Speech On Corruption

The then Prime Minister, Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee (under the NDA government) while addressing the nation on 16.10.1999 made a categorical statement that “One of our immediate tasks will be to firmly put down terrorism, which has come to cast its cruel shadow on innocent people. Our message is loud and clear; the life of every Indian citizen under our dispensation is precious. In our fight against terrorism we will be guided by zero tolerance. The same principle of zero tolerance will apply while dealing with corruption that has bred contempt for the Law. One of the first legislative initiatives in regard to the change will be Lok Pal Bill so that the rot can be checked from the top. Already there exists a consensus on electoral reforms to weed

Why is it so? Is India the only corrupt country in the World? Is every country in the world an exception to this malpractice? Who is not corrupt? When can a person adopt the malpractice of corruption? What is the role politician in advancing corruption? What is the role of judiciary in preventing corruption? What is the role media in preventing corruption? What is the role of civil society in preventing corruption? Who can save our Indian society from the evil of corruption? These are some of the basic questions attempted to be reviewed. Corruption is a global phenomenon and it is omnipotent. So no Country is free from the vice of corruption. Corruption travels from one end of a country to another in the company of those who know how to buy what they want with the power of money, whether it is a business deal or a lucrative job they wish to grab. It spirals downward. We can see corrupt practices even in developing countries as well as developed countries. History is replete with examples of widespread corruption in the developing countries as well as in the advanced countries like America, U.K, and France. So the issue of corruption is not peculiar to our country alone and it is a universal problem and has engaged the attention of the people even in the past also. But since there is a saddest failure on our part in controlling corruption, there is an inordinate increase and spread of corruption

There is hardly any area of activity that has remained wholly free from the impact of corruption. In fact, corruption has now been institutionalized and has become a commonly accepted way of life. As early as September 1934, Mahatma Gandhiji, in his letter to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel conveyed his decision to severe all official and physical connections with the Congress including the original membership, gave the reason that it was the menace of corruption “that has crept into the organization” which impelled him to do so. Perhaps at that time the stream of corruption was quite narrow and small, but even that disturbed the Mahatma’s unfaltering conscience and he decided to sever his formal links with the organization. But the pledge taken by the former Home Minister Sri Gulzari Lal Nanda to root out corruption within two years or else to retire from politics is an indirect admission that corruption and nepotism have assumed alarming