Subramanian Swamy on fighting corruption

[The Mentalist]

 

> Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 17:23:35 +0530
> Subject: Fwd: Subramanian Swamy on fighting corruption
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> To: kalmadik...@hotmail.com
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Arvind Nande <arvin...@gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 6:04 AM
> Subject: Subramanian Swamy on fighting corruption
> To: Undisclosed-recipient <Undisclose...@yahoo.com>
>
>
> Why fighting corruption is important
>
>  By Subramanian Swamy, The Pioneer, New Delhi, June 11, 2011
>
> The writer is president, Janata Party
>
>
>
> The entire world is watching as Indians attempt to purge India of
> corruption using classically Indian means of protest. Hindutva and
> Sanatana Dharma represent the only viable cures to the cancer of
> corruption which is destroying the entrails of our civilisation
>
>
>
> Corruption in India is now a major concern because of the gigantic and
> mind boggling amounts illegally appropriated in the Satyam, IPL, CWG,
> and 2G Spectrum scams. By all objective criteria, India today has by
> far one of the most corrupt governance. The 2G Spectrum Scam, the
> title of my new book released on June 11, is the most shocking rip-off
> of all.
>
>
>
> As I have pointed out in the book, my curiosity was first fired by the
> fraud and forgery that became apparent in the sudden divestment of
> equity stake in Swan Capital Company by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, the
> owner of ADAG who strategically controlled Swan, in favour of the
> Shahid Balwas-run DB Realty Company, and reportedly on then Telecom
> Minister A Raja’s behest. DB Realty then sold the controlling shares
> of Swan to Etisalat.
>
>
>
> This latter company was considered in a Home Ministry report to be a
> front for ISI and Dawood Ibrahim.  Shahid Balwas was held by the
> Ministry to be an undesirable person. Yet, Etisalat was allowed by the
> Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to buy out the Swan Telecom at eight
> times the price paid by Swan for the 2G spectrum licence. National
> security was seriously compromised for greed of money.
>
>
>
> I had written to the Prime Minister a letter dated November 29, 2008,
> for sanction under Section19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act
> (1988) to prosecute Telecom Minister A. Raja by filing a private
> complaint before the Designated Sessions Court. Thus began my venture
> into the 2G spectrum scam. The PM’s procrastination led me to the
> Supreme Court.
>
> Thereafter, a Bench of Justices Singhvi and Ganguli, by their
> meticulous reading of the briefs and documents filed and by their
> crisp orders and directions have changed the national public mood from
> despair and despondency to hope and expectation.
>
>
>
> This judicial intervention came none too soon. An international
> watchdog committee conducted a study on the illicit flight of money
> from India, perhaps the first ever attempt at shedding light on a
> subject steeped in secrecy, and concluded that India has been drained
> of $462 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) between 1948 and 2008. The
> amount represents nearly 40 per cent of India’s gross domestic
> product.
>
>
>
> The unanimous view throughout the world today is that corruption is no
> more the inevitable grease or speed money to be tolerated in any
> system, but a cancer that could cause the death of a society by
> continuous debilitation — unless it is cured at an early stage.
>
>
>
> The Indian financial system also suffers from a hangover of cronyism
> and corruption that have brought the government budgets on the verge
> of bankruptcy. This too needs fixing. India’s infrastructure requires
> about $ 150 billion to make it world class, and the education system
> needs 6 per cent of GDP instead of 2.8 per cent today. But an open
> competitive market system can find these resources provided the
> quality of governance and accountability is improved. Obviously a
> second generation of reforms is necessary for all this.
>
>
>
> One of the worst problems with corruption in India is the creation of
> “black money” --  money that is used in such transactions and is
> obviously unreported, hence is neither taxed nor is spent openly. It
> travels to secret bank accounts abroad, or, worse, is used by the
> corrupt to indulge in gross luxurious consumption and bribery. Such
> black money stock also creates inflation by enabling easy finance for
> hoarding of supplies even as the GDP growth rate accelerates.
>
>
>
> Corruption, therefore, impacts on economic development of a nation in
> five dimensions:
>
>
>
> 1. Decisions taken for corrupt motive sub-optimises the allocation of
> scarce national resources and hence in the long run lowers the rate of
> growth in GDP. It also encourages buccaneers instead of innovative
> entrepreneurs.
>
>
>
> 2. By the use of bribe money which escapes the tax net and is mostly
> stashed away in banks abroad or in trunks in safe houses, is deployed
> in luxury goods purchase, ostentatious life, splurging in five star
> hotels, real estate, and on partying. This raises demand for luxury
> production and services, and in turn distorts investment priorities.
> In India, 70 per cent of the investment goes directly or indirectly to
> sustain the luxury sector.
>
>
>
> 3. Unaccounted bribe money is lent to hoarders and speculators who
> then cause artificial shortages and thus inflation and property
> bubbles.
>
>
>
> 4. Since the most in corrupt activities would be in public office,
> they enact laws to not only to safeguard the booty by lax criminal
> investigations and prosecutions, but to enable earning interest or
> return on the bribe money. The invention of Participatory Notes (PNs)
> and the Mauritius Tax & Capital Gains exemption treaties is aimed at
> that sordid objective (see below).
>
>
>
> 5. Corruption enables beneficiaries to involve foreign governments
> seeking influence and criminal gangs resident abroad to launder money
> and provide protection.
>
>
>
> The view of Integral Humanism as propounded by Deendayal Upadhaya or
> what we have for centuries have called as Sanatana Dharma is that a
> society is healthy only if there is a harmonisation of material
> pursuits and spiritual advancement in a human being. The social
> structure called Varna, till it degenerated into a birth-based social
> cartel, was designed to downgrade wealth as the indicator of status
> and elevate sacrifice and simplicity as a desirable value.
>
>
>
> But now greed is driving all of us as it has become in the
> globalisation process. Materialistic progress alone however does not
> guarantee national security of a nation. What is essential is the
> character and integrity of its citizens. Hence, besides the objective
> of acquiring knowledge and getting employment that require cognitive
> intelligence, the youth must be motivated in other dimensions of
> intelligence that of emotional, moral and social.
>
>
>
> In the United States, as Business Week has recently reported, these
> concepts have become highly popular in the corporate world, and have
> been incorporated in the best-selling books written by Daniel Goleman,
> Deepak Chopra, Anthony Robbins, among others.
>
>
>
> In brief, our National Policy for integrating spiritual values and
> organisation leadership can be achieved by measures by which we can
> create a modern mindset in the youth of India, not only to motivate
> the youth to acquire technical competence, but to develop emotional,
> moral social and spiritual values that will make that person a
> self-reliant individual of high character, patriotic, and possessing a
> social conscience.
>
>
>
> Our goal has to be thus the efficient use of resources, human and
> physical, hardware and software by an able and human spiritually
> guided and ethically organizational leadership in a framework of
> competitive market economies.
>
>
>
> Hence, concisely stated, for a corruption free society to be achieved
> on a long term basis the Indian economy should be founded on a
> harmonisation of efficient organisational leadership and abiding
> spiritual values which we call as Sanatana Dharma. That can be
> nurtured only bottom up i.e., educate our growth accordingly — to
> synthesise material pursuits with spiritual values which lauds
> simplicity and eschews greed.
>
>
>
> Ultimately it will also be decided by how we vote in elections. But we
> need a new ideology to combat the cancer of corruption in our system.
> For this we need a new breed of Indian leaders-educated, courageous,
> and rational risk takers. That we can get only if the ethos of our
> people changes from the purely individualist pursuit of material
> pleasures and goals, to an integral outlook. Corruption is the cancer
> today in our society but Hindutva (Hinduness) or Sanatana Dharma
> imbibed character is the cure.

--
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