contracts §  1.2.3 Medicine §  1.2.4 Death Certificates §  1.2.5 Transport §  1.2.6 Income tax §  1.2.7 Preferential award of public resources o    1.3 Judiciary o    1.4 Armed forces o    1.5 Police o    1.6 Religious institutions ·         2 Anti-corruption efforts o    2.1 Privatization and Commercialization of Corruption Overhaul System o    2.2 Right to information act o    2.3 Ombudsmen o    2.4 Whistleblowers o    2.5 Creation of Anti-Corruption Police and Courts o    2.6 Civil sector initiatives ·         3 See also ·         4 References ·         5 Further reading ·         6 External links o    6.1 Indian government

History

The economy of India was under socialist-inspired policies for an entire generation from the 1950s until the late 1980s. The economy was subject to extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow growth. License Raj was often at the core of corruption.

The Vohra Report was submitted by the former Indian Union Home Secretary, N.N. Vohra, in October 1993. It studied the problem of the criminalisation of politics and of the nexus among criminals, politicians and bureaucrats in India.

The report contained several observations made by official agencies on the criminal network which was virtually running a parallel government. It also discussed criminal gangs who enjoyed the patronage of politicians — of all political parties — and the protection of government functionaries. It revealed that political leaders had become the leaders of gangs. They were connected to the military. Over the years criminals had been elected to local bodies, State Assemblies, and even the Parliament. The unpublished annexures to the Vohra Report are believed to contain highly explosive material.

According to Jitendra Singh, "in the bad old days, particularly pre-1991, when the License Raj held sway, and by design, all kinds of free market mechanisms were hobbled or stymied, and corruption emerged almost as an illegitimate price mechanism, a shadowy quasi-market, such that scarce resources could still be allocated within the economy, and decisions could get made. [...] These were largely distortions created by the politico-economic regime. While a sea change has occurred in the years following 1991, some of the distorted cultural norms that took hold during the earlier period are slowly being repaired by the sheer forces of competition. The process will be long and slow, however. It will not change overnight. "One of the major problems and obstacles to development that many developing countries face is corruption by greedy, power-hungry politicians, which is endemic in certain parts of the world.

Politics

Main article: Indian political scandals

Criminalization of Indian politics is a problem.

In July 2008 The Washington Post reported that nearly a fourth of the 540 Indian Parliament members faced criminal charges, "includinghuman trafficking, immigration rackets, embezzlement, rape and even murder". At state level, things are often worse. In Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections 2002, candidates with criminal records won the majority of seats.

Bureaucracy

A 2005 study done by Transparency International (TI) in India found that more than 50% of the people had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office. Taxes and bribes are common between state borders; Transparency International estimates that truckers pay annually US$5 billion in bribes.  A 2009 survey of the leading economies of Asia, revealed Indian bureaucracy to be not just least efficient out of Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia; further it was also found that working with India's civil servants was a "slow and painful" process

Land and property

Officials often steal state property. In cities and villages throughout India, Mafia Raj consisting of municipal and other government officials, elected politicians, judicial officers, real estate developers and law enforcement officials, acquire, develop and sell land in illegal ways.

Tendering processes and awarding contracts

Government officials having discretionary powers in awarding contracts engage in preferential treatment for selected bidders and display negligence in quality control processes^. Many state-funded construction activities in India, such as road building, are dominated by construction mafias, which are groupings of corrupt public works officials, materials suppliers, politicians and construction contractors. Shoddy construction and material substitution (e.g. mixing sand in cement while submitting expenses for cement) result in roads and highways being dangerous, and sometimes simply washed away when India's heavy monsoon season arrives.

Medicine

In Government Hospitals, corruption is associated with non availability of medicines (or duplicate/fake medicines), getting admission, consultations with doctors and availing diagnostic services, There have been cases of diversion of medical supplies from government hospitals and clinics as well as supply and distribution of medicines of inferior quality. Some hospitals are charging extra amounts from rich people. In India there is an unfair co-operation for medi-insurance companies and hospitals.

Death Certificates

Grieving families are often asked in Government-run offices to pay bribes to obtain the Death Certificate.

Transport

Officials who oversee transportation regulations, safety norms, traffic violations engage in rent seeking activity. Typically a lenient treatment for an offending driver or vehicle is accompanied by expectation of a bribe. India has multiple jurisdictions for vehicular laws as well as overlapping laws at the central government and state government level which worsens bureaucratic complications. This leads to facilitation payments to accelerate normal government processes

Income tax

There have been several cases of collusion of officials of the income tax department of India for a favorable tax treatment in return for bribes

Preferential award of public resources

As detailed earlier, land in areas with short supply is relatively common with government entities awarding public land to private concerns at negligible rates. Other examples include the award of mining leases to private companies without a levy of taxes that is proportionate to the market value of the ore

Judiciary

Corruption is rampant in the judicial system of India. According to Transparency International, judicial corruption in India is attributable to factors such as "delays in the disposal of cases, shortage of judges and complex procedures, all of which are exacerbated by a preponderance of new laws".

Armed forces

The Indian Armed Forces have frequently witnessed corruption involving senior armed forces officers from the Indian Army, Indian Navy andIndian Air Force. Many officers have been caught for allegedly selling defence stores in the black market in the border districts of Indian states and territories. Recent sukhna land scandal involving four Indian Lieutenant Generals has shaken public faith in the country's growing military at a time when large sums are being spent on modernising the armed forces. A string of eye-popping fraud cases has damaged the institution in recent years. The latest Adarsh land scam is another example of the nexus between the armed forces , bureaucracy and the politicians in the embezzlement of government property.

Police

Indian Police remains amongst the most corrupt departments of government. Even basic functions like lodging a FIR or reporting a theft can not be done without paying bribe to police officials. Cases are firstly not registered; victims are encouraged, even threatened for not filing an official complaint. If a case somehow gets registered police don’t takes any actions. The corrupt politicians and policemen go like hand in glove, often resulting in exploitation of the masses. Despite State prohibitions against torture and custodial misconduct by the police, torture is widespread in police custody, which is a major reason behind deaths in custody. The police often torture innocent people until a 'confession' is obtained to save influential and wealthy offenders. G.P. Joshi, the programme coordinator of the Indian branch of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi comments that the main issue at hand concerning police violence is a lack of accountability of the police.

Religious institutions

In India, the corruption has also crept into religious institutions. Some of the Church of North India are making money by selling Baptism certificates. A group of church leaders and activists has launched a campaign to combat the corruption within churches. The chief economic consequences of corruption are the loss to the economy an unhealthy climate for investment and an increase in the cost of government-subsidised services. The TI India study estimates the monetary value of petty corruption in 11 basic services provided by the government, like education, healthcare, judiciary, police, etc., to be around 21,068 crore (US$4.7 billion). India still ranks in the bottom quartile of developing nations in terms of the ease of doing business, and compared to China and other lower developed Asian nations, the average time taken to secure the clearances for a startup or to invoke bankruptcy is much greater.

Anti-corruption efforts

Privatization and Commercialization of 


Corruption Overhaul System

The Privatization and Commercialization of Corruption Overhaul System (2011) is a proposed solution to remove organized corruption by privatizing corruption overhaul system, and providing financial motivation to the private companies working in sector of Corruption finding and probing business. The solution is offered by a group of Indians named themselves as "Indian Patriots" and they are promoting this solution at their website page http://bharatswabhimanbachao.com/Our_Solution_of_Corruption.htm.

The solution if drafted by the "Indian Patriots" founder and president Bharat Chovatiya and it was made publicly available on March, 15 2011.

Right to information act

Main article: Right to Information Act

The Right to Information Act (2005) and equivalent acts in the states, that require government officials to furnish information requested by citizens or face punitive action, computerization of services and various central and state government acts that established vigilance commissions have considerably reduced corruption or at least have opened up avenues to redress grievances. The 2006 report by Transparency International puts India at the 70th place and states that significant improvements were made by India in reducing corruption.

Ombudsmen

The LokAyukta is an anti-government corruption organization in the Indian states. These institutions are based on the Ombudsman in Scandinavian countries. An amendment to the Constitution has been proposed to implement the Lokayukta uniformly across Indian States as a three-member body, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge or high court chief justice, and comprise of the state vigilance commissioner and a jurist or an eminent administrator as other members.

Social welfare worker Anna Hazare who is not linked to any political party has forced the Indian Government to notify the Committee for the implementation of the Lokayukta against corruption as an independent body and also giving enough powers to the Lokayukta to also receive corruption complaints against politicians, bureaucrats and even sitting judges. Anna Hazare has achieved this big success through his non-violence measures like fasting till death at the Jantar Mantar place in Delhi [Capital City of India] . The public also gave nation-wide support to Anna Hazare in his demand for strong and tough anti-corruption law. ---- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/anna-hazare-latest-news-lokpal-bill-in-monsoon-session-fast-track-courts-for-corruption-cases/articleshow/7927451.cms

Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers play a major role in the fight against corruption. India currently does not have a law to protect whistleblowers, which was highlighted by the assassination of Satyendra Dubey. Indian courts are regularly ordering probe in cases of murders or so-called suicide of several whistle blowers. One of the latest case of such murder is of V Sasindran Company Secretary of Palakkad based Malabar Cement Limited, a Government company in Kerala and his two minor children, Kerala High Court ordered CBI probe on 18 February 2011. Initially, CBI showed its unwillingness for probing into such cases citing over-burden as a reason.

Creation of Anti-Corruption Police and Courts

Some have called for the Central Government to create an anti-theft law enforcement agency that investigates and prosecutes corruption at all levels of government, including state and local level. Special courts that are more efficient than the traditional Indian courts with traveling judges and law enforcement agents are being proposed. The proposal has not yet been acted upon by the Indian government. Certain states such as Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh Anti-corruption Bureau) and Karnataka (Lokayukta) have similar agencies and courts.

Civil sector initiatives

Several new initiatives have come up in the civil sector to raise awareness about Corruption related issues and to build anti-corruption platforms. 5th Pillar is one such organization that is promoting the use of Zero Rupee Notes ^[50] to fight corruption by shaming the officials who ask for bribe. Another popular initiative Jaago Re! One Billion Votes from Tata Tea has now changed its focus from voter registration to fighting corruption.^[51] nobribe.org is another platform for corruption free India and advocates the use of direct and regular measurement of corruption to force the hands of the leadership into dealing with corruption related issues.

Another platform is http://www.indiaagainstcorruption.com India

Against Corruption is a movement created by concerned citizens from all spheres, and professions, who've come together to fight corruption in India. http://www.ipaidabribe.com is one such site.

People For Lok Satta has taken the initiative to lead the National Campaign Against Corruption and Dandi March II.

Another site which has recently sprung up is www.ekakizunj.com. It is inspired byG. R. Khairnar, the erstwhile Mumbai Municipal Deputy Commissioner and intend to create a database of all the corrupt in India