Not so easy to track and measure the scale of corruption in a country like India, because there are too many parameters at play. But then there are these outstanding organizations such as ‘Transparency International’ who with their dedicated efforts try to demonstrate as much as possible, where exactly your country is placed on the corruption index. If you compare the data on a yearly basis, you should be able to figure out if your country is making progress or has turned for the worse. 

2011 was arguably India’s worst year in terms of corruption in the country wherein the party that was in office at the Center and state believed that corruption was their right, especially since most politicians in their official and unofficial capacity literally fed the many parasite voters they had created in their respective constituencies. Sometimes they would take the liberty to make subtle noises that corruption had become a necessity in politics, given the fact that there were too many parasites to be fed in their constituencies. 

Naturally the argument of feeding the many constituents gave them the incentives to go about their corrupt ways in a brazen manner with no fear whatsoever. But things came to a head and the people became very aware of the open corrupt practices that were going on in the country, thanks to the anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare. His April 2011 hunger strike in the capital of the country galvanised an angry population of the nation against corruption. Here was Anna with an absolutely humble background willing to go hungry, to take on the might of a corrupt government, in order to bring about a law that would supposedly nail the corrupt.

While eliminating corruption was Anna’s primary target, he was also galvanising his countrymen into believing that it is possible to force the government to make legislations that might actually work against the politicians themselves. Initially the government arrogantly brushed aside Anna’s demands, but seeing the crowds swell and the country’s support base increase by the day, they seem to have given to his demands. The flip flops the government did in handling Anna’s hunger-fast, is a classic example of the tussle politicians underwent at that time, in making the choice to either give in meekly or arrogantly crush the Anna’s movement. Giving in meekly clearly meant allowing the shift of power from politicians to the common people, while arrogantly crushing the movement could invite the wrath of the people. 

Most of our lackluster countrymen needed a jolt like this from a humble man Anna to wake up and do something about corruption and wake up they did. Some anti-corruption law got through, not without the usual delay tactics drama, and as a consequence of the Anna movement, a political party did sweep the Delhi local elections more than once. But more than anything else Anna’s hunger-fast demonstrated one thing, that politicians are usually scared of the collective power of the people and will try and avoid crossing paths with them in order to survive in office. Most of the time, they will choose to listen to the people depending on the intensity of the anger and the noise that comes along with it. 

Anna’s anti-corruption crusade was a throwback to the start of the decade, while now we are almost staring at the end of the decade. What has changed from then and now? Indians were angry of the Party C corruption so they voted for Party B with an unprecedented majority, which by the way just happened to be next choice the people had, in the hope corruption will be wiped out. Have we made progress on the corruption front? According to Transparency International we have a climbed a notch, but are long way off the leaders Denmark and New Zealand. Nobody expected India to reach the top in such quick time, but the problem seems to be that Prime Minster Modi raised hopes to sky-level during his election campaign and now is facing the burden of over promising and seriously under delivering. 

Just by making incremental changes in government processes you don’t expect to pull a fast one on organizations such as Transparency International. To raise India several notches higher the government was expected to disrupt government processes and not merely improve them sometimes even cosmetically. These organisations are smart enough to understand exactly which government process is prone to corruption, while they take note of the fact that certain processes are completely unnecessary and exist there, just to extract from the citizens, a sign of government’s poor intent. While the government of India is technical not answerable to these organizations, they should acknowledge the fact that they get an almost free performance evaluation of their effort from a neutral agency. The government now has a choice, either they continue with the recent trend of ridiculing international organisations that don’t go our way, or take disruptive action by dismantling all government processes that encourages corruption and climb several notches on their index so that the world takes notice.

Unfortunately Transparency International does not have date on state-wise corruption in India, because if that was possible than Goa would definitely be shown as either stagnant or have made some miniscule progress on the index. As there has been no resolution on legacy Goa’s corruption issues, it has given a chance for corruption and the corrupt to make a quick comeback. The Chief Minister of Goa has some very honest credentials to his name as Defense Minister of India, but really these credentials mean nothing if corruption is ignored or not punished under his watch. Party C Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh also had some very honest credentials to his name and we all know how he personally paid the price for tolerating corruption. Today nobody wants to recognize his pulling the Indian economy from the brink in the nineties. Better the Goa Chief Minister introspect, a bit of a Goa’s corruption #throwback might help. 

(The author is a business consultant)