why are the people corrupt in INDIA?

Answer 1

Corruption in India and the Anti-Establishment Vote
Corruption not only has become a pervasive aspect of Indian politics but also has become an increasingly important factor in Indian elections. The extensive role of the Indian state in providing services and promoting economic development has always created the opportunity for using public resources for private benefit. As government regulation of business was extended in the 1960s and corporate donations were banned in 1969, trading economic favors for under-the-table contributions to political parties became an increasingly widespread political practice. During the 1980s and 1990s, corruption became associated with the occupants of the highest echelons of India's political system. Rajiv Gandhi's government was rocked by scandals, as was the government of P.V. Narasimha Rao. Politicians have become so closely identified with corruption in the public eye that a Times of India poll of 1,554 adults in six metropolitan cities found that 98 percent of the public is convinced that politicians and ministers are corrupt, with 85 percent observing that corruption is on the increase.

The prominence of political corruption in India in the 1990s is hardly unique to India. Other countries also have experienced corruption that has rocked their political systems. What is remarkable about India is the persistent anti-incumbent sentiment among its electorate. Since Indira's victory in her 1971 "garibi hatao " election, only one ruling party has been reelected to power in the central government. In an important sense, the exception proves the rule because the Congress (I) won reelection in 1984 in no small measure because the electorate saw in Rajiv Gandhi a "Mr. Clean" who would lead a new generation of politicians in cleansing the political system. Anti-incumbent sentiment is just as strong at the state level, where the ruling parties of all political persuasions in India's major states lost eleven of thirteen legislative assembly elections held from 1991 through spring 1995.

LOC 1995 data - corruption in India

The official site of central vigilance commission of India, Indian Government Corruption web site - http://cvc.nic.in


A feisty, year-old Internet media company disguised its reporters as weapons dealers,gave them piles of cash and dispatched them to expose corruption in India's politicaland military establishment.

The result was hours of videotape that captured defense officials accepting bribesfor arms contracts - an expose leading to the resignations of two Cabinet ministersand calls for the government to step down.

The scandal has set off screaming matches in Parliament and prompted Prime MinisterAtal Bihari Vajpayee on Friday to promise an inquiry to "clean up the dirt." The furorforced U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to cancel a visit to Parliament.

"Our job was to blow the whistle on corruption in India's defense procurement. We wantedto nail them down," said Tarun J. Tejpal, the 37-year-old chief executive of the media company Tehelka.com.

His company's upstart Web site, which carries the banner "News. Views. All the juice"and runs an eclectic collection of news, political intrigue, literature and sports inEnglish, has hit a nerve among Indians.

Since it broke the scandal Tuesday, the site has been flooded with 1,000 e-mails dailyand millions of hits, making it difficult to log on, said Tehelka.com's information manager, Sanjiv Kapoor.

Reactions to the expose have ranged from euphoria among its readers to calls for its young reporters to be arrested.

"I'm proud to be an Indian today! We've shown the corrupt underbelly of India that they can no longer take us for granted," Adnan Adeeb said in a letter to Tehelka.com.

The company launched itself in May by interviewing a key figure in a cricket match-fixing scandal.

Then in August, Tehelka.com reporters began the undercover operation into India's defense purchases. Their plan was to enter at the lowest level û the section officer in defense procurement - and work up.

Tehelka.com reporters Aniruddha Bahal, 25, and Mathew Samuel, in his 30s, spent months pretending to be defense contractors and pushing a fake $870,000 deal for hand-held thermal cameras and other equipment. They secretly filmed the transactions.

What they found astounded them.

"Eight months into the investigation we are still astonished at how incredibly high the ladder goes. ... We are still astonished at how blinding the greed was, that two rank amateurs with close to no knowledge of defense hardware, hawking a patently absurd product, could go so far as to slice open an entire industry of high corruption," said Mr. Tejpal, who has worked as a journalist for some of India's leading publications.

The scandal rattled Mr. Vajpayee's government, which took office in 1998 promising clean government. The opposition has called for him to resign.

Corruption in India
But every act of corruption requires the participation of other forces in society as well. It involves corrupt industrialists and corporate CEOs - agents of foreign and local businesses. It
may involve Harvard or Cambridge educated top government bureaucrats. Why is it that most people's anger is exclusively focused on politicians?

For instance, last year, there was a news report about SONY India dodging taxes. It was one of the largest corporate tax defaulters in India. Considering how SONY is one of the richest corporations in the world, it puzzles me as to why there hasn't been a huge outcry against this corrupt MNC. Would people get as worked up over SONY or the corrupt practices of other MNCs? Union Carbide ( the MNC responsible for the Bhopal Gas Leak) had a special office in Delhi whose sole job was to influence India's laws and to bribe and corrupt top officials in the industry ministry. It is common knowledge that courses in international business in the US have special courses on "handling corruption". Students are not taught that bribing and influencing government officials or politicians is wrong. No. They are simply taught how to actually engage in such practices without being caught, and without jeopardizing the reputation of the company.

Yet, many of these same people whose blood boils at corruption in India see the US as a paragon of "fairness" and "equal opportunity". Recently, the top Cellular companies got a special break where they are now allowed NOT to pay the license fees they had legally promised to pay. These international Cellular companies hired lobbyists that worked overtime in getting this sweet-heart deal passed. Indian taxpayers are going to lose tens of thousands of crores as a result of this giveaway. Prior to this giveaway to the Cellular MNCs and their Indian collaborators, the Indian people were stuck with a huge jump in their ordinary telephone bill.

This has generated little controversy because the media has made no attempts to portray it as a case of serious corruption. On the other hand, there has been a steady stream of stories about
"Lalloo's corruption". There have been innuendoes about Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayavati. An Indian has even created a web-site where someone could go "punch" Lalloo. The media has cynically branded Lalloo as India's first (and it seems, most dangerous) villain, and many have been taken in.

To have picked on Lalloo as the sole embodiment of what ails India is a reflection of how the dominant ideas of society create popular reflexes. Lalloo has been singled out for corruption in India - but there were several reports - (now conveniently suppressed and forgotten) that Howard educated - "erudite and urbane" - Chidambaram had been far more corrupt than
Lalloo. Moreover, since Chidambaram was finance minister, and his corruption affected India's top financial institutions - his role was far more detrimental to the national interest. As a persistently vocal spokesperson for several foreign interests in India, Chidambaram did more to hurt the interests of the Indian people than did Lallu.

On the other hand, Lalloo had been at least something of a symbol for the justifiable assertiveness of the oppressed castes. And unlike some rich well-connected politician's son or relative who could enter politics based on someone else's reputation, Lalloo had to work his way to the top through some hard work. He had joined politics as an activist in the Jay Prakash Narayan campaign, and became popular because of the work he had done amongst some of Bihar's oppressed castes. Chidambaram couldn't even claim to any such social following, or mass social base. But it is typical of the anglophile Indian media to bash a rustic politician like Lalloo but conveniently ignore the pro-Western, upper-caste, city-bred crooks that find ample room to flourish in India's major political parties.

Caste oppression and caste inequality remain amongst the most serious problems affecting India - and this type of social bigotry prevents India from developing into a modern nation. But
votaries of volunteerism see this almost as a non-issue. They are rarely able to see the selectivism of the Indian media when it picks scape-goats for India's problems.

Very recently, there have been reports that the BJP-led government hastily sold shares in GAIL at below market prices to foreign investors like Enron and a major British oil company.
But Yashwant Sinha whose ministry was responsible for this sell-out has been spared the kind of bashing one might expect for having betrayed national interests in this manner.

BUT NOT ALL INDIANS ARE CORRUPT.....................................

Answer 2

Not only in India but also in other part of third world country u will find corrupted people.
But it is really difficult to say the corruption came in India.Most probably it was started by the political person and got no punishment which was a motivating factor for the next person who came in the que to do corruption.
Actually our constitution and judicial system are the origin of this corruption.

Answer 3

In fact not the people, the government, people need to queue to get something done, the rich people bribe lot of money to the officers and get the job done immediately, this happening through out the country from low level to very high level and the amount varies according to the level, we can't get rid of this unless some one start a party to just only to deal with corruptions..

Answer 4

It is not that other countries do not have corruption. It is only that in India the Corruption affects the poor man/common man whereas in foreign countries it is only at top level. So let us not have any misconception. Are these survey conducted by Indians or some foreign firm? Check their credentials before belittling your country.

Answer 5

Materialism, greed, selfish, apathetic attitute toward society. In such a poor place with not many opportunities like in the US, having any money makes a big difference. That's why there's so much corruption in 2cd & 3rd world countries..like Mexico, India, Nigeria, Iraq, Pakistan, China, etc.

Answer 6

Is the any where in the world were there no corrupt people ?

Answer 7

Indians are not alone in corruption, in my view almost all other nations in the world also have corruption although degree of spread may be more or less. I think corruption is inversely propotional to development index.. More the development of the nation, less is the corruption.

Answer 8

It's bad to present your country and it's people in a bad way
"NOT ALL PEOPLE ARE CORRUPT IN INDIA"

Answer 9

coz everybody want to be successfull n have a lot of many without much efforts n that too in short time n the govt is also like that so people r more corrupt ok

Answer 10

hey,not all the people in India or involving in corruption..but some definitely corrupt..this may be because of economical under development...or may be because of fources..from higher officials..and even people offer..money to get their work done in mins..

Answer 11

it is not the people who r corrupt in india but the entire system is only corrupt.People follow the same system . they do the same things wat others do.government takes taxes from the people and utilise them in making roads and oher things.but in reality half the amt of the taxes is used by those people who r goin to give the permission to do the job.people always follow wat other people do.hence in india people r nt corrupt but the system is only corrupt.hence if anybody wants to end this corruption the system has to be changed