The utter rout of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) in the recently concluded legislative assembly elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively, is clear proof that contrary to popular punditry, abatement, if not elimination, of corruption in government is a live and important issue in Indian politics. Regrettably, during the past 60 years since independence, under a succession of greedy cabals disguised as political parties at the Centre and in the states, the Republic of India conceived with noblest impulses, is rapidly morphing into a hollow democracy in which the rule of law — the gold standard of a true democracy — is being incrementally suborned with institutions of public governance being emasculated and/or transformed into private fiefdoms and treasuries. Yet fortuitously, universal adult franchise has survived the best efforts of free India’s reckless and déclassé politicians enabling the largely illiterate, neglected and poverty-stricken people of India to fully exercise this quinquennial right, often with a vengeance. That the cabals which have dominated the political discourse of independent India have not suborned the Election Commission of India is perhaps their only saving grace. Against this backdrop it’s astonishing that despite a mountain of evidence indicating that hundreds of millions of ordinary, lay citizens of the republic have cruelly been denied basic food, clothing, shelter, education and healthcare by the country’s 18 million politicians and bureaucrats at the Centre and states openly practicing collusive extortion and graft, the great majority of political pundits still seem to believe that corruption is not a major issue in national politics. Hopefully the crushing defeat of the CPM — which during the 34 years of uninterrupted rule it enjoyed in West Bengal (pop. 91 million) had outsourced governance of this once-prosperous state to its corrupt and autocratic party cadres who arbitrarily auctioned all government services — and the DMK in Tamil Nadu which practiced family rule with an effrontery that would have embarrassed a mafia clan, will persuade them to appreciate the reality that corruption in governance weighs heaviest upon the poorest and most deprived sections of the population, as confirmed by several Transparency International India studies. However it’s important to note that the electoral defeat of these heavyweight political parties is unlikely to serve as a sufficiently strong incentive to the nation’s political class and dynasties to clean up their augean stables. The rot has permeated too deep to permit voluntary action. Therefore the best available option to the citizenry is to support individuals (including Anna Hazare) and NGOs working to strengthen institutions of governance including Parliament, the judiciary, Central Bureau of Investigation, the police and proposed Jana Lok Pal. Foolishly over the past 60 years the Indian electorate has reposed its faith in charismatic individuals rather than institutions of governance. It’s high time the citizenry and particularly the nation’s intelligentsia, acknowledged this erroneous priority and reversed it. Addressing corruption analysis paralysis Against the backdrop of pervasive and accelerating official corruption which prompted Anna Hazare, the…
