The writer is a journalist with Scroll.in in Delhi. He is a Multani from Lucknow, who finds himself trapped in the Republic of South Delhi. He tweets @DilliDurAst
The post-Marxist Indian leftist now says that corruption is good because when government officials come to the slum, threatening its demolition, it is by paying a bribe that they can save their homes, they argue. If that is the case, why do we still see slum demolitions? For the simple reason that the real estate moneybags can pay a lot more in bribe than the slum-dweller.
The real reason why the average Indian leftist doesn’t care about corruption is because, until recently, it was the Hindu right complaining about the corruption of the Congress in power. Why did the Congress lose the 1996 election and make way for the BJP to come to power for the first time, despite Narasimha Rao’s liberalisation of the economy? It was clear by then that liberalisation was the right thing to do. But the Congress lost because of corruption and inflation.
A corporate friend argues over a drink that corruption is something India needs. Selling telecom licences to big companies for a pittance makes the companies rich and these companies need to get rich to make India rich, to give Indians cheap phone calls and to buy companies in Africa. Ultimately, the money stays in the Indian economy.
That is an honest view of how the economic right feels. That is why they don’t complain about corruption. The religious right used to be Gandhi-like moralists about such things as money. But power transformed them and they became corrupt, too.
Most non-intellectual type ordinary Indians think that high inflation is caused by corruption. That is why, I think that corruption is a big issue for the average Indian. Yet the intelligentsia, media and the political class have come to the conclusion that corruption is good for the average Indian.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was in power in Delhi state for 49 days. One of the charges against the admittedly impatient government was “vigilantism”. One example of this alleged vigilantism was their announcement that anyone who is asked for a bribe by a government official should do a “sting” on them by audio-recording such solicitation on their mobile phones. Three government officials were charged with corruption thanks to such “stings”.
Auto wallahs who ferried me around Delhi those days told me what an impact it had made. One auto wallah told me that two years ago, he had had to pay a bribe of Rs28,000 to get the requisite documents to drive a commercial auto. Now, he said, such is the fear that the touts have disappeared.
My “leftist” and “rightist” friends didn’t believe this when I told them. They wouldn’t be able to tell either way because their interaction with the government today is minimal as compared to that of the poor. And the Indian intelligentsia has decided on behalf of the poor that they need corruption.
One exception to the media bias against the Aam Aadmi Party was a Times of India report, which actually tested if corruption had reduced. To quote one instance, they found a teenager who repeatedly failed the driving test. He said he’d been looking for a tout who could get him a licence nevertheless, but he was told the chai paani option is not working. That is just incredible in a country where we’re told that corruption is a way of life.
If you listen in to the Indian election discourse you’d think that communalism versus secularism is the big issue in India today. My friend Khalid Anis Ansari, who researches the issues and politics of low-caste Indian Muslims, once told me that the secularism-communalism binary is a conspiracy of the Indian upper-caste elite, be they Hindu or Muslim, to keep the poor and the low caste where they are. Truer words haven’t been said about Indian politics in a long time.
And that is why the Indian elite, whether they call themselves the radical left or the radical right, are so afraid of the AAP.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2014.
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COMMENTS (10)
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One businessman claims corruption is justified over drinks and you. Oncluse that this is what all people on economic right want? There was an obvious flaw in. Logic too. If the goal was to have cheap clls, low license fees could have been used o award contrcts even without corruption. The corruption does not add value. It simply misallocates resources
The assumption that anyone who does not support AAP faors corruption is flawed logic also. People maybe against anarchy which was evident within the first 49 days. Further despite all talk about having solid proof about Sheila Dikshit's corruption no FIR was filed by AAP government. So there is no reason to believe that AAP government will rein in corruption. Finally you maybe okay with populism of free water and tearing up electricity bills and a lwless minister instigating crowds against hapless foreign women but it does nit give confidence to how they would rua the Country.
Finally, SOME elites who have profited from corruption would certainly support corruption but this does not mean ALL Indian elites support corruption. Narayan Murthy, Ratan Tata, Pamdit Jasraj, A R Rehman, Amir Khan, Tendulkar, Abdul Kalam are all Indian elites and not one of them supports corruption.
@Motiwala: with all its problems, India is a zinda qaum. It does not need post mortem.
I don't think anybody is saying corruption is required. We are only trying to pick lesser of the two evils (Cong vs BJP) here with respect to corruption. AAP started good but they got distracted. They should have focused on Delhi and provided a good governance, in this case they would have a very good case to lead India. Now we just have some inexperience bunch of people who are not coordinated within themselvs.
Corruption is the answer to red tape. Eliminate red tape, perfect your systems, and corruption disappears.
Excellent article. Doing a clear post mortem on India. The changes are still the same old, same old. And the loud drum beating about secularism, is just. that. A nothing disappearing into a void called Modi. Rest assured, the world has been warned. By Modi operatives : India will be 'Muscular with China and Pakistan.'..[gosh!..them 2 be shaking in their boots already]
Very well written.
Good to see some weighty Op Eds on ET.
A journalist told me that the Leftists until the 90s were incorruptible. But the same doesn't hold good today. Perhaps, the top leadership of the left is still clean, but not the lower ranks.
And, all those who are praising Modi, need to understand that BJP is as corrupt as Congress and Modi is no different.
Where do they get all these money to campaign and splurge from? What is the party fund if not overt bribes from realtors, industrialists and rich businessmen to loot and plunder this country.
If Modi takes money from the Ambanis and others, he will serve the corrupt Ambanis and not the Indians.
But what ultimately remains is a lament that there is no choice for the Indians.
There is nothing to be gained by presenting one dichotomy as more important than another - what do we gain from such reductionist thinking? Certainly corruption-honesty is one important axis of Indian politics. And certainly it is always the poor who are hit hardest by corruption. Without stating the obvious poverty-wealth is another key axis of Indian politics. As is secularism-communalism - to suggest it is not a crucial axis buys into a majoritarian agenda, and is frankly naive in a climate where civil society is as deeply communalised as at present. Another central axis is along the lines of democracy-authoritarianism. The all-pervasiveness of authoritarian ideologies even amongst those supposedly on the left is deeply dangerous. It is of course nothing new. And sometimes the most pressing need is to defend what little libertarian-democratic space exists against an immediate attack.
Wow - Judge, jury and executioner all in one. I don't think anyone says that corruption is a necessary evil (I guess elite is your way of saying non-aam aadmi even though it means nothing in this context), only that grandstanding against corruption is not going to solve any of India's problems, least of all corruption. I agree that some of AAP's rather unorthodox methods had an impact in Delhi, and these should be studied and if workable, adopted in other cities; on the other hand, while their style of operation is fairly unique, their methods of appealing to various sections of society is reminiscent of the Congress - put the fear of someone else into your target voter, and hope that he or she votes for you. No one needs to fear AAP because they are their own worst enemies, and now that they have run out of gimmicks and are no longer a priority for the English language electronic media, one can see that they have lost their mojo; even the auto guys that you refer to aren't willing to support AAP any longer. Hopefully articles published in Pak newspapers will help them recover lost ground.
Reading you one gets an insight into the working of things political in India but what I like is that you ensure that the reader understands that its your take on the subject..........this time around I got the impression that Shivam Vij says ' the AAP is the flavour of the week '.