Running head: SOCIALISM AND DEAD POLITICS 1

Socialism and Dead Politics-

A Corrupted Genre

Anurag Mittal
BA Eco Sec-B

O.P. Jindal Global University (JSGP)

Introduction

Have you ever witnessed corruption or have done it? Because India ranks 1 in the Bribery
index1 and every one out of four people does so. “Corruption is a disease and transparency add
to its treatment” were the words said by Kofi Annan 2 . Corruption is a vulgar act that can lead to
other acts of smuggling, violence, theft, etc. Corruption was never initiated in modern era it was
a human tendency that existed in past and in evidence to it Plato’s theory of administration stated
that in order to avoid the corruption in 428BC-324BC Plato introduced guardians of the nation
who will have no wealth or assets with them and will devote their life towards the nation in order
to this basic necessities will be provided to them by the public (The Penguin History Of
Economics by Roger E. Backhouse). My research analyses socialism and dead politics as
corruption carriers in greed of personal use; making illegal use & corruption cycles and how
counter controls & transparency adds to its aid.

1 Asia corruption survey-2016

2 (cited) UN General Secretary and Nobel Peace Prize Winner
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1. Personal Use-Corruption
1.1 According to IPC- A person involved in the system of corruption should get imprisonment
of up to 10 years3 .
1.2 However, over the period of time, there are various claims across the corruption done by
political leaders, public servants and businessmen have been recorded but why did they do
so? The main reason is getting over personal satisfaction and benefit in this world of
competition in wealth. Even in other countries, people do corruption more for their
personal benefit than public good (Peter Grabosky and Peter Lamour-2000/143). It was
noticed that about 82% of MPs are crorepatis4 . In recent times the assets of leaders were
compared to their past and drastic changes were noticed in their income and parent side-
line businesses.
1.3 The reasons to do such things are clear from the human tendency of high power, money,
and luxury even the political system of India can be blamed for it as we have inefficient
political structures and high administrative power in few hands that ruin it. Even if a head
of state wants to control corruption, he/she may not be able to do so due to the inefficiency
of the Indian political structure (Robert Klitgaard-1991/Vol-2).
1.4 Evidence-
1.4.1 INX MEDIA CASE- It was a recent case that took place in which MP P.
Chidambaram and his son were alleged for cheating on government of India as
when government was deciding for foreign direct investment for future gain the
minister P. Chidambaram advised them to invest in an overseas company called
INX MEDIA LTD... He knew that he was the only economist in the committee
so, his suggestion will be strongly considered but the government didn’t know
that his son was having links with that company which was giving
Chidambaram’s family a lot of money to do so and later they were caught by a
special investigation team of CBI and a case is running over them with life
sentence to P. Chidambaram (RC 11/2017/EOU-IV/EO-II).
1.4.2 BADAL FAMILY ASSETS STATEMENT5 - When the electoral affidavits6 of the
supreme political party leaders Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal, and
their family who ruled Punjab over 42 years were analyzed it depicted a drastic
change in assets of the family over the years of their rule it majorly showed
differences of hundreds of crore. They have various companies running across the
world and few companies that have outraged the government enterprises like their
ORBIT TRANSPORT LTD. have more buses than local Punjab Roadways buses
taking a monopoly over the period. Various cases are running against their
families in relation to corruption and black money. It was also noticed in order of
not being caught they shifted the assets over the family members (FORM 26/4A-
079/LAMBI-83) (FORM 26/4A-NA/BATHINDA-11).

3 According to The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988

4 Refer Appendix-1
5 Appendix-2
6 Declaration of personal information before elections.
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1.5 However, it is done not only by choice of greed but also by need as government doesn’t
care about the future of the politicians. Hence, an insecure future, low salaries, etc. let
them indulge in such activities and inefficient political system is also responsible for it
(BRIT J. CRIMINOL-2005/45).

2. Illegal-Use and Corruption Cycles

2.1. According to the Indian constitution misappropriation use of money by any citizen or
public official in any form can lead to fines, Imprisonment, cease of property, etc. 7
2.2. There have been numerous cases against public officers and celebrities of using their
black money and power in various illegal ways that have led to other crimes of murder,
drugs, public harassment, etc. This forms a vicious cycle of corruption that goes on to be
bigger and bigger with a lot of crime taking place with just one go or mode of corruption
(Cristina Bicchiere and John Duffy). Where in India’s CPI 8 index has remained constant
or has risen by few points but hasn’t fallen yet. About 34% of the MP’s are having self-
declared criminal cases9 .
2.3. Why they use money in illegal acts and not keeping with themselves? The answer to this
question is way easier as the amount of revenue you get of keeping money with
themselves is zero and if you try to invest you will be caught easily as agencies have an
eye over your Financial statements. So, the only way left out is to invest in acts like
theft, drugs, public-stunts, etc. as they don’t represent anything in your financial
statements and political people do so to get revenue to invest in campaigns and in
appendix-1 its described that most of the money used in campaigns by major political
parties is undefined this is due to socio-political instability. (The Big Ripoff by Timothy
P. Carney)
2.4. Evidence-
2.4.1. FODDER SCAM10 - On 3rd October 2013 Lalu Prasad Yadav was convicted in
first case of fodder scam. Later on, he was convicted in third and fourth fodder scam
along with his wife, son, daughter and Deputy CM of Bihar with various IAS
officers. In total scam of Rs 9.4 billion; he was fined Rs 25 lakh+60 lakh with
imprisonment of 5 years and later extended to 14 years of imprisonment. This was
one of the biggest corruption scams of India and the money was caught being used
in elections and state crimes (R.C. Case No. R.C.20-A/1996).

7 According to Indian money regulations

8 Corruption Perceptions Index
9 Appendix-1
10 This was a corruption scandal that involved the embezzlement of about ₹9.4 billion from government treasury.
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APPENDIX-214

SUKHBIR SINGH BADAL SELF RECORD-

Year Assets Criminal Charges Increase/Decrease
2004 Rs 13,38,11,603 1 -
2012 Rs 90,86,01,691 1 +Rs 77,47,90,008
2017 Rs 1,02,07,61,522 0 +Rs 11,21,59,831
2019 Rs 2,17,99,19,870 4 +Rs 1,15,91,58,348

LUXURY ASSETS-(Highlighted) (2017)

14 Self-composed