The income of 84 per cent of households in the country declined in 2021, but at the same time the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142, the report pointed out, adding that in 2021, the collective wealth of India’s 100 richest people hit a record high of Rs 57.3 lakh crore while the share of the bottom 50 per cent of the population in national wealth was a mere 6 per cent.No, what is truly galling is that the BJP rode to power following the so-called anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare, and besides promising ‘Achche Din’ the day the NDA won a majority in the 2014 general elections, PM Narendra Modi has on innumerable occasions waxed eloquent about how his government was committed to provide graft-free and people-friendly governance. The reality, however, is quite the contrary, as we all well know. But if it needed validation, it came in the form of the latest report of the Transparency International, the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index, released just a day ahead of Republic Day, which pegged India at a lowly 85th rank among 180 countries, scoring just 40 marks of a maximum possible 100.“Mechanisms that help reign in corruption are weakening, alongside concerns over the health of democracy and the decay of fundamental freedoms and institutional checks and balances. Journalists and civil society organisations are being targeted for speaking out against the government,” stated the report, calling India as ‘the county to watch’.“Human rights are not simply a nice-to-have in the fight against corruption. Authoritarian approaches destroy independent checks and balances and make anti-corruption efforts dependent on the whims of the elite. Ensuring people can speak freely and work collectively to hold power to account is the only sustainable route to a corruption-free society,” Delia Ferreira Rubio, the current chair of Transparency International was quoted as saying.The report said that certain forms of corruption were intrinsically linked to discriminative practices in the country, which includes caste-based discrimination.Following its release, experts noted how the institution of Lokpal, the primary demand of the Hazare-led movement, has turned out to be nothing but a dud despite all the noise surrounding it. The number of cases going to the Lokpal were progressively decreasing and ever since its inception, not a single case had reached the prosecution level, they pointed out, adding that the institution was as opaque as it could be, which defeats its very purpose.
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