By Dr. Ambrose Pinto SJ

Three years ago the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) came to power with a promise to the nation that they will provide a corruption free government. The UPA (United Progressive Alliance) headed by the Congress was nationally perceived as corrupt especially in its last year of governance. But instead of decrease in corruption, corruption seems to be on the increase.

According to Transparency International, India has slid three positions in the 2016 country ranking compared to 2015, from 76 to 79, though it nudged up two positions, from 38 to 40, in Transparency corruption Index.

The increase of corruption rates confirms that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ineffective in fighting corruption in spite of loud pronouncements.  Prior to assumption to power the Prime Minister had assured the nation that he would put an end to black money and usher in a transparent rule. India’s score of 40 reiterates the state’s inability to address the issue at the local, regional or national levels.

The ranking is based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by “business people and country experts”. Transparency International said, “It is a composite index, a combination of surveys and assessments of corruption, collected by a variety of reputable institutions.”

India’s rank is above Pakistan at rank 116, but shared the position with China with a score of 40, which is 2 points better than last year. Bhutan is ranked 27 on the list with a score of 65. The most corrupt countries include Somalia, South Sudan, North Korea and Syria, while Denmark and New Zealand are among the cleanest with 90 points each.

Why has corruption increased in India? During the UPA regime headed by the Congress lot of scams were unearthed with the help of the right to information that the government itself allowed. But the present government has done nothing to boost the anti-corruption structure. Besides blocking easy access to the right to information act for crucial information by placing his own personnel in institutions of the state a lot has been hidden.

The transactions of the state have been secretive with the party working closely with nexus with national and international business houses and corporations. The Prime Minister’s authoritarian ways has attempted to make all business deals private and personal without any public accountability.

Corruption in India is a result of the connection between the Prime Minister, bureaucrats, politicians and corporations.  Nothing happens without payments, vested interests and personal and political connections.

That Prime Minister Modi is above corruption and he desires transparency in financial and other deals is no more held true by people at large in the country. There are instances where the Prime Minister has refused to act. He is yet to reveal the truth about his own educational qualification in spite of many attempts through RTI (Right To Information).  

Human Resources Development (HRD) minister had lied on her educational qualifications to the Election Commissioner. His own inaccuracies in accounts while being Chief Minister of Gujarat have been highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)’s five audit reports that has fished out disputed transactions worth Rs 25,000 crore.  In the state of Maharastra the media has been carrying the story of Khadse, the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharastra, an OBC strongman indulging in blatant corruption, land grabbing and seeking crores in bribes along with other corrupt practices of Pankaja Munde and Mahajan in the state, all from the BJP.

The Vyapam scam in Madhya Pradesh pertaining to medical admissions spread all over Madhya Pradesh and running for over a decade now, involving not just the chief minister but the RSS big guns as well according to reports is weakly investigated. The Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya escapade is said to be patronized by the who’s who of BJP Mahilia brigade from Sushma Swaraj to Vasundhara Raje and the other facilitated by people like Arun Jaitley.

The CBI, under the Prime Minister’s direct supervision has dropped cases against the accused five top executives of LIC, LIC Housing, Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank and three top guns of Money Matters Financial Services, for sanctioning in 2010 corporate loans running into thousands of crores. Cases against these top guns of the Indian banking world were registered in 2010 in the UPA era.

The Sena in Mumbai had exposed a scam of Rs. 20,000 crores in the apparent Government patronage to popularizing LED bulbs. Modi’s front for all his financial investments Gautam Adani is a defaulter of the banks to the tune of Rs 72000 crore and his Diamond merchant friends from Gujarat constitute the maximum number of those who have been stacking unaccounted wealth in British Virgin Islands and whose names figures in the Panama papers leak.

With the growing hold of corporations–national, multinational and transnational–on the economy, corruption is not likely to decline without a strong political will.

(Dr. Ambrose Pinto SJ is Principal of St. Aloysius Degree College, Cox Town, Bangalore – 560005)