India Insight

An open letter from a group of 14 eminent citizens, quickly labelled the “G-14″ and blaming corruption as one of the biggest threats to India’s growth story, may be a case of a glass half empty, half full.

The letter was signed by leading industry figures, including Azim Premji, head of software giant Wipro, the chiefs of vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra, the HDFC mortgage lender and ICICI Bank.  It also includes former central bank governors and senior judges.

They called on investigative agencies to clamp down on corruption and say a recent slew of graft scams, like the 2G scandal which may have cost the government up to $39 billion, have “deeply hurt the nation”.

The letter may be a welcome statement from civil society as India appears mired in corruption scandals that for many commentators signal how the second term Congress-led government is simply losing the plot.

It also signals how many in the business world, including foreign investors, believe corruption is simply getting out of hand under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is seen both as honest but unable to stamp down on corruption within his government.

Nitin Gadkari has taken over as BJP President. At 52, he is the youngest BJP chief so far.

In the first of his interviews after taking over, Gadkari said he would like some of the old guard like Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and Govindacharya to return.

Two of these are identified with the temple movement and Govindacharya advocates the ideology of Swadeshi.

I once paid a cop 30 ringgit (about $10 then) for making an apparently illegal left-hand turn in Kuala Lumpur. Scores of drivers in front of me were also handing over their "instant fines", discreetly enclosed within the policeman's ticketing folder. It was days ahead of a major holiday and the cops were collecting their holiday bonus from the public.

Malaysia opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim holds a disc he says contains evidence of judge-fixing in Malaysia 

I felt bad about this, of course. What I was doing was illegal, immoral and perpetuating an insidious culture that goes by many names in the East -- "baksheesh" in India, "Ali Baba" (and his 40 thieves) in Malaysia, "swap" in Indonesia (means "to feed").  But the policeman pointed out I would have to take off the good part of a day to go to court and pay 10 times as much to the judge. So I rationalised: "When in Rome..."