India: A corrupt dynasty or democracy?

former Finance Minister of India said "dynasticism" played a leading role in promoting the culture of political corruption.

Corruption is crippling India? At first glance, this question seems absurd. After all, India has had a functioning democratic order since before 1947, and its economy weathered the recent global economic crisis that most of the other failed.

However, a combination of factors that have multiplied over time has raised serious concerns about the threat that corruption poses to the very structure of the Indian state.

Of course India is not experiencing any Arab style "Youth shakes" in response to the corruption scandal plaguing the current government led by Congress party, nor is it likely to do so.

India's economy continues its strong annual growth from 8.5 to 9 percent of GDP, a figure that is the envy of many. Competitive elections are routine.

But inequalities and discontent is rising, driven partly by food price inflation, which recently exceeded 20 percent year over year. In fact, the wholesale inflation now stands at over 9 percent.

manufacturing growth has slowed, and the fiscal deficit has risen above 5 percent of GDP, severely stress the economy. As a result, foreign direct investment has declined and interest rates are rising.

Moreover, almost one third of the country's administrative districts are affected by the extreme left "Maoist violence. Externally, the immediate vicinity of India, with Pakistan teetering, is more disturbed than ever.

The concern about "the future of democracy"

But above all these problems is corruption, paralyzing all state bodies and reach its highest offices.

During the session of the Indian Parliament from the previous winter, the opposition (I am a leader of its largest party, the BJP) demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (CPC) to investigate a seemingly endless series of public scandals. The government, however, does not compromise on this point, and the opposition refused to budge.

The result was paralysis: a full session of parliament ended not with a single piece of legislative business, government, or other complete. This unprecedented impasse led many to wonder whether political immobility presages worse to come.

In fact, during the confrontation, the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, returning from a meeting of G-20, expressed concern about the future of parliamentary democracy in India. "

Singh grave pronouncement most likely born of the unhappy ending the session of parliament. But it was also the result of misconduct scandal in the Ministry of Telecommunications of India, where some 30 billion may have been siphoning off through corrupt practices, mismanagement of the Commonwealth Games, and many other cases government corruption.

The demand of the opposition of CPM to investigate corruption requires true leadership from the government. Unfortunately, not forthcoming. But what the government rejected in the last legislative session has been recognized in the present, due to growing public pressure.

This delay was both unfortunate and unwise. In the heart of any functioning democratic order must be a relationship to the rule of law. When this is absent, political and economic problems to fill the void.

That is the situation in India today, as many senior officials deliberately indifferent display by the letter of the law and flaunt their defiance of the spirit. Their corruption is debilitating, not only India's parliament, but democracy.

The plague of 'dynasticism'

Corruption may have won the game because the system of India for the redress of grievances has become so slow. The Indians also seem to be losing respect for each other, but are leaving the sense of camaraderie that marked previous years in the country of the fight.

But without a fundamental sense of solidarity with fellow citizens, not parliamentary democracy can function.

There is also a growing sense that India has forgotten how to accommodate dissent, that alternative views are considered completely irrelevant. As a result, the government sees the disagreement as a "disservice" a rebel challenge that must be crushed.

The tone, tenor and content of the language with which the government refers to the opposition, and vice versa, has become ritual, condescending rejection, emptying the spirit of parliamentary democracy. As a courtesy to and accommodation of opposing views are treated as signs of weakness.

In this atmosphere of contempt for the opposition, corruption grows and festers. And corruption, along with a loss of accountability, which is eroding the checks and balances of democratic order in India.

As a result, what remains of representative institutions is an empty shell of residual decision-making, with bribery is the only real talk of government.

The "dynasticism" that has taken firm control over much of Indian politics plays an important role in promoting corruption.

After all, the policy inherited power is the antithesis of democracy and accountability is not part of it. And when the responsibility is absent, both in cunning and feel aggrieved must resort to corrupt means to make known their concerns.

Preserve the hereditary privileges invariably means that government rules and processes to bend, if not wholly subordinated to the dynastic concerns. Today, all of India is paying the price.