Corruption hurts good governance
Source: By Subrata Majumder: The Echo of India
The aim of 1991 economic reforms was to do away with the License Raj. It was the main source of corruptions. Babus amass huge wealth through the means of licenses issued for manufacturing and trading. Various licenses and approvals were required to start a manufacturing and import businesses. A huge money were flowed under the table to expedite the issue of licenses. A manufacturer had to wait for eight to ten months to get an industrial license. Similar periods were required t to obtain an import license. Most of the big houses deployed brains to liaison with the babus and expedite the issue of licenses through bribes.
The main targets AAP’s anti-corruption movement are babus and police. It is the same babus who were the main cause for corruption during License Raj. This time the corruptions are, however, of different natures. They are related more to the civic amenities and basic economic needs of general people, such as high electricity bills and water bills, unemployment, inflation, property taxes and police atrocities. Similar to License Raj, babus are involved in squeezing general people in providing these services in nexus with politicians and police. The factors, which helped Babus to propel up the crony capitalism in the country, are the complicated regulations and cumbersome procedures.
It is paradoxical that corruption has become rampant during the period of Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister in his second term, given that he was the pioneer to banish the license raj in 1991, when he was Minister of Finance. Corruptions have spurred almost in every step of governance, whether it is economy or issues relating to facilities to general people. UPA led by him has become the main target of corruption buoyancy by AAP. Abandoning license raj and inducting various other reforms became boon to economic growth. GDP jumped from a flat growth by 1.4 percent in 1991-92 to 8 per cent in1996-97. Reforms became a strong platform for self-sufficiency in manufacturing and trading which were either dependent on imports or smuggling. Growth in manufacturing boomed to 15 per cent in 1995-96, the highest growth the country witnessed ever.
The country becomes one of the biggest base in the world for consumer durables like electronic goods and automobiles. Role of private sector and FDI became dominant in the development of manufacturing and trading sectors. The spell of high growth resurrected with Congress coming back into power in 2004. GDP spurred from 7 per cent in 2004-05 to 9 per cent in 2010-11.
The World Economic Forum Competitive Index said that freedom from corruption is one of the factors that influenced economy’s competitiveness. Corruption is the major hurdle in the growth story.
Then, what made Congress plunged into corruption in its present term? Most of the corruptions were economic related issues, similar to those in license raj, such as 2G, coal, real estate scam. This means that License Raj has reversed back with the opening of economy in sensitive sectors, such as telecom services, financial services, reality business and mining sectors. Earlier, License Raj was to patronize closed economy. After the reforms, License Raj crawled into the areas which were not open to private sectors.
Another factor which led to corruption bubble was the larger size of coalition government. With the growing stature of local political parties in State politics, coalition government has become inevitable at the centre. More the ruling government was tied to local parties’ for coalition supports, more corruptions crawled into the governance. The 2G and coal scam are the cases in point. It is argued that one of the main reasons for successes of Modi and Chouhan government in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh respectively was less corruption.
Corruption could be waned with the absence or lower size of coalition government. Both Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh enjoy single party majority. Evidently, in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, BJP has less ratio of corrupted MLAs. According to Election Watch by ADR, BJP has 27 per cent of its MLAs in Gujarat and 29 per cent of its MLAs in Madhya Pradesh corrupted (against whom criminal proceedings were registered) as compared to Congress having 32 per cent in Gujarat and 38 per cent in Madhya Pradesh corrupted MLAs.
AAP is the composite of fresh politicians. Most of them do not have experiences in governance using Parliamentary democratic systems. They are from different sects of life - scientists, lawyers, bureaucrats, journalists, technocrats. They have one zeal, that is, how the corruption should be nipped in the bud through revolution in democratic system, which confer democratic rights – whether on the road or in the legislatures. AAP followed two pronged strategies to drub the corruptions. One, through Parliamentary democratic system by bringing Lok Pal Bill and two, by anti-corruption movements on streets. This surged the charisma of AAP and became cause for fear to taper the Modi wave. That is the reason that RSS is frantically asking BJP to stop the AAP, not Congress. This was confirmed by BJP not supporting Kejriwal governing Delhi. The success of AAP in Delhi Assembly election transcended the polarization of Garibi hatao, development, caste, creed and other considerations.
As removing of License Raj leveraged a big scope for industry to prosper economy in the country, AAP’s anti-corruption movement is hoped to nail the red tape and deliver a better governance, which is crucial for resurrection of the economy and better life for AAM Admi. In nutshell, AAP’s anti corruption movement replicates the reform movement, which was initiated to get the country bereft of economic corruption.
The aim of 1991 economic reforms was to do away with the License Raj. It was the main source of corruptions. Babus amass huge wealth through the means of licenses issued for manufacturing and trading. Various licenses and approvals were required to start a manufacturing and import businesses. A huge money were flowed under the table to expedite the issue of licenses. A manufacturer had to wait for eight to ten months to get an industrial license. Similar periods were required t to obtain an import license. Most of the big houses deployed brains to liaison with the babus and expedite the issue of licenses through bribes.
The main targets AAP’s anti-corruption movement are babus and police. It is the same babus who were the main cause for corruption during License Raj. This time the corruptions are, however, of different natures. They are related more to the civic amenities and basic economic needs of general people, such as high electricity bills and water bills, unemployment, inflation, property taxes and police atrocities. Similar to License Raj, babus are involved in squeezing general people in providing these services in nexus with politicians and police. The factors, which helped Babus to propel up the crony capitalism in the country, are the complicated regulations and cumbersome procedures.
It is paradoxical that corruption has become rampant during the period of Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister in his second term, given that he was the pioneer to banish the license raj in 1991, when he was Minister of Finance. Corruptions have spurred almost in every step of governance, whether it is economy or issues relating to facilities to general people. UPA led by him has become the main target of corruption buoyancy by AAP. Abandoning license raj and inducting various other reforms became boon to economic growth. GDP jumped from a flat growth by 1.4 percent in 1991-92 to 8 per cent in1996-97. Reforms became a strong platform for self-sufficiency in manufacturing and trading which were either dependent on imports or smuggling. Growth in manufacturing boomed to 15 per cent in 1995-96, the highest growth the country witnessed ever.
The country becomes one of the biggest base in the world for consumer durables like electronic goods and automobiles. Role of private sector and FDI became dominant in the development of manufacturing and trading sectors. The spell of high growth resurrected with Congress coming back into power in 2004. GDP spurred from 7 per cent in 2004-05 to 9 per cent in 2010-11.
The World Economic Forum Competitive Index said that freedom from corruption is one of the factors that influenced economy’s competitiveness. Corruption is the major hurdle in the growth story.
Then, what made Congress plunged into corruption in its present term? Most of the corruptions were economic related issues, similar to those in license raj, such as 2G, coal, real estate scam. This means that License Raj has reversed back with the opening of economy in sensitive sectors, such as telecom services, financial services, reality business and mining sectors. Earlier, License Raj was to patronize closed economy. After the reforms, License Raj crawled into the areas which were not open to private sectors.
Another factor which led to corruption bubble was the larger size of coalition government. With the growing stature of local political parties in State politics, coalition government has become inevitable at the centre. More the ruling government was tied to local parties’ for coalition supports, more corruptions crawled into the governance. The 2G and coal scam are the cases in point. It is argued that one of the main reasons for successes of Modi and Chouhan government in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh respectively was less corruption.
Corruption could be waned with the absence or lower size of coalition government. Both Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh enjoy single party majority. Evidently, in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, BJP has less ratio of corrupted MLAs. According to Election Watch by ADR, BJP has 27 per cent of its MLAs in Gujarat and 29 per cent of its MLAs in Madhya Pradesh corrupted (against whom criminal proceedings were registered) as compared to Congress having 32 per cent in Gujarat and 38 per cent in Madhya Pradesh corrupted MLAs.
AAP is the composite of fresh politicians. Most of them do not have experiences in governance using Parliamentary democratic systems. They are from different sects of life - scientists, lawyers, bureaucrats, journalists, technocrats. They have one zeal, that is, how the corruption should be nipped in the bud through revolution in democratic system, which confer democratic rights – whether on the road or in the legislatures. AAP followed two pronged strategies to drub the corruptions. One, through Parliamentary democratic system by bringing Lok Pal Bill and two, by anti-corruption movements on streets. This surged the charisma of AAP and became cause for fear to taper the Modi wave. That is the reason that RSS is frantically asking BJP to stop the AAP, not Congress. This was confirmed by BJP not supporting Kejriwal governing Delhi. The success of AAP in Delhi Assembly election transcended the polarization of Garibi hatao, development, caste, creed and other considerations.
As removing of License Raj leveraged a big scope for industry to prosper economy in the country, AAP’s anti-corruption movement is hoped to nail the red tape and deliver a better governance, which is crucial for resurrection of the economy and better life for AAM Admi. In nutshell, AAP’s anti corruption movement replicates the reform movement, which was initiated to get the country bereft of economic corruption.
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