International index of corruption and transparency has placed India on the red zone for corruption watch list for its inability to curb corruption scandals and petty bribery. The annual index of Transparency International for 2016 has placed India with Brazil and China in the 40th position. India’s condition has showed growth with inequality, it said.
“India’s ongoing poor performance with a score of 40 reiterates the state’s inability to effectively deal with petty corruption and large-scale corruption scandals,” said Transparency International. The impact of corruption on poverty, illiteracy and policy brutality showed that the economy is growing but so is inequality.
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India’s current ranking has put it in the high corruption zone and has drawn critical observations from the transparency campaigners. Nikhil Dey of People’s Campaign for Right to Information had said that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not done enough on the issue of Lokpal and whistleblower protection.
“A lot of scams in the previous government were unearthed with the help of the right to information that the government itself allowed. But the present government has done nothing to boost the anti-corruption structure. The demonetisation process is the latest indicator of the lack of transparency in the system, where even the Reserve Bank of India is not able to spell out the exact details of the operation,” Mr. Dey said. “Growth with inequality is disastrous on its own. But in the case of India, such a growth also legitimises corruption,” he warned.
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Bangladesh is at 27th and Nepal is at 29th positions were slotted in the highly corrupt section. Pakistan is at 32 and has came in the red zone. Afghanistan is ranked 15th in the “highly corrupt” list along with South Sudan, North Korea and Libya.
The organisation has recognised China’s recent anti-corruption campaign under President Xi Jinping which had been targeting ‘tigers and flies’ and has slotted it alongside India. China’s latest score is an improvement of three points. India, has improved with two ranks, but remained in the same red-zone of corruption.
By Premji
