The Corrupt India

Three worrisome aspects of national life demand drastic measures as early as possible. These are: exploding population, rampant corruption and an administrative system which is among the worst in the world. Ever since the independence, these three problems have been pushed under the carpet because they require tough decisions.

Even as the country’s population has crossed the one billion mark, our leaders continue to twiddle their thumbs. The so-called national population policy, announced with much fanfare recently, is in unmitigated force. After talking about a dozen concerns pertaining to the health of women and children it again put emphasis on voluntarism in the area of family planning. But the experience of the last five decades shows that India’s population problem is of such a magnitude that mere recourse to persuasion and propaganda is just not enough. There is an urgent need for a centrally sponsored nation-wide scheme of incentives and disincentives - a carrot-and-stick policy.

Needless to say, an incentive-disincentive scheme would initially cover the organized sector, which means employees of the central and state government as well as the public and private corporate sectors. It would entail monetary rewards, promotions and concessions relating to the education of children, housing and transportation. The details are not difficult to work out and have been written about.

Corruption has been corroding the very innards of the Indian nation. First, there is need for an attitudinal change. We should eschew the despicable habit of throwing up our hands in despair and lamenting that nothing can be done with corruption. Because of the innate avariciousness of human nature, it may be difficult to eradicate corruption, but it can definitely be reduced. For this, it is equally important to remember that we must attack corruption at the highest echelons of power because, like liquid, it flows from top to bottom.

There is also a need to strike at the root cause of corruption by breaking the corrupt politician-businessman nexus. Politicians take black money to fight elections. If there were state funding of political parties, this need would be to some extent, be obviated. Considering that the quinquennial expense of elections in India is estimated around Rs. 1000 crores. It means that there is an annual need of just Rs.200 crores for state funding of political parties. For a country of India’s size, this is a manageable amount. Several advanced democracies, like the USA and Germany, have state funding of political parties.

At the time of independence, our leaders blind-folded adopted the colonial type of administration left behind by the British and imposed it on the nation. In the last 5 decades, despite a constant glamour, there has been not a single piece of administrative reform, with the result that the situation has been going from bad to worse.

Three administrative reforms should be introduced immediately. One, no file should be required to move more than three levels before a decision is taken. Two, there should be moratorium on government recruitment till the size of the bureaucracy is reduced by 30% over 10 years. Three, the foolproof security of service in government job should be rescinded. But, considering our pusillanimous leadership, who will bell the cat?

(originally published on my Live Journal Blog.)