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Re: Fw: article on corruption in India
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Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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Corruption will not go till politicians are forced by us to be corrupt. All
the outstanding IAS officers in India (and there are ***hundreds*** of
them) have failed to make a long-term dent as all good systems are
overturned or blocked ***by politicians.***
It is amazing to see so much excellent advice offered in notesheets in
files by IAS officers. Most of these suggestions are over-ruled by
Ministers, usually by CMs. I have seen so many such cases, I don't believe
the bureaucracy can be held responsibile for the mess in India (by and large).
And our politicians are corrupt because we the citizens refuse to pay them
a decent salary (as a first approximation to the complex problem). So I
always pin the blame of the root of corruption in India on our citizens.
Even after 2 years of saying this on IPI, almost none have understood this:
all blame this or that. Everyone evades personal responsibility.
When our CMs and PMs insists on honesty, for ever, the country will be
cleaned up in 1 day. We have to work for that stage of governance. In the
meanwhile we have to be grateful to our Vittals for doing a great job.
At 06:17 AM 6/21/00 -0700, NP Singh wrote:
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>Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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>In a message dated 6/20/00 9:06:13 PM Central Daylight Time,
>ramn@adelphia.net writes:
>
>> This is a very interesting article that appeared in the Industry
>> Standard...[6.19.2000]
>>
>> Ungreasing Palms In India
>> An anticorruption crusader discovers the Internet cuts bureaucracy and
>> bribes.
>> By Monika Halan
>>
>> To be a common man in India is expensive. Need a phone, or gas for your
>home
>>
>> or electricity for your factory? Pay up. The palms of corrupt government
>> officials are outstretched.
>> (deleted)
>the 12.5 million government employees. Corruption is a public secret:
>> Everyone knows, but no one has wanted to say anything about it. Until now.
>>
>> Nagraj Vittal took over the CVC in September 1998. The commission had
been
>> sending annual reports to Parliament for 35 years, but they languished
>there
>>
>
>
>Dealing with corruption need not be a one man, one time issue, though it is
>better than it being nobody's issue. Corruption and disregard of the laws,
>especially by those, whose job it is to uphold the rule of law, goes to the
>very heart of the issues that make India poor and backward. No amount of
>economic reforms aimed at reducing poverty and stimulating growth is ever
>going to work if investors fear losing their capital when the government and
>the legal system is unable to enforce contracts and property rights. If I
>have a million dollars to invest I am much better off earning 5% interest in
>U.S. bank deposit than investing in say building a house in Delhi for rental
>income or investing in a business in India, for the simple reason that it is
>just not worth the hassle of dealing with the corruption in the Delhi
>Development Authority and the Delhi Electricity Board. If somebody wrongs me
>in my business or a tenant refuses to vacate my property there is no
>practical legal remedy worth the name to protect my interests, unless I am
>well connected or I have the nerve or the inclination to pass 100 rupee
notes
>to court house clerks under the very nose of Your Honor. Corruption and
>Lawlessness in India is stifling enterprise and scaring investors more than
>the politicians' attachment to Socialism. Whether Socialism causes
Corruption
>or not is not my concern here.
>
>Thankful as we are for one Vittal here, a T.N. Seshan there, these people
>will make little difference unless the government in right earnest goes
about
>setting its house in order. Why should the public have to go to the CVC with
>their complaints. He may be a good man, Mr. Vittal is not omnipresent much
>less omnipotent. We must demand, and we must get, a mechanism in each
>government office, department, police station and court house for people to
>be able to make a complaint against rogue public servants and get a response
>from a person with authority in a reasonable time. This is how government
>works in America and England and every other advanced nation of the world
and
>this is how we must make it work in India, if we are ever to have the hope
of
>saving our system from total decay and disintegration.
>
>As things stand today, the public's access is totally cut off from the
people
>in charge and authority. You need a broker to even get to see your
>legislator. I remember at one time the then DDA vice chairman Jagmohan used
>to hold a "Durbar" where the harrassed Delhites used to go with their
>greivances. (Now the term "Durbar" itself was sickening, even in the second
>half of the twentieth century). What was really needed was a Public
Relations
>Office or a Grievance Cell reporting to the highest official. It is
important
>that local mechanisms exist in our government offices to handle people's
>complaints and they should work with transparency and accountability. A
>proactive judge in the Supreme Court or a sincere CVC with a website is
not a
>lasting or complete solution to our mess.
>
>
>
>(deleted to save space)
>
>But the following quotes of Vittal's are too important to delete:
>
>> "The ideal government should be small, moral, accountable, responsible,
>> transparent," says Vittal. He wants to apply information technology in
>every
>>
>(deleted)
>
>and
>>
>> "I'm just doing my duty," adds Vittal. "I have no other agenda. I have
had
>a
>>
>> full life and this post was unexpected. Now, I'm just doing my job. I'm
>> focusing on that."
>
>
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>This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
>Rules, Procedures, Archives: ../debate/
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>
>
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This is the National Debate on System Reform. debate@indiapolicy.org
Rules, Procedures, Archives: ../debate/
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