Corruption Or Leadership Deficit?

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POSTED BY Buzz ON Jul 19, 2011 AT 23:33 IST , Edited At: Jul 19, 2011 23:33 IST

Ramachandra Guha in Financial Times on the truth " that India is in no position to become a superpower. It is not a rising power, nor even an emerging power":

Corruption is not new in India, but the scale and ubiquity of these problems is genuinely unprecedented.

This activity cuts across political parties – small and large, regional and national. It has tainted the media too, with influential editors now commonly lobbying pliant politicians to bend the law to favour particular corporations...

If nothing else, the current wave of corruption scandals will put at least a temporary halt to premature talk of India’s imminent rise to superstardom. Such fancies are characteristic of editors in New Delhi and businessmen in Mumbai, who dream often of catching up with and even surpassing China.

Brahma Chellaney responds:

India’s rise is threatened by a political factor – a leadership deficit, which is compounded by a splintered polity. India is still governed by a pre-independence leadership – an anomaly even in Asia, where age is supposed to be wisdom. India today boasts the world’s oldest head of government and oldest foreign minister. Old, tired, risk-averse leadership can hardly propel any country to greatness. Worse, India’s coalition federal governments, which have become a norm, tend to function by the rule of parochial politics – in fact, by the lowest common denominator.

MT @pbmehta on Twitter:

Is there any power that escaped serious corruption in the process of becoming great?

What do you think?

POSTED BY Buzz ON Jul 19, 2011 AT 23:33 IST , Edited At: Jul 19, 2011 23:33 IST

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10/D-56 Jul 23, 2011 11:57 AM	Guha >> Corruption is not new in India, but the scale and ubiquity of these problems is genuinely unprecedented. Corruption comes in many kinds. One of common form of corruption in India is the way intellectuals like Guha pen books to sing praise of India's longest ruling royal family's founding member. And the benefits that likes of Guha get in the process (singing paens for Nehru) is also a kind of bribery. Ramki Delhi, India PERMALINK \| LIKE (1) \| DISLIKE (1) \| REPORT ABUSE
9/D-55 Jul 23, 2011 11:53 AM	Manish Banerjee >> And can break in to a jig without rhyme , let alone reason Typical hypocrisy of Kolkattaan Leftist Pseudointellectuals who indulge in moral policiing when it suits them. Anyone would prefer the jig of Sushma any day over the verbal diarrhoea of Digvijaya Singh or the genocidal , ethnic cleansing politics of the dearest daddy of Omar Abdulla Ramki Delhi, India PERMALINK \| LIKE (2) \| DISLIKE (0) \| REPORT ABUSE
8/D-54 Jul 23, 2011 11:51 AM	Anwaar >> And the oldest leader of the opposition Let us hope that we have the youngest leader of opposition in 2014, when RG takes over and leads the India's permanent ruling party to a fantastic 2 digit score. But what if RG nominates the wonderful and erudite Shri Digvijaya singh for the post in May 2014 ? Well , we should be happy that we have had the most entertaining opposition leader in the world !! Ramki Delhi, India PERMALINK \| LIKE (1) \| DISLIKE (0) \| REPORT ABUSE
7/D-23 Jul 22, 2011 07:00 AM	Anshul, advani is still leader of BJP parliamentarian party , sushma and jaitley are floor leaders in Loksabha and Rajya Sabha I take it you mean Advani is Leader of the Opposition and not Swaraj or Jaitely. According to Wikipedia Each House of the Parliament of India has a Leader of the Opposition. While the position also existed in the former Central Legislative Assembly of British India, and holders of it there included Motilal Nehru, it got statutory recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977 which defines the term ‘Leader of the Opposition' as that member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha who, for the time being, is the Leader of that House of the Party in Opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and recognized, as such, by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Leader of the Opposition Swaraj/Jaitely, is a statutory position. Floor leader is an internal party allocation of responsibility. Swaraj and jaitely took over from Advani and Jaswant Singh in 2009/2010 respectively. Bonita Chennai, India PERMALINK \| LIKE (1) \| DISLIKE (0) \| REPORT ABUSE
6/D-128 Jul 21, 2011 11:47 PM	advani is still leader of BJP parliamentarian party , sushma and jaitley are floor leaders in Loksabha and Rajya Sabha anshul indore, india PERMALINK \| LIKE (0) \| DISLIKE (0) \| REPORT ABUSE