India: The Black Economy (Genre: Indian Politics)

India: The Black Economy

Estimates by eminent economists reveal that India's parallel economy has risen from a mere 3 percent of the GDP in the mid-50s to around 50 percent today. The dimensions of this growth of corruption and generation of a black income in India are indeed, mind-boggling. The components of the parallel economy are numerous.

Tax-evasion, smuggling, bribe-taking, foreign-currency racketeering are just some of the more prominently visible and talked about forms. The root causes for a thriving parallel economy in India are many. For that to be understood in the right perspective, one needs to take a look back at the times gone by.

In India, corruption has not always been perceived to be a severe problem that could have had a negative impact on development and social ethos. There were (and are) many who believed that corruption enhanced the efficiency and acted as a lubricating agent in governmental departments which were not only overstaffed but employed poorly paid people. It even has a redistributive role...with those having liquid cash transferring it to those with modest means. Some have even gone to the extent of saying, that corruption is a stage of natural development!

However, none of this is true. The Indian economy is today witnessing a serious crisis. Unemployment, financial scams, political chaos, sick companies are the result of this unchecked phenomenon that has mushroomed under successive Congress governments and has already done more harm than centuries of Muslim or Christian domination.

Over the years this has happened as a result of nexus among the beneficiaries: politicians, businessmen, bureaucrats and criminals, who have entered into an unholy alliance to help one another. All kinds of mafia activities are being carried on without any obstacles, murdering models and mauling workers is a pass. In Bihar, two collectors of the IAS cadre were killed in broad-daylight but the killers could not be brought to book because there have been important links in the above-mentioned nexus.

Laloo Prasad Yadav occupying a cabinet post despite his shameful past is yet another proof. The Vohra Report came and created some ripples but is now in the dustbin. In, "The Black Economy In India," (Penguin India, 1999), economist Arun Kumar mentions how the country has lost $150 billion in gold imports and another $100 billion in capital flight since independence. And of how pilferage of electricity in Delhi has resulted in a booming Rs. 1,250 crore industry for inverters. This is not all.

According to some other estimates, the hoarding of Indian taxpayers'  money by scandalous politicians and corrupt officers and businessmen in Swiss banks are at an astonishing $1 trillion! What does this then indicate, if one may ask? Is it not a clear case of erosion of value-systems in Indians due to the dual impact of Liberalization and Westernization?

It is the time we all try and find a solution. People should declare not to vote for any candidate who does not promise in writing to make a law declaring that all such money and property illegally kept overseas be declared as national property and that it should be brought back in India. Foreign banks will be compelled as their rules govern that they can hold money which is personal property and not national. So where is the problem? It is the government who will not do this because it is they who would suffer the most. In such a scenario it is only public pressure on the government from every corner of the country to make such a law.

The benefits of all these are tremendous. Once the huge parallel money comes back to India the entire foreign debt can be replaced and the remaining money can be invested, the interest of which will be more than the annual budget of the central government!

This public opinion has to be spearheaded by the post-Independence wasted "Intellectual," class. Do we not know what Chanakya said, "India has lost more not on account of the crookedness of the wicked, but the ignorance of wise"?  An honest intellectual is one whose spirit and freedom cannot be put off by threats. Nor torture alters his conviction. His goals are clear and he is prepared to sacrifice. To sacrifice is an opportunity, not a compulsion.

This honest Indian intellectual should bear in mind what a poor image we today enjoy as a nation in the international community. Success in IT cannot offset our poor standards of value-adherence, a lack of national character and a stagnant place in global trade.

As a matter of fact, the Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. has rated India the second most corrupt country in Asia, with a corruption index grade of 8.9 on a scale of 10 just behind Indonesia. India stands 90th rank as the most corrupted country in the world out of a total list of 145.

Since independence has India really awoken, forget shining? Or will Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan government, now help us achieve just that? Indians do not learn from their past to improve and don't care for their future. Unless they show boldness and national character, India shall remain a dark economy and an unhealthy democracy.