Corruption not the crux of the problem

The Anna Hazare saga reached its climax on Saturday 9th when the government of India, in Delhi seemed to have caved into the demands of the lone Crusader against corruption. Maybe they will make a  movie about this event, ; Poor lad, educates himself, joins army, finds Nirvana at war in 1965, and public service finally......overcoming the sheer bloated corrupted government of the Congress Party, through his lone efforts.

That's the Fairy Tale, but what really happened?

Congress in its rudderless, geriatric leadership under ManMohan Singh, into its second term is on the defensive...OBVIOUSLY. (it would be no surprise if some minor ammendments are brought in between...slipped in slowly to protect their further interest)

The Ardash scam, the 2G scam, the sudden discovery that there are between $500--1,500 billion looted from impoverished India by the corrupted elite lying idle in Swiss Bank accounts alone .....has correctly generated public anger. (70 tax havens around the world, excluding the UK and USA....otherwise 2 favorite destinations of South Asia's assets by the corrupted governing post-colonial elite from Bangladesh to Pakistan)

PM Singh is a weak front for Sonia, the real back seat driver who herself is wholly uneducated, not holding a single under grad degree, but is the unofficial leader of the country simply because she is the wife of former PM Rajiv Gandhi, and through marriage she belongs to that famous dynasty. Clearly Congress is insecure...as it should be.

India has 69 Billionaires.

The Congress Party has been in charge of the show for most of the 63.5 years of "Independence" run by the Macauley Brown sahibs, so obviously they must take the greatest direct flak for the nations many woes. However what is sad is that in a Great Nation such as India, the government of such a great nation has to bow to the wishes of one man, and the blackmail action of a lone hunger striker.

That is not the way to run Great nations, and governments.

There are many levels of financial corruption:

(i) Corruption between individual citizens.

(ii) Petty corruption between government officials and civilians.

(iii) Big corruption cases involving powerful public figures in government and the private sector.

With the first and second, in developed countries, there is quite a lot of transparency which allows Jcommon public to seek redress if corruption is involved, usually through civil or criminal action. The neutral (a) state institutions, (b) effective governance, and (c) the rule of law is quite sufficient to prevent high levels of corruption in the first two cases.
However in the instance of the third kind of financial corruption, the level of corruption is as great if not greater in Developed Countries as it is in any Third World country. But because the system of the nation state works, and the scamsters are more sophisticated, infiltrating governments and controlling them (USA/UK)......big corruption cases in First World countries, save a few (Enron) don't really surface as they do in India.


Barak Obama, elected by Wall Street money has given corrupt, mismanaged Wall Street Banks trillions of $ to "Bail them out" of their own corrupt, deceptive, criminal practices.

The USA installs puppets in Third World Nations; pressurizes them to put ALL their nations money in American banks, and then topples them (Shah of Iran, where the USA is holding between $40-50 billion of the Shah's Iran assets, with interest)

Despite the above, the USA is still a successful country, with tremendous prosperity, and an economy of $15 trillion. The UK is still a successful country, with tremendous prosperity, and an economy of $2 trillion. What makes these two countries First World, and prosperous is the total absence of the first two kinds of corruption. Which also allows Indian expats to succeed into millionaires through sheer hard work, and business acumen in the USA and UK. The OVERALL system of the state works.

I do not condone the third category of big corruption, I abhor it. Germany and Japan are doing quite well, with huge economies, without the clear indication of running the third type of big league corruption cases, through the government and big business.

However major league corruption is not the crux of the problem for a Developing nation.

The main challenges are:

Governance

Transparent, effective state institutions.

Good strategic policies which are useful for the state in all spheres.

China is successful not because the Communist Party is completely incorruptible, and there are no cases of major corruption in the country....quite the contrary. However the Communist Party in China is strong, is meritocratic and not based on dynasty politics....governance is effective...with effective top down state institutions...and finally good strategic policies for the state, which bears obvious fruit.

India by contrast is a mafia state, where the government is weak, epitomized by PM Singh, and the organized criminal elements strong (oil mafia, movie mafia, wheat mafia),-(the example which I personaly observed , where the .prolypolene which supposed to be landed at mumbai port was routed to kandla so that truck mafia could have their fill of transportation cost) was  Government operates on a minimalist basis, despite all the hue and cry, with the budget accounting for about barely 20% of the official GDP.....and far less of the real GDP ($4 trillion).

Indian Government institutions are corrupt, colonial era and ineffective---they don't do their jobs that well, thus obviously governance is very weak. Finally most government policies are inappropriate for the strategic development of the country, but instead is a mixer of bandage wrapping and hole plugging adhoc policies depending on the publicity that is generated by the "popular" Westernized media (TOI, Hindustan Times, Anglicized TV channels).....Indian governments are shallow, and inactive.

However trying to hold hunger strikes against such deep institutional problems is not going to be easy, trying to galvanize the public at the same time.

How do you hunger strike against a corrupt MOD, which thirsts for foreign arms purchases, which affords huge kickbacks for the netas and babus involved, but compromises India's strategic defense policies?

How do you you hunger strike against a corrupt worthless MEA, which does not know how to pursue India's external interests even in its back yard?

How do you detect ALL the spies working within the state structure for foreign governments for money? (Mitrokin papers reveal to us that most of Indira's cabinet worked for the KGB, whilst a few worked for the CIA).....who works for India and its poor people?

Hunger strikes against corruption is noble, and gauges audiences in India. The poor man with no money has some satisfaction against the man with too much money. But the focus and meditation in Civil society action must ultimately focus on how to improve GOVERNANCE, EFFECTIVE STATE INSTITUTIONS, GOOD STRATEGIC POLICIES OF THE STATE, and finally GOOD LEADERSHIP WORKING WITHIN EFFECTIVE PARTIES.