Part - I

In every generation or decade, a country has, either singularly or in conjunction with the rest of the world, declared a war on a growing and gathering threat to human existence. History reveals that there was war against drugs; war against dictatorial regimes bent on committing war crimes (crimes against humanity); war against terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and the nations that harbor them.

We, Indians, have entered into a new phase in our long journey to make India a developed nation. The atmosphere is so conducive that it is in synergy with our journey - we are now growing very fast in all the fields than ever before - India is indeed heading towards a dramatic improvement. However, we still face innumerable superfluous tasks and challenges to materialize our vision. It is no doubt that we can overcome these challenges when we come together as a unified group and mount an effort to purge our country of some of our endemic problems. But we can do this only by declaring a war against something that threatens us all, something that we can all agree poses the greatest threat to our desire to make a good living. To do this, we must answer two critical questions: Which war should we declare? More importantly, how do we fight the wars we declare?

Though there are many problems, which hinder the country's performance, an insight into the past reiterates that the root-cause of all our problems arises owing to corruption. The catchword 'scam' has occupied almost every day's headlines of all national dailies. In general, corruption has become customary at every level of our society. In order to root out all forms of corruption, it will be better if we immediately and vigorously declare a "War on Corruption in government and business".

There are several reasons to put the "War on corruption" on the front burner.

Firstly, the long-term consequences of corruption in an economy, which has just gathered momentum, can be extremely harmful. Pervasive and the systematic institutionalized corruption in government and business will clearly undermine all our efforts in building a developed nation and is about to prove them futile. We cannot let that happen - it will be a catastrophic mistake of astronomical proportion to let a few illegal wealth seekers undermine our collective well-being.

Secondly, corruption in government has more direct psychological and economic impact on the people of the country. For every rupee that is stolen from the treasury there is one less rupee left to go around for everyone. Corruption on one hand directly impairs the government's ability to provide basic services - water, electricity, healthcare, food, shelter, school and telecommunication - to the masses, on the other makes the people get a feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness, because we believe that we cannot do anything about it. It drives us all crazy. That is all we talk about at public gatherings - who is stealing more money. In fact, how many of us go around all day complaining that government officials are just stealing the money? How many of us have come to accept corruption as a way of life, not because we like it but because we cannot do anything about it? In addition, how many of us see corrupt politicians ridding big cars, living in well-decorated homes, and we get all worked up about it? It is especially frustrating for people living in India, because we have to witness it daily.

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* Contributed by: -
A. Tirumalai Prakash,
PGP - I,
BIM, Trichy.