Saurav Pathak wrote:
Hi Saurav:
this is a very interesting article on corruption in india. it
asserts that corruption is rooted in the electoral process, a very
pertinent point, imo. i havent been able to find out where it appeared originally.
http://mahendra-agarwalonline.20m.com/PR_NVittalOnCorruptionInIndia.htm
Thanks.
While not denying the enormous magnitude and importance of corruption in the political system in India, one should never forget that many countries, where regular electoral democracy is non-existent ,also suffer from serious problems of corruption. Just look at the dictatorships in some Latin American countries or, for that matter, in the subcontinent.
I remain sceptical about the claim that it is rooted in the electoral system - though obviously, corruption (or political contributions, as they are called in developed countries) is as much vital to functioning of political systems in democracies as anything else. For all said and done, elected governments are driven by two incentives - votes and money - where votes depend on money (elections) and money flow depends on prospective votes (firms in Florida receiving government contracts and largesse are now contributing exclusively to the Republican party). Thats equally true in India or, for that matter, in the Karbianglong District Council.
My own position is that like cholestorol and bacteria - there's good corruption and bad corruption. But no corruption is not a realistic alternative, nor a benchmark.
Finally, I think that people downplay the role of colonialism in understanding corruption. Indian government power is today executed largely by a huge monolith of civil servants who are ideologically closer to the extortionist mindset of Eadt India Company officials, the natural feeling of superiority and an almost unwritten license to grab from the natives, by right of superiority.
Santanu-da.
