Time to Plug the Corruption

India's corruption, always impressive, is reaching world-class levels. Last month, Transparency International, the watchdog that ranks countries based on levels of corruption, downgraded India to 87 out of 178 countries, three notches below last year. And on Monday, a World Economic Forum panel in New Delhi fretted that graft is hurting business. So what are politicians doing about it?

Suresh Kalmadi

A few are falling on their swords as bribe-taking is exposed. Last week, the ruling Congress Party removed Suresh Kalmadi, the man who presided over the kickback-plagued Commonwealth Games, as parliamentary party secretary. The party also replaced its chief minister in the western state of Maharashtra due to a housing scam in south Mumbai.
The biggest upheaval came late Sunday night, when Telecommunications Minister Andimuthu Raja resigned. Earlier this month a government auditor attacked his handling of a 2008 sale of mobile phone licenses—instead of a transparent auction, he offered the licenses to a few companies on a "first-come, first-served" basis. This single decision cost the exchequer 1.76 trillion rupees ($39 billion). If it is proven that Mr. Raja was on the take, which he denies, the case will set a new record as India's largest case of graft.
Three downfalls in rapid succession might seem to bode well for the anticorruption fight. But it was actually India's free media and vocal opposition that finally forced the ruling party to act. While this shows how India's democracy is the source of its resilience, it also suggests that the government still lacks the institutional capacity to police itself.
Economic growth means that the spoils of corruption are growing commensurately. Corruption is no longer the grease that allows a socialist economy to function, and has become instead a systemic problem that threatens to derail development. The creation of a truly independent and empowered anticorruption agency might stop the rot, but the Congress Party seems more interested in expanding welfare spending, which has a record of generating even greater corruption. It's a safe bet the record-breaking scandals will continue.

source-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704312504575617840639040962.html?mod=wsj_india_main