Abraham Lincoln, it is believed, once said: “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed”. For us, in India, that crisis is right here looking into our eyes and challenging the very existence of our republic. Do we have the determination to save it from crumbling and getting crushed by the crisis?
Over the centuries, India has demonstrated a high degree of tolerance — tolerance even of injustice. Simultaneously, we have shown the courage of conviction to accept criticism, however sharp, to build a strong democratic republic. For didn’t Friedrich Nietzsche feel: “In all institutions from which the cold wind of open criticism is excluded, an innocent corruption begins to grow like a mushroom — for example in senates and learned societies”. Blessed with stalwart thinker-statesmen among us then, many initial challenges were unhesitatingly taken on.
Standards for probity in public life were held high. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru thought it necessary to set up a commission to probe into the indiscretion shown by a top Indian Civil Service officer, S.A. Venkataraman. Venkataraman had procured vegetables for his daughter’s wedding at a discounted rate from a government supplier, albeit paying every paisa of the cost from his pocket. The offence was that he had taken advantage of his official position. The erudite Venkataraman spent his time in jail redrafting the extant jail manual, which is respected as a monumental work even today. Even before this, Mahatma Gandhi had said: “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today”.
The beautiful and bountiful river Godavari starts as a trickle in Nashik. Broadening her benevolence on course, she matches the size of the samudra raja (sea) as she dissolves herself into him. So has corruption in “Free India” that made a humble beginning, and today its benevolent, all-pervading presence is inescapable. The scams and scandals like Jeep, Mundhra, Nagarvala, Pathak, Bofors, Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh, Swiss bank accounts, food-for-oil, fodder, coal import, palm oil import and many more mark the milestones on its route. But the nation is left numb by the sheer scale and magnitude of corruption in the Commonwealth Games and the 2G spectrum respectively. Although belonging to the same gharana, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is unable to fashion himself after Pandit Nehru. Is the sense of outrage hidden in Dr Singh? In questioning the Prime Minister, I seek strength in the words of Bess Myerson: “The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference”. To be fair, Dr Singh is a lateral entrant and may have nuanced his stance on probity. A thorough homegrown Indira Gandhi got distanced from her father’s idealism. She even gave corruption a certain degree of legitimacy by declaring it as an international phenomenon. Rajiv Gandhi provided a touch of sentimentality to the legitimacy when he bemoaned that only 15 paise in every 100 reached the needy beneficiary. With Bofors taking place during his tenure, we can only wonder if the 15 paise got further reduced.
“Every culture has its distinctive and normal system of government. Yours is democracy moderated by corruption. Ours is totalitarianism moderated by assassination.” These are words of an unknown Russian. One wonders if these words were uttered while in the company of Americans or Indians? Using Glasnost and Perestroika as his protective gear, Mikhail Gorbachev helped Russia to dump the twin evils of totalitarianism and assassination. India has only one to discard — corruption. But who will take the lead?
The present environment appears hopeless. Nearly one-fourth of the members in the Lok Sabha face criminal charges which include human trafficking, immigration rackets, rape, murder and embezzlement of public funds. Going by the developments in Parliament on impeachment, a few, even in the judiciary, are not above board. The Niira Radia tapes point a finger of suspicion on the independence of even the media. The Chief Vigilance Commissioner — a top bureaucrat of the country brought to guard the system as a watchdog — is named in a chargesheet. There is so much one can write on how the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) does not invoke confidence. Who is left for us to fall back on?
In the early ’90s, it took the leadership of a P.V. Narasimha Rao, a hardnosed politician, to steer our economy out of the deep doldrums into which it had fallen. Dr Singh, the economist, is now facing the challenges thrown up by an India in political doldrums. Cleaning the Aegean stable, putrid with the corrupt Congress culture, is an unenviable job.
The world’s ninth most powerful person, Sonia Gandhi, heading the Indian National Congress has only made a passing remark about the fall in standards in public life. In ranking her, Forbes magazine felt Mrs Sonia Gandhi has cemented her status as true heiress to the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. Forbes also said that she remains the real power behind the nuclear-tipped throne. Would she consider taking the initiative by ensuring that the United Progressive Alliance-2 would come out with bold steps in reforming the system? Let the truth come out on the 2G scam and the Commonwealth Games through a comprehensive inquiry, get back the unaccounted money in the various tax havens around the world, ensure the passage of necessary laws to segregate the investigative and the law enforcement wings of the police, audit every paisa of public money, particularly those which are spent on the flagship programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, strengthen institutions such as the CBI, Central Vigilance Commission, Parliament, the federal structure, etc.
There is no pretence here that the corruption quagmire is only in the Congress stable. It spread like any virulent epidemic and its incidence is reported everywhere, even from many political formations. But as the leader of the ruling alliance at the Centre, it is absolutely necessary that the Congress rises to the occasion to meet the demands of the day, for India’s sake.

Nirmala Sitharaman is spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The views expressed in this column are her own.