As more skeletons tumble out of the closets of corrupt politicians, you have to examine the approach employed by the civil society in it's fight against corruption. Their hard-line negotiating stance during the clashes with the government has been disconcerting.
Some have questioned the legitimacy of the whole movement in light of the democratic framework of the country. The argument from the ruling UPA-2 goes along these lines: elected representatives are best suited to make legislation, popular opinion would force the government to do the right thing anyway.
For decades in India, there has been widespread disenchantment over corruption in public life. After 1991, the sheer sums of money involved in scandals have skyrocketed , often measured in billions of US dollars.In contrast, total alleged value of kickbacks in the Bofors scandal from the 1980's feels like petty change. Yet, until 2011's surge in investigations and imprisonments, there was hardly any accountability in the system.
In the aftermath of the economic boom, the mighty and connected have often seemed above the law. The civil society has no way of fighting these new barons of power using regular tools of law and justice on the books. They had to come up with something disruptive. So, we have India against corruption(IAC) and myriad other organizations. Often, their demands have sounded unreasonable, their tactics have looked more like blackmail. But they have been peaceful. They have sought to reform the existing establishment, not uproot it.
Until IAC or someone else figures out a better way to bend the will of the government, popular protests are the best available means.No country can have it's rules and constitution set in stone. They need to reform with changing times.
Some have questioned the legitimacy of the whole movement in light of the democratic framework of the country. The argument from the ruling UPA-2 goes along these lines: elected representatives are best suited to make legislation, popular opinion would force the government to do the right thing anyway.
For decades in India, there has been widespread disenchantment over corruption in public life. After 1991, the sheer sums of money involved in scandals have skyrocketed , often measured in billions of US dollars.In contrast, total alleged value of kickbacks in the Bofors scandal from the 1980's feels like petty change. Yet, until 2011's surge in investigations and imprisonments, there was hardly any accountability in the system.
In the aftermath of the economic boom, the mighty and connected have often seemed above the law. The civil society has no way of fighting these new barons of power using regular tools of law and justice on the books. They had to come up with something disruptive. So, we have India against corruption(IAC) and myriad other organizations. Often, their demands have sounded unreasonable, their tactics have looked more like blackmail. But they have been peaceful. They have sought to reform the existing establishment, not uproot it.
Until IAC or someone else figures out a better way to bend the will of the government, popular protests are the best available means.No country can have it's rules and constitution set in stone. They need to reform with changing times.
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