[sangkancil] India-Living with Corruption (fwd)
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From: kulbir@cs.sfu.ca ()
Date: 21 Aug 97
Originally Posted On: alt.culture.kerala
APn 08/19 0119 India-Living with Corruption
Copyright, 1997. The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast
or
otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated
Press.
By DONNA BRYSON
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- When the cocktail chitchat turned to
education, a New Delhi homemaker quizzed a teacher about getting her
6-year-old into his well-regarded private school.
"Do they accept donations?" she asked carefully. Then, noticing
his confusion, added: "You know -- bribes."
Just a day before, her prime minister had devoted his state of
the nation address to an appeal to his countrymen to forego paying
bribes even if it meant hardship.
But who will heed Prime Minister I.K. Gujral if it means losing a
chance to send a daughter to a good school? Or waiting months for a
phone? Or not getting the lights turned on at all?
Corruption has become a way of life in the world's largest democracy.
"Go to the electricity office, the telephone office, the water office
-- at each and every office, it's very difficult to get things done
until and unless you pay a bribe," said New Delhi docotr S.S.
Kanodia, shaking his head at a decline in values he blames on greed.
"Everybody's after money, so the morals have gone down," he
said. "Nobody thinks of what he or she can do for the country."
Manish Sharma, a 23-year-old government clerk, says he paid a
bribe to get his job. He wouldn't say how much and asked that his
department not be named, but was otherwise surprisingly direct.
Others avoid the word bribe, preferring a thesaurus of
euphemisms -- from "donations" of $285 to get school authorities to
squeeze in one more student, to"holiday gifts" of a few dollars to
municipal workers to ensure uninterrupted power supply.
"If you don't give the money, it will take time to get things
done, but they will get done. It's just that nobody in India wants
to take the time," Sharma said.
"People think it was politicians who started corruption, but
I think it started with the people. They give money to the
government official and say the official is corrupt. They never say
they are corrupt."
Indeed, Gujral reversed the usual discourse in his speech
Friday, marking 50 years of independence from Britain. Here was a
politician telling ordinary Indians to shape up.
He followed up with a speech the next day to business
people, telling them they, too, were part of the problem.
The Asian Age newspaper bristled in a weekend editorial
that Gujral was trying "to abdicate responsibility."
Lectures from politicians are hard to swallow after so many
-- including a previous prime minister -- have been accused of using
their powerful public positions for private gain.
Though Gujral himself is seen as clean, he also is seen as
weak for doing little last month when the then-head of his political
party was charged with stealing millions from the state treasury.
In July, India was ranked the eighth most corrupt nation in the
world by Berlin-based Transparency International, which polled
business people, political analysts and the general public about
where bribes, kickbacks and nepotism were most prevalent.
Countries considered more corrupt were, from least to
worst: Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Russia, Colombia, Bolivia and
Nigeria.
Transparency International said corruption discouraged
foreign investment in poor countries like India.
Without foreign-fueled development, India may never overcome
what many see as the root causes of corruption: poverty, and an
infrastructure so weak that basicservices like telephones and
schools become scarce resources available only to the highest
bidders.
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