Chronicles of Corruption

You pay for a birth certificate and a death certificate.
Are you aiding corruption? Are you aiding corruption?

We all feel that we do not aide corruption. We feel that we are the victims of corruption. However, we are equally responsible for a corrupt system. Those extra bucks which you hand over to the traffic police along with your driving license, those little wads of cash passed under the table, all those extra favours are all accountable for a corrupt system. There are many instances to prove the point.
Chronicles of Corruption
MUAG|NN
To put it simply, corruption is the abuse of public power for private gain. Corruption is the dishonest and fraudulent conduct of those in power. Corruption comes under various guises such as bribery, misappropriation of public goods, nepotism and influencing the formulation of laws for private gain. In essence, corruption connotes a deviation from socially accepted norms. Corruption in India has permeated every level of society; from senior bureaucrats and politicians, to high ranking public servants to professionals to criminals to lowly clerks and street vendors. Corruption is universal in its origin and application. In India, the concept and acceptance, of a corrupt bureaucracy has been existing since the Mughal rule. In those days, a fee known as baksheesh was paid to the officials to get every small thing done. During the British Raj, the country was even more corrupt. The man who is considered to have conquered India - Robert Clive returned to England to face charges of corruption in Parliament. Independent India inherited the same bureaucracy and has carried on in the same vein. Jeep Scandal Just a year after independence and were faced with our first scam as an independent nation. In 1948, the Indian government had placed an order of 2,000 jeeps with a London based firm which had false credentials. Most of the cash was paid upfront and only 155 jeeps were delivered. V K Krishna Menon, Indias then commissioner in London was linked to this scam also known as the Jeep Scam. Kalinga Tubes Scandal Well known politician Biju Patnaik, then CM of Orissa was linked with this scandal in 1965. He was forced to resign from his post after it was exposed that he favoured his own company Kalinga Tubes in awarding a government contract. Kuo Oil Scam In 1976 during the Emergency, the Indian Oil Corporation entered into a $200 million dollar contract with the Hong-Kong based Kuo Oil Co to take future deliveries at current prices. This company however turned out to be fictitious and the government lost Rs.13 crore. This scam is linked to then PM Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi. The Bofors Scandal Possibly the grandest corruption scam of its time, the Bofors Scandal in 1989 was a scandal to the tune of Rs. 4000 million. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and several others were accused of receiving kickbacks from the Swiss Armaments firm Bofors AB for winning a bid to supply Indias 155 mm field howitzer. Harshad Mehta Scam Harshad Mehta was a highly successful Indian Stock Broker. In 1992, Mehta and his associates siphoned off money from banks and bought shares heavily at a premium. He achieved this by exploiting various loopholes in the banking system. When this scheme was exposed, banks started demanding their money back. It is estimated that the banks lost money to the tune of Rs. 5,000 crore.
All your life you pay. And for what? For things that should be free!
The Businessman, The Politician and The Bureaucrat

CWG Scam The Commonwealth games scam as it is known involved large scale misappropriation of money during the preparatory phase and conduct of the 2010 Commonwealth games held in New Delhi. The total value of the scam is estimated to be Rs.70,000 crore. Telecom Scam Sukh Ram was charged with accepting kickbacks from a number of telecom companies in exchange for special favors. About $1 million in small-denomination rupee notes was found in the homes of Sukh Ram. The cash was allegedly collected by him committing irregularities in awarding a telecom contract. 2G Scam The 2G spectrum scandal involved officials in the government of India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones. The shortfall between the money collected and the money which the law mandated to be collected is estimated to be 1.76 lakh crore (1.763 trillion) rupees (roughly equivalent to 39 billion US dollars) based on 3G auction prices.
Unofficial Tatkal: Youre in a long queue to get your job done. You wish to jump the queue and walk out with your job completed. Hence, you offer something extra that speeds up the process.
Erase your misdeed: So you did something wrong. Naturally, you will wish to cover it up to maintain your clean image. So you decide to clean it up by offering your detergent which is beneficial to you as well as the public servant.
Unofficial Protocol: Tipping the peon at the collectors office with that well-known chaipaani because he feels he has obliged you.
Why this corruption di?

At individual level, the obvious causes of corruption are greed, and soft targets for gobbling up like party funds, money for patronage, need for extra money to show off higher standards of living, etc. Bihar Fodder Scam Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and other state politicians and bureaucrats were alleged to have siphoned off Rs.950 crore from funds meant for the Animal Husbandry Department. When this scam was exposed, Lalu Prasad Yadav was forced to quit. Telgi Scam Abdul Karim Telgi was the kingpin of this scam which dealt with counterfeit stamp papers. Senior policemen and politicians were involved in this scam. Around 300 agents were hired to sell the fakes to various banks, insurance companies, etc. The one aspect of this scam that caused much concern was the involvement of many This apart, the rising cost of living and the wide gap between real wages and the opportunities to make quick money encourages corrupt practices among public servants and businessmen. Organizations pay bribes to win and retain businesses. They tend to overlook the implications of encouraging these practices and often look only at short term benefits achieved. They fail to realize that what has worked in their favour could also land into trouble later and lead to adverse consequences for them. By spending this extra money, technically termed a bribe, you or anyone else for that matter, introduces an inequality in the way the system functions normally. And it is this inequality that leaves the system Corrupted. If you resort to this, remember that there are many others who resort to it and that they may be far ahead of you. Ultimately, you, or we, live in a system that is corrupted by us.
CORRUPTION IN NUMBERS
India has lost a staggering $462 billion in illicit financial flows due to tax evasion, crime and primarily corruption post-Independence, according to a report released by Washington-based Global Financial Integrity. The report stated that 68% of India's aggregate illicit capital loss occurred after India's economic reforms in 1991, i.e. after deregulation and trade liberalization. Wealth being stashed in offshore destinations and tax havens further indicates the extent of the problem, the report said. The KPMG India Fraud Survey 2010 suggested that today India is faced with not merely petty bribes anymore, but scams to the tune of thousands of crores. This highlights the political and industry nexus which, if not checked, can have a far reaching impact on the economy.

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You pay for a birth certificate and a death certificate.

Are you aiding corruption? Are you aiding corruption?

The Businessman, The Politician and The Bureaucrat

Why this corruption di?

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