Corruption and Culture - A vicious circle India must break

Abigail Barr and Danila Serra, as a part of the Global Poverty Research Group, concluded in their brilliantly written paper on 'Culture and Corruption' in 2006 that 'Corruption is in part, a cultural phenomenon'. Their sample of 195 experimental participants originated from 43 countries ranging from some of the most to the least corrupt countries and included 4 participants from India. An interesting conclusion of the experiment was that there exists a significant positive correlation between the level of corruption and the likelihood of younger population engaging in corruption. This primarily arises as corruption gets internalized like other social norms and preferences by the inhabitants. This finding broadly reaffirms common sense thinking - if you are surrounded by a bunch of crooks all the time, chances are much higher you would end up crooked as well.

Since 1995 when Transparency International started publishing a 'Corruption Perception Index', India's score has improved from 2.78 in 1995 to 3.1 in 2011. However, most recent trend on the index has been disappointing.

India's score reached a high of 3.5 in 2007 and has since then rapidly declined to 3.1 in 2011. We stand 95th among 183 countries. Some of the other emerging countries like China (3.6), Ghana (3.9), South Africa (4.1), Cuba (4.2) and Costa Rica (4.8) fare much better than us in combating corruption. In the last 8 years of current Government, we have seen scams after scams unfolding on a regular basis, only difference being the magnitude. Widespread failure of the investigative agencies, often controlled by the same corrupt politicians leaves the Judiciary helpless in enforcing the rule of law due to lack of evidence. Getting caught and then let off on bail while the legal process drags on for years allows the corrupt to enjoy their ill-earned bounty while the common man keeps toiling for basic necessities of life.

This has created an air of immunity around corrupt behavior leading to India caught in a vicious circle. Because there is a large amount of corruption, the younger population internalizes and accepts corruption as a social norm and this perpetuates the benefit of corruption to the public servants. Waning public interest in Anna Hazare's campaign against corruption is a good example of how people seem to have accepted corruption as a part of life.

Given that more than 50% of the population is under the age of 25, this vicious circle must be broken with an iron fist, else we risk loosing everything we have achieved in the last 64 years as a young democracy. It is going to be a long fight but we need not loose heart. We need to look at emerging nations like Chile and Botswana that at present have bribery levels of even lower than some of industrialized nations. Many other developing economies like Hong Kong, China and Singapore have been able to transform themselves from being very corrupt to relatively clean within a reasonably short period of time.

For the same to happen in India, we need a grass roots movement like the ones launched by Ram Mohan Roy and Veer Savarkar to rid India of prevalent social ills. In addition to demand for stronger and independent oversight bodies, strong police force and efficient judiciary, we would need to get rid of government in many aspects of our life and take away their discretionary powers. Price controls, complex and opaque regulations and layers upon layers of bureaucracies has created a huge black market and an unorganized economy where only the privileged few win. Gross root movement against corruption must focus on revolt against government's control of our lives. This fight can start today with each and every one of us pledge not to pay any bribe and battle the system for our rights and at the same time fulfill our responsibilities as civilized citizens.

Does an Intolerant Society Deserve Free Speech?

Recent events relating to the cancellation of Salman Rushdie's visit to participate in a literary festival in Jaipur and Government's summoning of the Social Media Chiefs asking them to censor content highlights the restrictive free speech situation in our country. We have been subject to these experiences time and again - M.F. Hussein's paintings and the court cases which made him leave the country for the fear of his life, ban on release of 'Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India' and many other books and movies that seemingly can harm social harmony or defames a popular figure.

On the other wise, Indian Government formally objecting to BBC on Top Gear's India special show and on Jay Leno's joke about Golden Temple highlight the intolerant nature of our society. What is unfortunate is that even our Judiciary seems to have jumped into this debate and has started giving in to their individual interpretations of morality in legal matters. Just the last month, one of the justices described a live-in relationship as immoral and a western fad while upholding the legality of it. This is a disgrace.

I have been asking myself, whether an intolerant society deserve free speech in the context of restrictive free speech in our country and intolerant nature of our society? I believe the answer is affirmative - we need free speech first as a matter of principle being a liberal and secular democracy and second to get rid of this very intolerance.

The value and relevance of free speech in a democratic society cannot be underestimated. John Stuart Mill in his essay on 'Liberty in Utilitarianism' said "there ought to exist the fullest liberty of professing and discussing, as a matter of ethical conviction, any doctrine, however immoral it might be considered." Denial of free speech essentially denies the freedom to stand for what we are and therefore must be protected. Voltaire famously said "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Restrictions on free speech due to obscenity, immorality or social in-harmony has been a subject of debate not just in a young democracy and diverse society like India but also in mature and largely homogeneous societies in the West. Right to free speech always invariably involves tolerance for a great deal of non sense and matters which are in bad taste.

However, due to a diverse, overly religious and significant illiterate population in India, an act of non sense takes the form of discrimination, defamation or offensive. The 24X7 sensation hungry media plays along by portraying and magnifying non sensical acts as crafted acts of vengeance or offense against one by the other. Politicians find an easy and beneficial solution by applying censorship laws in the name of public benefit. Our large and charged illiterate population often fails to understand that these censorship and defamation laws help the government avoid criticism and escape accountability while our educated middle class is too indifferent and stretched to make ends meet in an increasingly consumerist society to really bother about these trivial issues. So what we get is cancellation of Rushdie's visit, ban on sale of books or release of movies that have anything controversial and politicians playing to the gallery by protesting Jay Leno's jokes and BBC's programming.

I believe if we are to survive and flourish as a true democracy, any test for allowing further restrictions upon free speech must strive to be more stringent. Legal restraints upon individual freedom of speech should only be tolerated where they are absolutely necessary to prevent infliction of actual harm or to secure the liberties of others. A remote possibility that someone will be harmed or unsubstantiated claims that the stability of society will be undermined is not sufficient justification for legal prohibition. People always find it easy to adopt double standards and find some persuasive reason to not tolerate other's right to free speech but as a society we must strive to create capacity to tolerate views of others. We must be taught right from the beginning that an open and free exchange of
ideas, confronting old ways of doing things and debating the relevance of established ideas on morality and societal norms in the present context is the best way to create a dynamic and intellectually vibrant society. Else, we would continue to be a developing country, not just economically but socially as well, that is striving to become a developed society.

2011, a Year that was. 2012, a Year that would be.

S&P 500 at 1257.6 ended 2011 where it stared. Globally $ 6.3 trillion was lost in capital markets. Investment bankers, hedge funds, traders and the Wall Street elite continue to mint money though while the 401(k) and the middle class keep getting squeezed. May 2012 be the year when disparity between the real and financial economies see some contraction.

Our Sensex ended the year 25% down, lost the trillion dollar membership and Indian Rupee ended up as the worse Asian currency in 2011 loosing 16% against the American Dollar. Economic growth in 2011 may come at under 7% against the projected 7.6%. These facts however had no effect on our Government that continues to enjoy its ever extended holiday. 2011 was a year of lost opportunities, policy paralysis and continued mockery of democracy. We are yet to get a Lokpal (Ombudsperson) or any other strong counter corruption measure despite the protests and scandals continue unabated. 2011 has been a splendid year for the Politicians and an equally painful one for the public. I wish 2012 turns out to be splendid for the public and democracy starts discovering its real meaning by booting out the corrupt governments in upcoming state elections.

Afzal Guru and Kasab are alive and kicking, feasting in a high security cell on our tax payments. In the meanwhile, we had serial blasts in Mumbai in July and a powerful blast in Delhi in September. 2012 would probably be the year when we release these two gentlemen in exchange for the innocents hijacked.

Globally and in our territory, Pakistan remains the epicenter of terrorism; it came as no surprise that Osama was hiding near their military academy. World continues to find a way to look the other way and ignore the threat while our spineless politicians continue to play politics on how to tackle the threat of a yet another Kargil or 26/11. 2011 was however a year of lateral thinking on this subject; let’s withdraw our army from Kashmir and separatists have a feast in 2012. May 2012 be the year when the world agree on a coordinated response to fight terrorism without giving any concessions to anyone for short term geo-political gains and India gives a fitting response to any act of terror.

The European Union continues to debate how to fix itself. Germany though finally found redemption and achieved the objective of ruling Europe, well almost. France found itself in the unusual position of having some influence even if it was as Germany’s wing-man and the Conservative British Government understandably could not tolerate it. May 2012 be the year when they realize EU in its current form is not an economic failure but a social and political failure. EU citizens need to finally start identifying themselves as Europeans to make a real European Union that works for all and not just Germany.

Coming on to the lighter side of life:

The ever inflating Shah Rukh Khan bubble finally burst in 2011, Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra continued to sink further into oblivion and Salman Khan at 46 continues to be the youth icon. New talent-less and gutless bubbles continue to inflate further - Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha and Imran Khan to name a few. Bollywood overall continued to churn out mediocre movies with no single title worth remembering. May 2012 be a year when we finally see some talent and get a movie that does justice to the available talent of Amitabh Bacchan, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das.

By winning the Cricket world cup in Mumbai, miserably losing the test and one day series in England and then beating the same English team on their return tour, Indian team cemented its reputation as that of tigers at home and just another team abroad. Sachin is still searching for his century of centuries and Dravid continues to wonder why India loves Ganguly and even Laxman more than him. May 2012 be a year when we lose some and win some on all pitches and under all conditions and Sachin gets his 100th 100.

2011 for me was a year of settling down in a new city and a new job. I continue to thank God for giving me the gift of education which has allowed me to travel the world and live a life that is comfortable, secure, honest and interesting. 2011 was also the year when I stopped being a regular traveler on the NYC-Boston boltbus. Shavi graduated and joined me in NYC. I am ever more thankful to her as she continues to inspire me to be a better man every day. 2012 is going to be the biggest possible year in our lives as we welcome our daughter in our lives and the world. May 2012 be a year when we continue to be good, honest and compassionate human beings and excel in our roles as parents.

Happy 2012 everyone.

Narendra Modi and Indian Politics

Modi is probably the most successful Chief Ministers in the history of India and also the victim of a much derided projection of his personality by the media. There have been calls for him to step out of Gujarat and enter the National political arena - many see him as a potential Prime Minister who can get rid of the corruption and inefficiency that has got institutionalized in the country. Some believe the latest fast for harmony was one such image make-over attempt by him to become likeable across the spectrum. That brings me to the question, does he really need an image make-over. He has an image of an honest and strict task master who has, delivered more than a decade of uninterrupted growth, rein in corruption, made the bureaucracy efficient and accountable. On top of it, he has proven himself a politician par excellence by winning three successive and overwhelming mandates for governance in a state of 60 million people.

Modi however is not liked by the 'intellectual class' because he does not represent the typical appeasement oriented politics we have got so used to in India. If a Hindu gets robbed, it just an act of crime; if however a Muslim or a Dalit is robbed, it is an act of hatred perpetrated by a jealous majority on the susceptible minority. That's how our politicians and media see things and sadly, in a country of indifferent middle class, it is an easy task to accomplish. Our politicians, led by the Congress Party, have for years propagated appeasement policies under the veil of secularism which has deepened the divisions along religious and caste lines since independence. Is it any surprise reservation quotas have gone up more than twice and new castes/classes/tribes keep adding up for a share of that pie. Very soon, we would have reservations along religious lines as well. The reservation system was proposed to last for 10 years at the time of its inception but Congress Party and the Nehru-Gandhi family took their clue from the British to divide and rule and kept extending the quotas and timeline to keep the fractions and divisions intact. BJP emerged as a party that did not believe in appeasement policies but in a uniform civil code but has since lost way.

Modi is their last hope and to my mind he does make the cut to lead India. There is however the issue of 2002 Gujarat Riots that continues to haunt him.

Gujarat, despite being home to the Mahatma, has always been a highly divided state plagued by communal violence. If we let the facts speak, then the reality is that 2002 riots were brought to an end and situation returned to normalcy in a lot less time than previous instances. The 1969 riots in Ahmedabad continued much longer and claimed many more lives - the city remained under curfew for nearly two months. Communal disturbances in many parts of the state in 1985 continued for more than five months, with Godhra reeling under curfew for almost a year.

Also, what is never reported in the media and is often shrugged aside by the pseudo-secular in our country is that Gujarat police killed more than 200 rioters(mostly Hindus), arrested more than 18,000 Hindus compared to 3,800 Muslims and fired more than 10,000 rounds of bullets to control the situation. This doesn't mean there were no lapses, there definitely were. But I would also refrain from saying those lapses were deliberate and state promoted. It is not easy for the police or army to fire on their own people. For some, their personal bias must have gotten better of their responsibility as the guardian of law and order - the Hindu rioters were, in the mind of many, venting out years of anger against appeasement and burning of pilgrims at Godhra. We also cannot loose sight of the fact that since 2002, there has not been a single act of communal violence in the State of Gujarat and economic development has led to upliftment of people across all religions and societies.

These facts and arguments do not make the 2002 riots any less abhorrent but only provide a context in which to analyze the reaction of the Gujarat Government and Narendra Modi. What happened was extremely unfortunate and must never happen again. In a country like ours with a diverse population and strong religious beliefs, communal tensions are bound to arise when a large section of population is poor, uneducated and without hope. Such a section is easy to manipulate into voting for appeasement and entitlement based policies and is also the most vulnerable to the preaching of extremist religious views. The only way to make them less vulnerable and feel a part of a great nation is to provide them with quality education and economic development so that they can look to the future with hope and optimism. We today need a leader who has the courage to take all the criticism for being in favor of a uniform civil code in his stride and work to create a civil society where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. A leader who can look beyond appeasement and promote secularism in the real sense. A man of character who can make bureaucracy and judiciary efficient and accountable to gradually root out corruption. When I look around, I only see one man who can do it - that's Narendra Modi. Even if one was to hold him accountable for the 2002 riots, we ought to give him a chance. Afterall, we have voted Congress into power many times despite the much Cherished Nehru-Gandhi family being the perpetrator of Sikh Riots and hundreds of thousands of forced vasectomies.

Desperation for Heroes and the Unfolding of Siddhu Drama

Watching the great Siddhu soap unfold every day makes my belief that ‘we are a country highly deficient of heroes’ even stronger.

A fairly average cricketer, an embarrassing commentator (he gives a tough competition to Mandira Bedi though) and a ridiculous judge of a good comedy show has suddenly shot to the top of stardom with his name in active discussion in almost every field – politics, sports, television, social and what not. He has become such a big hero that the news of him being granted a bail attracts primetime coverage and he boasts of his courage and patriotism as if he was convicted for committing a highly truehearted act which could have been done only outside the purview of country’s law.

However, somehow in this entire drama, I fail to understand the pulse of the audience – I don’t know if the media and public are sympathetic to Siddhu or they believe him to be a hero who deserves all the limelight and probably a favorable treatment or they are just having fun watching a buffoon making mockery of himself on national television. Siddhu though, for sure has started believing that he is a national hero and he deserves to be set free for killing someone as it was unintentional. And for that matter, even if it was actually an intentional murder, it was an act out of provocation and thus his right to appeal to the public and portray himself as a self sacrificing martyr. And believe me; he has every right to feel so.

We are a country highly deficient of heroes and entertainment. If cricketers like Dhoni who are yet to prove themselves can become brand ambassador for multiple brands, appear on fashion shows and generate miles long line up of people on the roads hungry to catch a glimpse despite recent failures, then Siddhu has every reason to fancy his super stardom. We are a country where an Indian-American who has nothing to do with India except her ancestry can make the entire nation proud - Siddhu has after all hit Warne for a few sixes and given us some proud moments!

Our ‘sensation’ hungry media which is as indecisive on sensitive issues as a fresh graduate adds to his arsenal. On the other hand, we the public are so deprived of entertainment that watching the Siddhu drama unfold has been quite entertaining. This however puts credentials of our societal values and the legal system at stake – How can someone be roaming around hogging media limelight despite killing someone, even if unintentional.

The day is not far when anyone who could fancy stardom would try justify an act of road rage as an unintentional act even if it was under the influence of Alcohol – After all, Madira is deemed to be a holy offering to a few of Hindu Gods and sacred Prasadam’s influence can never be subjected to disrepute.