Wednesday 17 January 2018

Rule of the law essential for corruption elimination

  • American civil society is 90% law and 10% politics. Indian civil society is 90% politics and 10% law. 
  • India has chosen this political model that makes politics profitable to politicians. Indian politicians in power are among the richest in the category anywhere in the world. 
  • In a dynamic society everything should be provided for by law and only a few things are left to politicians. The law should govern a nation where the judge, the police and the civil servant dispense justice to the citizen.
  • Indian politics took enormous power in its hands in order to promote economic growth. But prosperity evolves by the laws of nature. 
  • India has no legal vision that is why a million cases are pending in courts. Law and franchise are two sides of the same coin called democracy, one representing truth and the other popular will.  
  • A government must be small. Then only rule of law can be implemented by the judiciary, the police and civil service.
  • India is yet to write any document to keep the greedy politicians in check.
  • Mass literacy will make the voter cast his vote to the right candidate. 
  • Progress is indigenous; it cannot be imported from abroad.
  • The main reason for India’s pervasive corruption is material greed. Some 15 million Indians have left India to seek monetary gains abroad. This basic moral defect can be kept under leash only by law. 
  • Indian politics, instead of standing on the legal high ground, opted for huge state power. All-powerful ministers, MPs, MLAs and IAS officers amass wealth without any let or hindrance. Can India take a U-turn from politics to law, from money to moral rectitude? 
  • Political change has always been difficult to effect. The true dimensions of the task of creating an ethical society must be borne in mind.
  • Economic progress must have a firm legal and democratic foundation. The West too is suffering because of the excessive pursuit of wealth. The West ignored its policies and many are predicting even the demise of liberalism. If the West cannot afford immoral affluence, how can India afford it? 
  • To seek to pursue growth on a shaky legal foundation is dangerous. The Indian polity is morally weak without any legal restraint. Economic growth in the absence of law has created the present corruption levels. 
  • India must strengthen its judiciary. Then, without any fuss and public outcry corruption can be eliminated. The same judiciary and police will put an end to black money.
  • The job of a minister is glamorous with power and pomp, whereas a judge and a police officer have to do their jobs in relative obscurity. A minister's job is largely decorative and that the job of the judge is constructive. Realising his true contribution, the politician must be humble. By a political awakening and a legal illumination corruption can be put to an end. 
  • Citizens must become alert and create the right atmosphere for a lofty political leadership to emerge. A highly politicised society has to become a highly legalised society. Politics is partisan, law is unitary. Moving from politics to law is evolutionary progress.
  • Politics is deep-rooted in the moral character of a society. Any politician who is willing to live on bread and water will not need any bribe. Economics is a zero-sum came. When the rich live in palaces the poor have to live on the streets. A voluntary tendency to lead a simple life by all will create the right atmosphere for economic probity.
  • We cannot create a draconian state and end corruption. The moral transformation of civil society must be natural and based on persuasive leadership. A clear definition of a sustainable lifestyle must be voluntarily accepted. Only then the competitive urge to make more and more money will end. Money should become meaningful, moral and deeply satisfying. If true wealth is found in a rich heart, no one will want to touch money even with a barge pole.
  • Law is the fulcrum of democracy and democracy is what holds the people together without force. Law and democracy can combine to form the life of politics to cleanse the country of corruption. Cheap politics has done enough damage to India. India needs Newtons and Einsteins in its politics to make it clean, pure and inspiring. Then the best and the brightest will come to politics to make it a haven of virtue and science.



Two things form the bedrock of any open society.
Freedom of expression and rule of law ...  Salman Rushdie

If citizens cannot trust that laws will be enforced in an evenhanded and honest fashion, 
they can be said to live under the rule of men corrupted by the law ... Dale Carpenter


Corruption arises out of discretionary powers vested upon politicians, civil servants and judiciary, without any accountability, which are being misused for amassing ill-gotten wealth. These must be replaced with robust merit based algorithms. Transparency & accountability must be established at all levels. All government expenditure must have prior legislative sanction. Executive sanctioning of schemes, expenditure or anything must be prohibited. Every process of law administration must have legislative approval prior to implementation. Citizen rights must be respected under all circumstances by every one. Courts must deliver judgments within six months. VIP culture must be abandoned. These are few things which must be adopted immediately and refined continuously for establishing a happy society.

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