India's Corruption Problem

India is corrupt. It's been that way for as long as I know. I didn't think that was ever going to change, and I was worried that it would stunt the country's growth. How can you change societal problem that is so widespread?

Wikipedia throws it down for us:

Political and bureaucratic corruption in India are major concerns. A 2005 study conducted by Transparency International in India found that more than 45% of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to get jobs done in public offices successfully.

It's hard to trust a government that allows that much corruption without doing anything about it. It's bad for business. You can't trust anyone, whether they're working for you or whether they're a government official.

My grandfather and uncle run a coconut oil mill in India. They make the best coconut oil in the world. That's a fact. However, they have no desire to expand because any hint of success would lead to unwarranted government harassment. The other problem with expanding is that you can't trust a damn person, even family members. People are greedy and there's no accountability. It's an awful set of circumstances.

Finally, someone has decided to stand up against corruption:

Anna Hazare has quickly become a 21st century Mahatma Gandhi inspiration for millions of Indians fed up with rampant corruption, red tape and inadequate services provided by the state despite the country posting near-double digit economic growth for almost a decade.

Obviously, any Indian protester is going to instantly get compared to Gandhi just as any African-American Civil Rights activist would be compared to MLK or Malcolm X (or Rosa Parks).

Even prominent businessmen are behind this sentiment:

"Democracy means no voice, however small, must go unheard. The anti-corruption sentiment is not a whisper-it's a scream. Grave error to ignore it," Anand Mahindra, one of India's leading businessmen and managing director of conglomerate Mahindra Group, wrote on Twitter.

People are speaking out. It's about time. You can only push people so much until they are going to push back. Now is the time that people feel empowered to share their opinion. An attack on corruption can only help India grow as a nation.

If you're not familiar with Hazare, he was recently jailed and is now fasting:

Hazare, who has struck a nerve with millions of Indians by demanding tougher laws against rampant corruption, had insisted he wants the right to return to a city park where he had originally planned to publicly fast, before he leaves jail.

While some see Hazare as a hero, others see this movement as somewhat hypocritical.

This isn't just a public issue:

Indians have a deep and complicated relationship with corruption. As in any long marriage, it is not clear whether they are happily or unhappily married. The country’s economic system is fused with many strands of corruption and organized systems of tax evasion. The middle class is very much a part of this.

But it goes beyond that. Some of the primary supporters of Hazare were Bollywood stars. However, Bollywood has a shadiness to it as well:

One reason the mafia could get such a firm hold on the film industry in the 1990s was that it had established a business relationship with producers and actors and functioned as an efficient conduit for illicitly transferring their money to safe foreign havens.

Following Mr. Ramdev’s fast, when the government agreed to investigate Indian money hidden in foreign banks, The Times of India ran an intriguing essay that argued that the law should make a distinction between the “black money” of corrupt politicians, earned through kickbacks, and the “black money” of businessmen who had moved their cash abroad years ago to save themselves from unreasonably high tax rates in socialist India. The essay implied that corrupt politicians were the real evil and that the tax-evading businessmen were just smart.

So as you see, there's a dichotomy in views on corruption.

In a society like the United States, it seems like we have a lot less corruption in politics and much more in business. If you're in politics and you're corrupt, you get jail time. If you're a businessman and you avoid taxes, you get vilified.

In India, it's only the politicians that get vilified. This doesn't seem fair and may seem hypocritical. However, why should anyone trust a corrupt government? Why should a hardworking citizen give money to a government it doesn't trust? While I believe there needs to be a full termination of corruption in India, I believe that it will have to begin at the top. After that, you can go after the businessman and even the working man.

Once the government restores the people's faith in it, it can restore its faith in the people.