Corruption is morally bad, but economically beneficial for a nations prosperity Corruption a word which only uttered brings

us intense trembling in our mind and soul. We start to recall all our unpleasant activities which we had faced during the last days in getting executed our work whether in govt. sector or corporate sector. We start to feel the losses and delay which we had faced due to this deadly term called corruption. Before going further on this topic, I would like to have a flashback on the corruption, i.e. what is corruption and how did it originate and its historical background? Corruption had been defined by many intellectuals in different ways. Some define it as the sum of all the activities we do in order to get our work done easily and inappropriately with the help of either cash or kind. Some define it as all the illegal and immoral activities which we use for our benefit and profit. They have also identified the various types of corruption activities such as bribery, misappropriation, black-marketing, favoritism, scams, frauds etc. Corruption is a new activity neither for world nor for India. If we look a glimpse of corruption it had its origin from the Sata Yuga to Treta and Dwapar Yuga. If even our some of the friends do not believe on the fact I would ask them to give a glimpse to the recorded history. In 326 B.C. Porus agreed to help Alexander The Great on the condition that he will not invade on him and he will help him in his Indias expedition. Porus had put the whole India on stake only for his profit. Another best example from Indian history is the cheating of Mir Zafar to Nawab Sirajuddaullah for the sake of the British in lieu of some amount which were in cash and kind which later became a major reason of Indias slavery. I am only giving these historical instances to change the mindset of those people who are of view
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that corruption is the byproduct of growing consumerism and rapid globalization. I can give people of these mindsets a book of historical instances which can show them that corruption and the corrupt activities have been the things which had its roots in the past. I feel embarrassed when I find making people hue and cry about the corruption. They act as that the root of all the problems of country has been corruption. They forget that it has been in our blood from the early past then how it can be eliminated. And the point to be noted that people had all been criticizing only on the ground of morality. It is bad, worst and what other adjectives people use about the corruption I cant understand. If you even ask a layman to speak on corruption he will speak for at least a whole day as he had done a PhD on corruption. But if you will notice his points he will only make sarcasm and criticism on the bureaucrats, leaders and police officials. And if we hear discussion of an educated person his discussion will carry the points of Indias low development rate, FDI, globalization etc. But I had till now noted a common trait between the discussion of a layman and even an educated person that how much they discuss on corruption they only rotate around the same axis that corruption is morally bad and it should not be prevalent in India. I do not deny with this fact that corruption is morally bad. Our values and ethics do not allow this. We are in a country which had been known for its love and generosity from the past. We are a land of religions. India has been the home of a number of religions. Yes I agree with the fact that corruption leads to moral downfall in our character which is not good regarding our spiritual health. Even though India has been famous for spirituality and people giving their lives for the sake of truthfulness. I agree that corruption had lead to the downfall of the level of moral character in people and children. But when I look at this perspective I find that these moral, ethical issues had caused much harm to India right from the beginning than corruption or any other thing else. We Indians are so much innocent that people make us fool
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for their own benefits. If we took a flashback to our history we find that we Indians had been only suffering because of our commitment to follow ethics whether we are at loss or gain which doesnt matter to us. People talk about the corruption as the only reason for Indias underdevelopment. But I find that India had been a victim from the very beginning and it had been so much victimized that from a country which was called The Golden Bird had been transformed to a developing nation. The only obstacle to our countrys success is our fictitious belief towards truthfulness which I had earlier mentioned had caused us more harm than benefit. People talk a lot of evil things about corruption but I find that if the corruption wouldnt exist a country progress will come to a halt. If we take a very close look to the different components of corruption it had been contributing to the progress of the country in a way or other. The most popular form of the corruption is bribery. Bribery is defined as the charging of extra money for your work in lieu of completing it earlier or on time. People say it is bad but I ask them how it is bad? Why an official should complete your work earlier or on time in the crowd of hundreds of people. What is so special about you? If he completes your work then he should obviously charge extra money, there is nothing bad in this. You are getting benefitted by the completion of work on time and what does he get? Nothing then why? Can people give the answer? No. If you are getting benefitted then he should also be benefitted. What is wrong in this? Your development or progress depends on that work and what about the official? If he gets some extra money he can also get a better opportunity for his progress. And only with these things when each and every person gets a chance and opportunity for his progress it would be beneficial for the nations prosperity. Another form of corruption is misappropriation. It is defined as positioning an incapable or less capable person in lieu of some cash or kind to a particular post or position. It generally happens in case of admission and
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also in govt. and corporate sector. First thing first. Can anyone tell me those students who are less intelligent have not the right to study in a good college or university? Of which moral value people talk about which deny less intelligent students to study in a better way. If the students who are really talented can get high in their life from any college. The less intelligent students are more vulnerable had more dire need to be in a top university rather than the talented one. Then only they can get equal opportunity which will help in the prosperity of a nations economy. If we talk about the govt. sector on what ground it is bad to raise the status of a person by making him entry into a job which will increase his income. I agree that it is unethical to ignore the able person in lieu of money but when we talk about social equality it is also necessary to give them opportunity so that they can rise in the society and contribute to a nations economy. And thats why we have reservation and quota system in India. If a person has reached to a respectable position in the corporate sector through his hard work and he utilize his power to get some extra money I find nothing bad in this. After all the entire corporate world is full of extreme pressure in this cut throat competition and an official obviously doesnt get as much money as compensation as he puts the efforts in the organization. Favoritism is also identified as another form of corruption. I have never been able to understand how people treat favoritism is treated as form of corruption. Can anyone tell me is it bad to favor our blood relation. If not they then who should we favor? It is a human tendency to look for the welfare of his family. I see no reason for an official not favoring his family members. It increases the sense of helping nature among families which can be fruitful to the society. I would like to clear this fact by a very simple example that if you are in a govt. hospital and there is a patient who is in great agony and he is not getting a bed and any of the employees of hospital knows him and arrange a bed for him. Now can anyone tell me is that wrong? Actually from the very beginning people have favored their own

relation which brings prosperity to them and by this way help in the development of nations economy. Some people also accept black-marketing as a form of corruption. Blackmarketing is defined as creating the artificial scarcity of any commodity and then selling it at a higher price. I feel that it is an unethical process but have you ever wondered that the merchants have also to face losses. What would happen if the majority of merchants would be in loss, the situation is unimaginable. We should feel relieved that at least the merchants had created the artificial scarcity, what would happen if the real scarcity of any commodity would happen? Then we would be in a pitiable conditions like the African countries and starvation and hunger would be a common phenomenon. So when I find that black-marketing is contributing to our economy but even then people are making nonsense I feel embarrassed. The actual thing on which people make the most hue and cry is about the frauds and scams. I whole-heartedly agree with the fact that it is unethical to use the public money for their own purpose. But had the people try to think about them that under which condition they are compelled to do the scams and frauds. They spend a huge amount of money in the elections. Sometimes their whole property is at stake. From where will they get back their money? Only those leaders who have done something exceptionally good things for India had done big scams which had helped them to remain in politics. Can anyone tell me if they do scams and frauds of worth some crores and do big things which prove to be a miracle in the long run development of the country? You would be thinking which leaders I am referring to that have done miracles. Mr. Lalu Yadav was accused in a number of scams but he transformed the face of Indian Railways. One more example is of our former prime minister P.V. Narshima Rao was accused of a number of scams but he changed the Indian development scenario by introducing LPG (Liberalization, Privatization & Globalization) in Indian economy. I also understand that scams are unethical but if we want that our
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country get ahead of another country in the long run we should take the scams and frauds as a part of development. After seeing the pros and cons of corruption in great detail I find that the corruption had done more betterment for our country rather than loss to the country. If it would have not been our country would have not been in the list of the next superpowers. The thing is that how we look to the point. As it had been said that for anything there is positive and negative viewpoints, it matters what we see. I never deny this fact that corruption is morally bad but by only thinking that it is morally bad we cant sit idle. It is the need of the hour that we catch the positive points of corruption and as it is helping to enrich our countrys economy; we put more efforts to encash those merits so that our countrys progress rate gets increased.

By: Nitish Raj