08 Dec 2021  |   05:46am IST

Corruption, immorality ingrained in the human species

Corruption, immorality ingrained in the human species

Raghav Gadgil

Corruption is a blazing topic across party lines these days and the rhetoric runs for electing a corruption-free government. Aren't they singing their promises when they lure citizens on that very basis and fail to fulfill them? Every political party in every election promises a corruption-free government, in turn accepting that the government was corrupt and henceforth won't be. Isn't that ironic? But the main question is what is corruption? Is it the bribing money/property in exchange for administrative work? Or is it throwing one's weight around for the benefit of self/others? I was once ordered to pay a sum of Rs 10,000 in exchange for processing my apartment registration, and as I angrily retorted, I was reminded of the gnawing future of repeated trips to get my work done. Ironically, the office displayed boards that vowed to end corruption. Only a paragon of virtue with the will to fight till the end can survive such ordeals but will be labelled as a renegade. The problem is not with the national-scale scandals that grab the eyeballs, but with every paltry transaction that occurs to execute an otherwise binding duty.

Corruption is mostly used under the context of the meaning as World Bank has defined it: "The use of public office for private gain"; however, it has a broader ambit - "(the) behaviour which deviates from the formal duties of a public role because of private -- regarding pecuniary or status gains; or violates rules against the exercise of certain types of private-regarding interests" (Nye, 1967). 

Negotiations/bribing for reaching a consensus or striking a deal has acquired a form of corruption in today’s money-centric world. Everyone has become subservient to money. This deviation from morality starts early in life: a parent bribes their children with a promise of a candy to study, which proliferates to bargaining for expensive gifts as they grow up, slowly building this collective habit of rewards for getting work done. Such dishonest actions of bribing are then unconsciously regularised in adulthood as the actions were acceptable during juvenescence. This disorder in society has normalised bribing insignificant sums of money that sometimes attain mammoth sizes in the political class. 

It is impossible under any circumstances to get rid of such transactional exchanges within the society. When there is a receptor for bribes, the vulnerable human being will not consider variables such as anti-corruption movements/actions to heighten his/her stature, rather will pay a meagre/hefty sum to get work done. 

People belonging to any civilisation have the straightforward equation of bribe-for-reward pointing directly to the inevitable existence of corruption. Since the dawn of human civilisation, it has been considered ethical to offer wealth to the supreme almighty in lieu of self-well-being, now which seems unethical when the same is done to please those at the helm for self prosperity only because the latter violates the laws and rules that are a part of collective belief.


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