Corruption in India

Corruption in India is a phenomenon that one has to face practically at entry level and in every walk of life it could be the local rationing department, police, municipal authorities, or educational institution like school and collages in industry, regular bribe are collected by the public servants. Corruption is anti national, anti economical development and anti poor, nevertheless there does not seem to be in the public at large a proper and adequate realization of the danger of corruption. In 2012 India has ranked 94th out of 176 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. Corrupt leaders and bureaucrats are spared from strict punishment for all their criminal activities. The criminals easily get away by paying large sums of bribes to the judicial authorities. The people too are tolerant of such activities, they fear raising their voice against such anti-social elements. A corruption Free State will surely lead to more development and justice will prevail. Due to the large scale corruption prevailing in almost all the sectors, among all the developing countries India has the largest budget deficits. Reduction in corruption will increase the scope for investment in public services like education and health facilities.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CORRUPTION

Corruption in Ramayana:- KAIKEYI exploited the situation of given throne to eldest son ram in a accordance with the exile is practice and king DASARATHA violate the principals of hierarchy and given thrown of ram the eldest son .KAIKEYI also compel them to nominated her son bharat to be the king of ayodhya this is clear cut example of corruption which resulted into grave, misery , and suffer to the general public.

Corruption in Mahabharata:- At the time of Mahabharata the corruption was remnant at the peak the evil of gambling the putting woman at its take was common in those days which clear example of droupadi was put at the gamble it take non but as by her husbands yudishtar, bhim etc. they lost intake and the winner party duryodhan misbehave with her in open court violating all norm as civilized society and when duryodhan humiliating droupadi the great reputing of court like bhism, dronacahrya and other who present in court did not raise any voice against the injustice they did not oppose the evil because they were dependant on him this is a clear cut example of corruption which shown that how the king and reputing parties misuse there power and themselves violating the law

Types of corruption

Political corruption :-Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence. Forms of the corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement.India has been rocked by a spate of scams in the recent past. Here is an overview of some most infamous scams that have hit the country over the years. Tell us which of these scams has caused the most damage to the country .

2013 Chopper scam:- Better known as Chopper gate, the scam involves several politicians and defense officers, who have been accused of having accepted bribes from Augusta Westland to clear a contract to supply 12 Augusta Westland AW101 helicopters to India. India had signed a contract to purchase 12 Augusta Westland AW101 helicopters in February 2010. The Rs3600 crore-scam came to light on February 12, 2013, when Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi was arrested by Italian authorities for bribes allegedly paid to secure the sale of 12 helicopters to India. Finmeccanica is the parent company of Augusta Westland.Indian Defense Minister AK Antony ordered a CBI probe into the contract the very next day. Investigations revealed that three persons related to the then Air Force chief Shashi Tyagi had bended the rules in the tender to help AgustaWestland secure the contract.On March 13, 2013, the CBI had filed an FIR against the former IAF chief and 12 others for alleged cheating and criminal conspiracy in the Rs3600 crore VVIP helicopter deal. Tyagi is first chief of the Indian Air Force to be named in a corruption or criminal case by the CBI. The FIR also named brother of former Union minister Santosh Bagrodia, Satish Bagrodia and Pratap Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of IDS Infotech in the case. According to Reuters, the investigation into the Italian firm Finmeccanica, which started more than a year ago, is one of a series of corruption scandals in defense deal making in India.

2012 Coal block allocation scam :-Dubbed as Coalgate by the media, the scam once again exposed corruption in the higher echelons of power in the country. The scandal involves allocation of the country's coal deposits to public and private sector Company by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The officer of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), in a draft report in March 2012, accused the government of allocating coal blocks in an arbitrary manner during the period 2004–2009, causing a loss of Rs1.86 lakhs crore. Initially the loss was pegged at over Rs10 lakhs crore, but the CAG revised it to Rs1.86 lakh crore after leaving out PSUs from its final report. The BJP lodged a complaint regarding the matter which led to a CBI probe into the scam and demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation. However, Singh read a statement in the Parliament on 27 August 2012 refuting the CAG's report. The scandal caused a lot of furor both inside and outside the Parliament due to its magnitude. The scandal got murkier when 43 files containing crucial information on how the coal fields were allocated to private firms went missing. Dr Manmohan Singh was in charge of the Coal Ministry between 2006 and 2009. Some of the files missing contain information on allocations of coal fields during this period. After a lot of hammering by the Opposition, all except seven files were traced and sent to the CBI to further the probe.

2011 Tatra truck scam: - Top officials of Bharat earthmover Ltd (BEML), a defense public sector undertaking, and the defense ministry siphoned off Rs750 crore in bribes and commissions over the past 14 years in the purchase of components for Tatra trucks. For over a decade, the BEML flouted defense procurement guidelines and sold Tatra trucks to the army at an inflated price. Flouting defense ministry guidelines, BEML, formerly Bharat Earth Movers Limited, a Rs3,500 crore company in which the government of India is the majority shareholder, has been buying components for the 6x6 and 8x8 trucks from a middleman in London.The defense procurement guidelines clearly mention that all purchases are to be made from the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).However, a DNA investigation revealed that BEML, was dealing with Tatra Sipox (UK) Ltd, which is neither the OEM nor a subsidiary of the OEM.However, no action was taken by the government until former Army Chief General VK Singh, in an interview, admitted that he was offered bribe of Rs14 crore for clearing the purchase of 600 substandard Tatra-all-terrain vehicles.

2010 2G spectrum:- one of the largest financial scams in the country, the 2G scam involves undercharging by government officials to various telecom companies during the allocation of 2G licenses for cell phone subscriptions. The telecom bandwidth tender was undervalued and offered to a preferred few on a 'First-Come-First-Served' basis instead of a transparent auction system, advised by the PMO. While the CAG pegs the scam amount at Rs176,000 crore, the CBI estimates it at Rs30,984 crore .Investigations revealed that 122 122 licenses were issued in 2008 during the tenure of then minister for communications & IT A Raja, who is the main accused in the case .Raja was forced to resign on November 14. and has been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting illegal gratification. Apart from Raja, daughter Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, MK Kanimozhi and late Pramod Mahajan have also been named in the case.

THE VOHRA COMMITTEE, which was set up in July, 1993 to study corruption in Indi by taking stock of the links of both government submitted its report in1993 and proved that a) The Crime exists in politics and exposed the nexus between criminal worlds with our legislator. It has stated that the network of the mafia is virtually running a parallel government. b) The committee has stated that some parliamentarians and state assembly members have come into political power through the leadership of gangs and armed senas The report of the committee reflects the real picture of present legislators which now poses a serious threat even to our national security. In the present scenario following statement of vohra committee seems right, that “when democracy become corrupt, the best gravitates to the bottom, the worst floats to the top and the vile is replaced by the more vile.

ADMINISTRATIVE CORRUPTION:-Administrative corrupt means to act dishonestly or unfaithfully towards ones official duties or preservation or destructions of integrity in discharge of public duties by bribery or favor and such deviant misuse a public position of trust for trust. It means performance of illegal acts, corruption, and increasing discretionary power for personal gain or extortion of money from poor and needy. Corruption by police:Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers seek personal gain, such as money or career advancement, through the abuse of power, for example by accepting bribes in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, and investigation or arrest .One common form of police corruption is soliciting or accepting bribes in exchange for not reporting organized drug or prostitution rings or other illegal activities. UNCONSTIITITUTIONALITY OF “THIRD DEGREE”METHOD AND USES OF FATAL FORCE BY POLICE Police are permitted to use force. Under certain circumstance mainly in cases of arrest, search and handing unruly crowds and dispending unlawful assemblies custodial torture “third degree” has become a common phenomenon and a routine police practice of interrogation these days. Third degree refers to use of coercive measure including inflicting of physical violence on suspected for extracting confession Following are some landmark cases where the Supreme Court held the use of” third degree “method as unconstitutional. In Niranjan Sing v.Prabhakar rajaram, The supreme court while dealing with the cases of custodial torture and uses of third degree method observed that “the police instead of being protector of law, have been become the engineer of terror and putting people into fear”. In Kishore Sing v. state of rajasthan, the supreme court held that the use of “third degree” method by police is violative of Art 21 and directed the government to take necessary steps to educated the police so as to inculcated a respected for the human person.

Professional corruption:- Professional corruption is apart among the various types of corruption. Professional corruption is adoption of such way of any corruption which it is not expected to adopt. Every profession has some code of conduct prescribes some rules, condition or ethics of that profession are called as professional corruption. There are several fields where professional corruption prevailed such as legal medical, journalism, education, engineering, and architected etc in which corruption is found normally now a days.

CAUSES OF INCREASED OF PROFFESIONAL CORRUPTION

• Increase of industrialization, urbanization, growing competitive tendency, greed and lack of morals and ethics or lack of vigorous punishment are the main causes of any types of corruption:

• Majority of people in our country are poor and illiterate and backward. They are not adequately knowledgeable and so they are easily exploited by such professional. Back up of corrupt politicians, who always support them to of this they perform their illegal activities, in return finance politician at the time of election or help them in any illegal act

• Sometimes satisfaction of the client may be the cause which turned the way of professional toward corruption.

• The institution of private property and laissez-fairs help to promote such corruption in society

Conclusion

Corruption is widespread in our country that it is difficult nowadays to see a public servant without corruption. Such corruption may be seen in every sphere of public life. Corruption is an act of violation of legal codes of conduct in discharge of public duties by public servant for personal benefit to cope up with the increasing cases of corruption

Following are some recommendations, which may be useful to decrease effects of corruption on society

1. The existing law should be made more effective so that culprits may not escape punishment. Moreover exemplary punishment should be awarded to defaulters the honest instead of being penalized and curbed, as we sometimes hear, should be suitably rewarded.

2. There is need to reorganize and strengthen the anti corruption organizations, special police establishment, etc.

3. The privileges and payments to employees should be made on the basis of contribution they make to the development of the people and the nation and not for strengthening the hands of politicians.

4. Society too should take part to remove corruption from society. At the time of election votes only for the honest, proper candidates. Because people choose them then only politicians become legislators. There is a need to keep close watch on the legislators as well as bureaucrats and if any grave breach of duties is committed by them, it should be highlighted and for that media should take part effectively in activities to expose such corruption. A complete end to the corruption is the only way these people can lead a better life.