His biggest fear was that his party will squander the "historic opportunity. If we made some mistakes, then I think we will not be able to forgive ourselves, and history will not be able to forgive us. And that thought is constantly chasing me."Said Arvind Kejriwal of the new political party, Aam Aadmi (Common Man) in this profile of him in the New Yorker in the September 2nd issue (sub. reqd.).
Kejriwal can rest easy, it appears:
[The] Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) stole the show in its debut by scooping up 28 seats. ... AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal proved to be a giant killer by defeating three-time Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the New Delhi constituency by a margin of more than 25,000 votes.As the New Yorker noted:
Since 2010, Kejriwal's essential message has not faltered; to overcome endemic political corruption, momentous change is required. ... [Few] officials are ever indicted of corruption. As Kejriwal put it, "You can just get away with murder in this country.Of course, this is merely one small change. How much of a consequence it will have is, well, the cliched "remains to be seen." It is one thing to campaign against corruption and corrupt politicians, but another to get to some of the systemic problems that then create opportunities for rent-seeking, as economists refer to it.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, of the Center for Policy Research, said that he gets "no readings, from Kejriwal, on his thoughts on markets and economics, which are central to corruption." ... Kejriwal insists that he is attacking a problem that transcends macroeconomic policy. ... "Liberalization, globalization--these things will never work until you improve the governance of the country."India's corruption and bureaucracy are notorious. Of course, here in the US, too, we have corrupt officials. But, at least our every day existence is free of hassles. Renewing a driver license or registering the purchase of a used car does not require bribing the DMV clerk. In India, even such mundane transactions almost always require bribes. Recently, when my sister chose not to offer bribes in order to get the official papers related to the death of her husband, they made sure to string her along for a few days and for quite a few meetings!
Let us see if the election results will have any impact on the corruption index, which refuses to budge:
Despite a vocal anti-corruption movement and even a new party aimed at fighting graft, the level of corruption in India has not fallen in the last year, according to the latest survey by corruption watchdog Transparency International.Maybe India should try bribing the researchers at Transparency International in order to get a favorable ranking? ;)
The Berlin-based organization released its latest Corruption Perception Index report Tuesday. The index grades countries on how corrupt their political parties, police, justice systems and other organizations are perceived to be.
Transparency International’s rankings start with the countries that are least corrupt. India’s ranking of 94 out of 177 was unchanged from a year ago.
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Interestingly, that cartoon is not about India!
Corruption is perhaps even a part of the culture? I was reminded of a story that I read as a kid. It was one of those witty stories involving Birbal. I tracked down a version of it on the web, should you--the curious reader--feel intrigued. It is a wonderful bottom-line: "A corrupt man will find ways to take bribe whatever the job he is in."
Try corrupting me with an offer of a few million dollars, will you please?
4 comments:
I don't even have to corrupt you with a few million dollars. Far cheaper to point in the direction of a redhead - Hahahahahahahahaha.
You hit the nail on the head with the AAP. You cannot reduce corruption without Economics 101. And in that area, the AAP is as bad as the others.
- Electricity tariffs to be slashed by 50% on day 1
- No contractual employees. Everybody to be made permanent.
- 700 litres of free water to middle class
- Regularise unauthorised constructions
- Zero interest loans for Scheduled Caste
Can go on and on - was even thinking of blogging about it.
There is one glaring truth in India. For every Indian, others have to be not corrupt, but he himself is perfectly entitled to break every law if it suits him and to grease any palm when it is convenient to do so.
Genuine redheads are rare, my friend. And, thus, far more expensive ;)
Are you serious that the AAP has all those you have listed in their manifesto? O.M.G.!!!
That could be worse than Fidel Castro economics!
I don't blame that Indian thinking you are referring to. Typical of a game theory situation, I would think. The perceived cost of playing it straight, versus the perceived benefit to others if they don't play it straight means that pretty soon, behaviorally, everybody is down to the lowest common denominator.
There was only one context in which, as I recall, almost everybody--in the daily life--played by the rules. It was during the Emergency years. There was a huge cost paid though. In any case, Emergency lifted, and back to the same old business, perhaps with a vengeance. Oh well ...
I think the common man can definitely be corrupted. As a matter of fact just like we talk about growth and the cyclical nature of it, I think the same way is corruption growing in India.
A voter willing to sell his vote for a bottle of whiskey and Rs. 100/- the political parties need to fun that money and they indulge in position of power to recover that money. In the next election the voter wants to 200 and the cycle continues.
Corruption growing with a feedback mechanism, eh!
Yes, but this is merely in one small aspect--elections. And then there is the everyday life, from bribing the local constable all the way to telecom scandals ...
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