Dr Gaurav Bhaskar, Karnal, Haryana

Is Democracy Responsible for Corruption?

This is a question that comes to my mind whenever I think of Corruption in India.

Administration in a country can be broadly of two types

1. Kingdom based Rule: Where a King is the supreme ruler of the country and his Successor is
nominated by himself
2. Ruler elected by the citizens: Where the ruler of the country is elected by the citizens of the
nation through voting

Kingdom Based Rule

In this type of rule the head of the nation is a king and is responsible for the welfare of all the citizens of
his nation. People will bring their queries to the king and he will provide solutions to their problems. In
this case the ruler has never been under any obligations from the citizens of his country and thus gives
decision unbiased and solely on the facts presented to him. Also he does not allow any officers
appointed by him to be corrupt because he himself is not taking any bribes from the rich people. The
King is the most powerful person in that nation and none can take this position from him till he decides
to name his successor. So this King is free from the fear of losing his power and position and thus able to
take independent and unbiased decision for the welfare of the citizens of his Nation.

Ruler Elected By the Citizens

In this case the Person who is given the responsibility to take care of the welfare of the citizens is
elected by them and thus is a week ruler. Fighting an election requires a huge amount of money. Also
fighting an election is not a guarantee that the money spent will be helpful in winning the elections. So
the repeated investments made by the candidates lead to huge sums of money. Then how come on
winning the elections we can think that the candidate will be able to provide unbiased solutions for the
welfare of general public. This huge money utilized for the purpose of elections spent by the candidate
is actually sponsored by those people who have money and want to make more money on investment
(also known as CAPITALIST). When this candidate wins the election he/she has to fulfill the demands
made by those investors as an obligation to their investment. In obliging those investors he/she has to
oversee the corruption going on and thus all the subordinates in the administration of the government
take the benefit of their positions and continue their corrupt practices. The person who was appointed
(rather elected) by the citizens to take care of the rights of the people is also helpless as he is already
under the investor’s obligations and can’t afford to say NO as he needs them in the next elections too to
invest money. So this fear of not being able to fight the elections next time due to lack of money makes
the leaders week and thus begets CORRUPTION.

Until people understand and help these electoral candidates in winning the elections without huge
investments from the CAPITALISTS will rule the nation and elections will only bring week rulers who will
be not able to protect the rights of general public and stop the corruption of administrators.

Dr Gaurav Bhaskar
Mann Ki Baat Page 1