The Culture of Percentage
- Enduring Threat to India's Total Development -

Hejang Misao *

"All luxury corrupts either the morals or the State"
- Joseph Joubert (1754-1824).

Corruption is the result of nexus between the bureaucrats, politicians, business men and criminals to gratify greed. The aftermath of which is destruction of all sanctities taking the chances of loopholes in the systems. It either corrupts one's morals or keeping the State at stake. The kind of nexus is indeed a threat to the activists who are attempting to expose this evil conspiracy.

Corruption as said by Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmed is a cancer engulfing India's political-bureaucratic-judicial system and requires urgent treatment. Corruption is endemic throughout the system of Government at every level. Everywhere, development promise is sapped by corruption. Stamping out corruption is one of the biggest challenges that India faces.

The situation in India at present is no schemes or funds from ministries unless you are willing to agree to percentage theory. The results of the project are always half done. Those people who conceptualised this theory are nothing but native invaders, thieves and criminal in the guise of good man who looted India's treasure/wealth for the last 60 years.

They are an enduring threat to the nation development and prosperity. Unless these threats are nipped in the bud our country robust vision of "India a developed nation by 2025" will be nothing but a utopian dream.

Transparency International (TI), a Non-Governmental Organisation with Berlin, Germany, as its headquarter began to methodically monitor corruption throughout the world. It exploited a simple fact: There are tens of thousands of people who experience corrupt practices every day.

Many of these people work in multinational organisations which put them in a position to compare corruption among countries. From this pool of many people with experience and perceptions of corruption, Transparency International has created the 'Corruption perception Index' (CPI), increasingly to go to source for quantitative estimates of comparative corruption.

Every year since the late 1990s, TI has issued a report that gives each country that it covers a score from zero (most corrupt) to ten (least corrupt) as well as perceptions of general corruption. TI also compiles an index of nations where bribes are paid most frequently, particularly in business. India rank 19 out of 22, above Mexico, Russian and China.

India, which has shown significant improvement in perceived corruption, may soon pass China, which shows no trend in the level of corruption, in spite of rapid income growth. By crude estimate, at least 95 per cent of politicians, judges, police, bureaucrats, industrialists etc are corrupt. This 95 per cent are the people who developed the infamous percentage theory of corruption.

In the north-east India context the nexus between the bureaucrats and the underground groups is an open secret where corruption has a free run. Everybody knows this sinister design but maintains culture of silence that corroborated the proverbial word of a fish who says I see and know but could not speak out as my mouth is filled by water.

Most of the contract works of the PWD and other development programmes are in fact becoming their cup of tea. No one so far dares enough to challenge this nexus taking into account the nature of reprisal. But everybody is restless and is not willing to be a mere spectator to this injustice.

The hapless people are in dilemma wondering what should be the best strategy for overall panacea. In the name of UGs many Government officers/criminals siphoned off development funds which are meant for the poor and needy. Percentages in the Government employees are openly cut in insurgent name; who cares how much percentage belongs to the insurgents and how much to the officers.

The systems are so corrupt that the public distribution system provisions hardly reach the target population. Schemes if it reaches are only after the percentages are cut which mean the poor people are just a scapegoat. Hand wash strategy.

The controversial Jan Lokpal Bill for corruption free nation as fought by Team Anna will succeed in one way or the other; it's a matter of time. The proposed Act for security to RTI activists, if put into action, will be the stepping stone for success in the fight against corruption in most parts of India.

But the doubt here is how to overcome corruption when it is a matter of life or death where any law/act for protection does not work. It's a well known fact that bureaucrats are a hard nut to crack who are never willing to subscribe the idea of corruption Free State because of vested interest.

At the same time the UGs who are in cahoots with the bureaucrats derived their sustenance from it. Fighting against corruption in North East is challenging the nexus which is tantamount to challenging the barrel. Many times there were news reports of RTI activists receiving threat from the UG.

For our further information those activists never question the accountability of the underground groups but the Government offices. This itself is a sheer proof of their nexus.

Looking from the practical point of view it sometimes sounds unrealistic but we believe in possibility out of impossibility. The question is how to go about without making any collateral damage in getting rid of this enduring threat to total development.