India as a country boasting itself as an emerging world power is today grappled with corruption, conflict and several other teething problems. As a result the country and its people struggle to make progress with the rest of the world. In the last fortnight we have seen both corruption and conflict dominate our news papers and television headlines. It is not that these two problems have suddenly cropped up. In fact if we can say so, corruption and conflict has become inherent to India and has become part of the country’s dynamics, a way of life. What the recent news headlines have shown is therefore not really surprising—the continuing killing and violence in Kashmir or Chattisgargh and the hugely embarrassing corruption scam in relation to the Commonwealth Games (CWG) that is being unearthed with new skeletons tumbling out of the cupboard on a daily basis. The day may not be too far off when India could earn the dubious distinction of being not only the world’s largest democracy but also the worlds most corrupt and conflict ridden country. Right now that distinction belongs to the likes of Somalia, Pakistan or Afghanistan. As far as the other problem of conflict is concerned there appears to be an inherent flaw in the nation-state called India. No one can refute the fact that the beautiful diversity that the country is known for is by the same measure a land of different nationalities—the Tamils, Bengalis, Kannada, Assamese, Punjabis etc—all coexisting and yet sometimes jostling uneasily in a larger entity called India. Pockets of resistance, grievances and other national movements remain unresolved giving India a negative tag.
Corruption and conflict may seem two different things to most people. However the closer one tries to look at the relation between the two, the more they are related to each other in terms of cause and effect. How well one spends public money can have a positive impact on people’s grievances. If the government machinery is honest and delivers development to the people, there is less chances of enabling conflict. Or take the other way around—if conflict is addressed in a fair and honorable manner by the State then there is greater chance of peace and development taking place. The point we need to carefully understand is this: Good governance and political initiative must go hand in hand to act as a bulwark against both corruption and conflict that is threatening the country. Take the case of the Maoist problem. Only now the Union Government appears to have realized that after spending hundreds of crores to develop Naxal areas, its initiatives have not produced desired results. Now it feels the need to change the manner in which money for development programmes is being released. It now wants to make money available directly to district administrations to implement locally-planned schemes for better dividends. However there is no guarantee that the district administration will deliver where others have failed. What the country needs is revamping the manner in which we run our governments and to inculcate a culture of transparency and accountability. We also need appropriate laws to act as deterrence. Our institutions need to be strengthened. We need checks and balances. On the other hand we need greater political resolve to address conflicts.
