Dr. John Mohan Razu
India continues to maintain its lower ranking, when it comes to corruption. For example, India ranks 96th out of 180 countries on the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) with a score of 38 out of 100, indicating a perception of significant public sector corruption. This is a drop from the previous year's rank of 93rd and a score of 39. While corruption remains a significant challenge, it is important to note that this ranking is based on perceived levels of corruption, not necessarily the absolute amount.
When it comes to the State of Nagaland reports published in 2024 and 2025 indicate that corruption in Nagaland is perceived as pervasive across all levels of government and society. Reports published in 2024 and 2025 indicate that corruption in Nagaland is perceived as pervasive across all levels of government and society. Despite official crime statistics showing low numbers of registered corruption cases, multiple sources and social commentators suggest that bribery and misappropriation of funds have become a normalized part of daily life.
When say that Nagaland per se continues its poor infrastructure and also in terms of development. For a question where does the money that the government funds earmarked for various schemes and programmed. The roads, pavements, drainage, and many others are not to the point. If questioned, the blame game starts blaming one another that involves bureaucracy, politicians, underground movements, and public servants who take away the huge chunks of moneys meant for development programs spread across. It means that in Nagaland there is zero tolerance and no redline for corruption.
Corruption is seen as an obstacle to developing, impacting public services, stagnating the economic growth, and developing mistrust amongst the public institutions. Perceptions of corruption and practices of corruption go hand-in-hand. In Nagaland nearly 90 percent belong to Christianity, which means almost all the domains vis-a-vis both the public and private departments and agencies including ecclesia/church should have been involved in corrupt deals and dubious transactions.
If this is the case how come corruption and ‘Christ for Nagaland’ needs better understanding and nuancing especially the recurring terms such as ‘compatible’, ‘tenable’, and more importantly its opposites. It is thus when I use “incompatibility”, it means ‘unable to exist’ or ‘work together’ harmoniously due to basic differences. Likewise, the term “untenable” means impossible to defend, maintain, or justify, especially while referring to biblical commands, ethical/moral principles, and normative principles. Therefore, the construction “Corruption and Nagaland for Christ” poses and thus becomes problematic, and thus becomes incompatible, and untenable, and so, cannot go together, since both of them are antagonistic to each other, and so, cannot be brought to support each other.
Corruption also underscores money transactions which has no bar and business gets done by paying money. It cuts across all barriers and boundaries—be it corridors of power—bureaucracy, ecclesiastical episcopacy, offices of the church associations. Power operates is big and small ways but in-between them a medium that unifies is money. Money plays the most important part in everyone’s life. Some struggle hard to earn money by ways of selling their labour, but many somehow want to make money. Money is the root of all evils.
How do they make money and what are the means and methods are being employed to garner money? Making money in and through unethical means needs scrutiny and merit examination. One question that continues to emerge all the times is: How did you get the money? ‘How’ becomes the crucial one, because the ways with which the money has been gotten, by all means be raised and ought to be answered. It pre-supposes that in what ways you got the money (dubious). The core factor that underscores could lead to two oppositional facets: ‘moral or ‘immoral’’. In a world of lures and greed money take diverse avatars.
For a question: did you earn that money morally or immoral ways? So, the term ‘morality’ occupies the central place when it comes to acquisition of money—in proper ways. The money that has been gotten in wrongful ways posits ‘immoral’ ways, because you have not worked for it. It further leads to others terms such as ‘legal’ means or ‘illegal’ means--that the money earned in some other ways does not come within the legal purview and so it is illegally gotten. The money that one has should justify certainly not just ‘the means’ or ‘the ends’, but both.
People say that money has no colour, caste, creed, class so on so forth, but is tied up or entrenched with an important stamp ‘black’ or ‘white’ or corrupt or soiled. It is also easy to gauge the ways with which one’s life style, the life-style and other paraphernalia he/she has—the wealth, both cash and immovable properties one should concur with the job or work he/she engaged with. As Bonino rightly pointed out that ‘what you earn, and what you eat should synchronise’, if they fail to meet, there is something wrong.
If there is something wrong such as if found there is no co-relation between what one earns and how one lives—mostly we find the total contradiction between earning, spending and bank balance (saving and properties), if fails to meet, then it would lead to contradictions. One should ethically prove how he/she got the money. Failing to respond leads to so many questions that revolve around ‘morals’. The money that has been acquired without working for it is called as ‘black money’—paid in return for favour or something to be done outside the legal framework.
In other words, it is called as graffiti paid for many things that encompasses diverse facets. India has its definitive place when it comes to corruption. Corruption manifests in all the spheres in the Indian society—glaringly visible. Corruption has become an accepted norm and except a few many has started to accept and live with it. Does it mean that it has become part of our culture? We cannot pinpoint an area where we could vouch that there’s no corruption. At the same time it is alarming that the Indian church has become so corrupt.
In the context of Nagaland which claims “Nagaland for Christ”, but in reality, being a Christian State is so corrupt, and so has lost its moral authority and credibility. In this case, church in Nagaland cannot be exempted as it might have been is soaked in corruption and thus breeds corruption in its life and witness. It is so glaring that, the life-style, the bank balance and the properties owned by the ecclesiastical episcopacy of the past and present and also other chief functionaries and pastors barring a few, have amassed wealth that fails to meet or concur what they earn, save, and spending posits lack of accountability and moral integrity.
Over and above, hardly have I come across the church making statements against corruption because it has lost moral authority. I keep hearing from those who in responsible position in the church and theological institutions say that it’s very difficult to eradicate corruption. If this is the crux of the matter, why the hell do you talk about morality, transparency, accountability and transparency?
If this is the reality, keep the Bible aside and leave the job if you consider as a job and not a vocation. Do not preach sermons and offer advice to your congregations on corruption. A moratorium to be enforced to stop preaching and teaching on corruption, because it is soaked in corruption and breeds corrupt activities in all forms. Money has no scruples, and so the church and society.
