Corruption-An Act of Mind

By Harsh Choudhary:

Corruption is so much a habit now that we don’t even realise that we have done it. Corruption in a broad sense is exploiting public or personal resources for personal benefit. And in its most basic sense, is an act of mind. To understand corruption’s what, who and how, let’s go deeper to what we think and what it really is. Whenever, we hear the word “corruption”, scams like CWG and Adarsh Housing Societies come into mind. They must come because they are one of the biggest scams in India. But the list of corrupt activities doesn’t include only these scams but also all the activities which we do in our daily life to make things easier in the wrong manner.

Now, talking about the hands behind corruption, the biggest delinquents, we can think of, is the government. A simple reason may be that, the cause of biggest scams is some political leaders. And how do they do it? That’s easy to answer. They give only a fraction of the desired output by implementing minimal resources and maximizing their own personal profit. If we put only this into the category of corruption, then it seems very easy to remove. We can bring a new government and the problem will be solved because the problem is with the current leaders. But it is not so. The only difference between the government and public is the name they own. Both the bodies are formed of the so called Indians. The line which divides the two bodies on the grounds of corruption is the effect they cause when they act corrupt.

A common man, whose life is all about his job and family, has a little contribution to the effect of corruption. Whenever he has to deal with some government organization, in order to get his job done, he bribes the officials. Sometimes, without money, the job becomes impossible or takes a lot of time. The fault obviously does not lie in the person but the department concerned. A common man, at times, meddles with thousands and does not count it as corruption. A richer person tampers with lakhs or even crores. We don’t feel its corruption until it doesn’t affect a large number of people directly. Thus the “effect” is all that differs; otherwise it is the same act and intention everywhere.

Corruption is now a part of people’s mindset. We think that, if our lives are going good then why think about the rest of the world. I agree that we discuss the common problems of common people but a discussion is neither the end nor the start. Scams are big because they affect a large number of people. The profit obviously is large. The scale is what decides, to which extent a person can make profit out of his tainted acts. Thus, we all are convicts. A common man, if he becomes a political leader some day, can’t be expected to be honest and not obsessed with his own benefit. And that’s why, ironically, it’s all the government.