5. CAUSES OF CORRUPTION

5. CAUSES OF CORRUPTION

There is little doubt that corruption in present-day India pervades all levels
and all services, not even sparing the Indian Administrative Service and Judicial
Service. The bureaucracy of the British India was considered to be largely
untainted with corruption. Compulsions of electoral politics in independent India
changed this image and the administrative as well as the police and judicial
services came to be charged with colluding with the political leadership to indulge
in systemic corruption, making a mockery of democratic governance.
The mid-1960s is considered to be the great divide in the history of public
administration in India. It marked the fading away of the Gandhian and Nehruvian
era of principled politics and the emergence of new politics the keynote of which
was amorality. The scams and scandals of the nineties revealed that among the
persons accused of corruption were former Prime Ministers, former Chief
Ministers, and even former Governors. India’s experience with corruption has
shown that laws, rules, regulations, procedures and methods of transaction of
government business, however sound and excellent cannot by themselves
ensure effective and transparent administration if the political and administrative
leadership entrusted with their enforcement fails to do so and abuses its powers
for personal gain.