At long last, Indians revolt against corruption

Many thought the launch of market reforms in the early 1990s and the end of license raj would reduce corruption. Instead, with the creation of additional wealth and circulation of more money in the economy, what one witnessed was an increase in scale of corruption.

Though the country has grown impressively since the reforms began, the growth would have been even more remarkable had corruption been not a factor.

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With the government not doing enough to crack down on graft and the civil society not acting strongly enough to build a movement against it, corruption has had a diabolic effect, especially on those Indians that did not have the wherewithal to move the system in their favor.

Overall, besides remaining an obstacle to creating a fair amount of free enterprise and more growth, corruption has also significantly weakened the country’s institutions.

But, now, all that seems to be changing, and changing utterly.

This past fortnight, Indians of all hues and colors, led by septuagenarian Gandhian Anna Hazare, joined an expansive, nationwide a movement against corruption. Taking a page out Mahatma Gandhi’s playbook, the 72-year-old Maharashtrian went without food for nearly a 100 hours, forcing the government to institute a panel to draft an anti-corruption law.

Hazare is a veteran of many civil society campaigns, best-known among which is a movement that turned his native Ralegan Siddhi into a self-sustained model village.

The broad and intense support for Hazare showed that Indians are serious about fighting corruption this time around. That it came just days after India lifted a world cup cricket trophy in Mumbai also indicated that it’s for real. In the past, a sporting victory of this magnitude, which boosts the nation’s mood, would have pushed such a grave and “uncomfortable” issue to being a side story.

Backing for Hazare’s cause was even more passionate on the internet, where college students, young professionals and even Bollywood actors tweeted to voice support for him and express indignation against corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.

So, finally, what forced the Indians to shed the apathy and indifference towards corruption? What was that proverbial final straw?

Indian pundits have been coming up with theory after theory on it these past few days. However, it may be two recent scandals of epic proportion that turned out to be catalysts.