Indira Gandhi once said, "Corruption is a global phenomenon". A lot of water has flowed down the Imphal River since she said those words almost presciently, but this is what Transparency International, a Berlin based group that aims to fight corruption worldwide, has confirmed once again. The trendsetting organization that has its chapter in many countries of the world has brought out a Corruption Perception Index, a list of 102 countries placed in order of susceptibility to practice of corruption. The index is arrived at after collating surveys carried out by country analysts and assessing perceptions of the business community in the respective countries. According to the Index, which is based on a scale of 10 to zero (10 being the cleanest and 0 the most corrupt), Finland is reckoned as the least corrupt in the world with 9.7 points closely followed by Denmark and New Zealand with 9.5 points each.

Singapore finds mention among the 5 least corrupt; while Canada is placed at 7th spot; Britain at 10th; Hong Kong at 14th; US at 16th; France at 25th; China at 59th and Russia at 71st position as the least corrupt nation. India, no doubt figures shamefully at 71st rank scoring an integrity point of a mere 2.7 out of cleanest 10 points. And ladies and gentlemen, the Award for the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt nation on the planet goes to……Bangladesh which is placed at the bottom102nd rank. It seems the virtue of integrity is all but no where.

What is surprising is that corruption has a global fan club; in any part of the world, the people who lash out at corruption are also often the same people who would blithely enjoy the sins of corruption whenever an opportunity arises to enrich themselves through the backdoor. We have become a victim as well as the beneficiary of the phenomenon of corruption which is nothing less than hypocrisy. This makes sure that corruption thrives like an unstoppable force growing like a cancer in our society. Come to think of it, corruption is all over the place, here, there, everywhere. Our encounter with corruption is too numerous to remember. From the peon to the high ranking babus, corruption is a way of life. There is no place to hide from it even if you want to be squeaky clean for the sake of just a change. The lure of filthy lucre has not eluded even that venerable institution of integrity: the judiciary. Law makers are becoming lawbreakers. For instance, 15 of the parliamentarians and 658 MLAs have criminal cases registered against them. Police are hand in glove with the criminals and often they themselves are criminals of the highest order. The national thriller story of the murder of Shivani Bhatnagar allegedly by her lover police officer when she becomes a liability is too hot an example to miss. Now, look at the corporate world. It is in a mess.

Corporate Institutions have always been considered as relatively clean entities, but recent revelation of book keeping fraud in hitherto respectable multinational behemoths have proved otherwise. The casualty is the thousands of shareholders whose life's savings have gone down the drain with their unceremonious fall. Who could have thought that Enron, once the largest energy trading company in the world would perish so dramatically? The number of companies who are found guilty of financial wrongdoing are increasing by the day, and seems to be nowhere near the end. Anyway, what is so indispensable about corruption? From Nairobi to Manipur, why does it spark off some of the most sensational scandals, ignite heated debate among social scientists, lead to teethless legislations, and result in even bolder tinkering of laws by people at high office. Simply put, why can't we just eliminate corruption from our life which has caused so many problems to all of us? The reasons are not far to seek.

Corruption has been institutionalized into our polity, economy and social culture. We can't change something that has been inherited to us from the history in a stroke of moral indignation. Corruption has become no longer a corruption: it is a social courtesy, tradition and a convention that you can't question. People benefit from it as a matter of their right and take part in it as a matter of necessity without any moral compunction. To get a perspective of this argument, just ponder how many of us will not go to a minister with a suitcase full of cash if we are to be offered a job. If financial constraint is not a factor, few people worth their salt would abstain from hobnobbing with a minister and for that matter any official to benefit themselves, which in this case is to get a job. Those who do not have the money to bribe will swear and cry foul over the "illegal" recruitment, but who cares? - the corrupt people has the last laugh almost always at the end. And the truth is if these aggrieved people had the same financial resources, they would have taken the very forbidden route of corruption, which they felt so outraged over. As for the Ministers and their mandarins, they live off bribes given to them and see nothing wrong in the whole exercise of 'give and take'.

Moral of the story: corruption is bad when it diminishes your chances and it is good when it helps you. Corruption has been so much taken recourse to by one and all that an effort must be made either to make it look like a clean practice or it must be totally buried under the moral pit. The tragedy is that the only people who can effectively enforce a corruption free life in the society are the political class. Needless to say politicians are also the most corrupt breed of mankind on earth and to expect them to cleanse the system of corruption is like expecting the snake to lose its sting. So where are we: back to great marathon of corruption?

Individual responsibility in preventing graft is again a myth, for human greed and competition for scarce resources will always ensure that an individual will resort to some form of corruption to get ahead of others the easy way, provided there are less chances of his being caught in the act. To rely too much on individuals to prevent corruption is therefore an unreliable option. For, if you don't pass that bundle of bucks under the table, some smart Tomba will. And snatch from you that once in a life opportunity. The reality is that nobody wants to be a loser in life and craves for success by employing any means, including that much maligned tactics called corruption. Preventing corruption therefore should be best left to civil bodies, citizens' charters, statutory bodies, NGOs and media. These sections of the society can put real pressure on the venal political class to clean up its act and persuade the legal enforcing agencies to implement the various existing anti-corruption legislations.

The media on its part should be unsparing in unearthing acts of corruption by people who are in public life. It is for them to bring about a change in our perception of corruption. They should try to establish a reality of certainty and create awareness that any act of dishonesty by anyone will not go unpunished. For that they should persistently nudge the law enforcing agencies to do the needful. The sooner, the better. Until then, everybody is his own man. Call it survival instinct, social subsidy or social engineering, corruption is here to stay for a long long time. But it is hard not to miss the point that it is making the inequalities in our society more pronounced than ever before. The rich and the powerful are enriching themselves off taxpayers' money and underhand booty with impunity, while the poor like you and I have to slog it out in this big bad world. But then this is an unfair world, isn't it?