Dr Subramanian Swamy is pulling no punches in his fight against corruption in India. He appears to be the only high-profile politician who has taken up cudgels against Antonia Maino, aka Sonia Gandhi, the woman who appointed Dr Manmohan Singh the prime minister of the Congress-led UPA government. I wish that there were others in the media and in politics who had the chutzpah to take on the unholy bunch that is wrecking India. Dr Swamy says that Sonia Gandhi is the “Gangotri” of corruption in the country.
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Category: Corruption
What Holds India Back
In August in a post, Is the Indian Government the Greatest Enemy of India’s Prosperity?, I had quoted a WSJ piece which read in part, “Because India’s entrepreneurs have succeeded amid dysfunctional government and financial institutions by developing a kind of independent and experimental ingenuity, it stands to reason that the enterprising class would prosper even more were India to reduce barriers to business and clean up corruption.” I commented on that and wrote: Continue reading “What Holds India Back”
Manmohan Singh is really and truly a despicably dishonest man
Mohan Murti writing in Business Line of May 31 asks “Is the nation in a coma?” I think so. The nation’s leaders are dishonest, corrupt, venal, and criminal. Yet the citizens don’t seem to know or care. The most telling fact is that Dr Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of the country, is an astonishingly dishonest person. But he enjoys a reputation of being clean. Dr Singh presides over a collection of the most heinously dishonest bunch of criminals ever to have walked the earth and yet there is no outrage among the citizens. Continue reading “Manmohan Singh is really and truly a despicably dishonest man”
Nehru’s Position on Corruption in High Places
Ever wonder why India is so corrupt? Because like three-day old fish, the rot starts at the top. Now you know what the top was at the time of India’s independence and therefore you must have had your conjectures. Now wonder no more.
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India: A Case of Bad Governance
In today’s Business Standard, Pranab Bardhan in his article “India — A case of bad governance“, makes a number of very important points.
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A Digression on Corruption in Six Acts
ACT 1: A Course on Development
This summer for teaching an undergraduate course on economic development (Econ171) at Berkeley, I naturally considered the major factors that affect — and effect — economic growth and development of an economy. The major headings included growth models, energy, infrastructure, urbanization, education, agriculture, and one other topic which I will come to presently. It should come as no surprise that the government of India — being one that professes a sincere commitment to economic growth and development — actively intervenes in all of those areas. There are government departments and ministries at the central and state levels. Continue reading “A Digression on Corruption in Six Acts”
Mother India
Will Durant (1885 – 1981) was an American historian, writer and philosopher. His most famous work is the 11-volume “The Story of Civilization”, published between 1935 and 1975. In a 1931 work, “The Case for India“, he had this to say about India.
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A Simple Story About Real Contentment
I came across this story on a mailing list. Let me retell the story first and then the source of the story.
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Of Trucks and Roads and Corruption
Let me tell you a story. It’s a vignette of what I consider to be important although it may appear to be rather trivial. Perhaps its apparent triviality is what should astonish us. But allow me to first recount a conversation I had the last week.
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Congress, Nepotism and Corruption
Congress, Nepotism and Corruption: The Eternal Rotten Braid
The three — corruption, nepotism and the Congress party — form India’s most enduring triumvirate. It is hard to think of one without thinking of the others because they characterize India’s politics and political landscape like nothing else conceivably can. The Congress party is the fiefdom of one family — being part of that confers the inalienable right to be the boss. Nepotism gains a whole new meaning in the hands of the Congress. Chronic, acute and pervasive corruption at the highest levels of governance India could only have been engineered by the political party which has held the reins of power for practically all of India’s existence since 1947. So it was with incredulous wonder that I read two news items yesterday.
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Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 