Despite its common usage and perception, what corruption means is surely enigmatic. Corruption is more like a multi-focal, multivariate and mutli-dimensional eternity of socio-political system.
Dictionary meaning of corruption implies deviation from the expected or ideal form; it is all about dishonest, illegal or immoral act or behaviour especially of someone having power. Concise Oxford Dictionary has the definition; the dishonest act in return for money or personal gain.
As per the postulate of the World Bank and Transparency International corruption is ‘the misuse of public office for private gains’, that is the improper and unlawful act and behaviour of public officials and politicians who do have the opportunity and who do usurp or divert money and assets from the public coffer to themselves and to their accomplices.
However, this definition is narrow and parochial; it implies as if corruption is confined exclusively to public office and it is all about private gains. This straightway excludes the private and social spheres.
Yet another formula is C = M + D – A, where corruption equals monopoly plus discretion minus accountability. Like World Bank and TI formulation, this formulation is rather apt for only political dimension of corruption, particularly when discretion and accountability are involved.
In another plain, corruption refers to those transactions which involve undue benefits to some people who do not deserve or are not entitled to those. Such transactions make some people recipient of financial, physical and social resources that make these people capable of exhorting power over others and controlling the rewards and punishment for others.
Corruption should better be posited on private, socio-cultural arenas as well and it should be regarded more as social peril rather than purely political perversion. After all, corruption is not absent in usual social interaction/transaction. In some cases teachers force students to take private tuition with the caveat that otherwise they would not qualify the examination in the subject concerned (as in India). Furthermore, abuse of religion for propagating or fomenting communal clashes is not uncommon.
One can conveniently consider corruption as the manifestation of unfairness. It can be any and every human act or activity whereby someone is illegally, unethically or unwarrantedly made to suffer or victimised for financial, political, social gains and benefits. In order to grasping the dimensions and nuances of corruption, it can broadly mean unfairness or abuse of political, economic and social power and position in whatever manner and purpose!
Corruption: n. causing to behave dishonestly and/or immorally and frequently nonviolently for money and/or (personal and/or institutional) gainen
Gainen: n. getting a desired subset(s)
Government, business, and organizational corruption is the most difficult to combat because it is institutionalized and has much momentum to continue on it’s traditional path without reforming.
You can’t realistically put every member of an institution in jail or fine each one for corruption. Watch dogs within the organization risk losing their jobs and future livelihood if they turn on the institution and testify in court with evidence of its corruption or corrupt members. A corrupt big wealthy institution can make life very miserable for you after you get fired from it.
Most corruption is of the nonviolent kind but there is also corruption which utilizes violence and rarely murder to silence its threatening foes or opponents. Murder is hopefully rare but blacklisting is a common underground practice which is almost impossible to prove with objective evidence which is secret or hidden from public view.
My personal opinion is that national and international watchdog foundations should be formed which protect humans financially who reveal institutional corruption with audio visual and documented evidence and prove their case in court with watchdog foundation legal funds. Only the fear of losing a great public reputation through worldwide media exposure will insure a minimum tolerable level of institutional corruption.
The media itself is controlled by a handful of corporations so the probability that corporate corruption will be disclosed and punished with fines and even jail time is highly improbable. When fines are assessed they just become part of the expenses of doing business as usual and the inherent corrupt structure and operation of the institution continues on in perpetuity.
Open source internet information on government activity, especially that of committee deliberations, is vital to keeping corruption to a minimum and it is something which we still don’t have today. Secrecy promotes corruption and the more information which becomes public knowledge, the less corruption there will be in the future.
Corruption in politics is legend with special interests and powerful money interests getting beneficial legislation or laws at everyone else’s expense.
Deception and even lying in advertisements promotes a corrupt social environment.
The absence of strict moral teaching in elementary schools encourages many to lie and cheat in some way which then is reflected in society later on where a lax attitude towards promiscuity results in much marital adultery.
Without many moral citizens the leadership becomes even more corrupt and rebellion against corruption is almost non-existent.
The whole world needs a secular moral code for young impressionable minds in elementary school and it is- except in emergency situations- don’t destroy biodiversity, don’t lie, don’t be inefficient, don’t steal, don’t commit adultery if married, and don’t murder. Without putting this secular moral code into practice peaceful and good human interactions or relationships will continue to break down and peace between nations will not be possible in the long duration.
Corruption is everywhere, we can count people on fingers who respect the rules and fight for that. Corruption is for doing the things in faster span, injustice to one among two persons,Cheating the people or government.
Imagine a Person who drove fast needs to be fined, but police will leave him by just bribing the 100/- from him, if he was fined and punished, there is a lot of chance that he may not redo the same thing. One day he will die with the same speed, and make the people miserable who are dependent on him.
Corruption is everywhere, wherever the money plays the key role corruption holds the upper hand
For getting the Birth Certificate of the Child, need to bribe everyone
For getting the Death Certificate of the Grand Father, need to bribe everyone.
From birth to death, politics to sports,media to movies,education to career, jobs to startups, even for marriages one cannot marry other without the bribe called dowry.
I am not Vivekananda to point everyone and justify myself, rather a common man frustrated enough to stood against it, It cannot be eliminated from a day or month or year, it will continue as long as people go for the money in shorter span.
As a Practical person, wont go off in a short span atleast it can be reduced upto some extent without damaging the lives of poor people.
In my experience corruption is something that has sown it’s seeds so deep into our democracy that it’s not a bad thing anymore, corruption has become part and parcel of everyone’s life, some of us indulge in it without even realising that we are doing something that is so morally wrong. Right from a common man or the “Aam Aadmi” to the big industrialists and bureaucrats living their lager than life lives every single one of us is corrupt.
Why do we do it ? Well because it’s easier or the age old reply “yaha aisa hi hota hai”. Basically what i want to express is that corruption hai seeped it’s way into our everyday code of conduct. Whenever a big corruption scam breaks out in India by the politicians we tend to blame those politicians but the fact is even we are corrupt to our core. For example, when a traffic police man stops any one of us we tend to offer him a bribe of 100₹-500₹, and he takes it also beacause that’s what he is capable of rather that’s his limit or “aukaat” and everyone of us tends to indulge in corruption to our own limits or “aukaat” then why do we get angry on politicians just because they have larger limit or “badi aukaat”.
Bottom line corruption is like a termite in our society but the sad thing is it has done quite a lot of damage in our social values since past 7 decades and if everyone of us right from a common person to the rich and famous mend our ways this termite will be here to stay for many more decades to come until it feeds on all of our social values and crushes our whole society. Well to give everyone a wake up call of such a caliber is next to impossible so let’s try and change ourselves. I guess that’s how we tackle a big problem by one step at a time and optimism is always a plus point. Hope to see a better India.
Corruption has ruined almost all institutions of india and adversely effecting everyone and everything. See roads, railways, Gov’t schools, hospitals, office buildings everything is in bad condition. Money allotted drains in to gutter of corruption.
In my view people of india are to blame in the first place as they knowingly elect corrupt candidates as MLA’s & MP’s. What you expect from a corrupt person. He will only expand corruption to more areas.
So only way to get rid of corruption is to vote to a person whom you believe that he is honest. Delhi people did it this time. Maybe this time things don’t come out favorably as AAP may fail due to mistakes on their part but if people keep corruption as main issue in their mind very soon things will start changing and new honest leaders will come in to politics and start changing the politics of corruption. This process maybe slow but in my opinion surest path to get rid of corruption.
Only people of India can do this no-one else will come from sky to do this for us.
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