New Delhi: An annual global index on corruption for 2023 has placed India at a much worse position than it was a year ago. The index comes at a time when the Union government run by the Bharatiya Janata Party is targeting only opposition leaders through its investigating agencies – ostensibly to weaken their public appeal before the crucial 2024 general elections and project the INDIA alliance as corrupt.Significantly, of India’s 28 states, BJP and its allies were in power in 17 in 2023. As per the country-wise corruption perception index (CPI) of the report put together by Transparency International (TI), a noted platform that works in over a hundred countries to fight corruption and promote transparency in public life, India has slipped from 85th position in 2022 to 93rd in 2023. In all, TI ranks 180 countries in terms of their perceived levels of public sector corruption in a scale of 0 to 100; the perceived levels are drawn from consultations with experts and people in business in the respective countries. Those closer to the scale of 100 are perceived to be highly corrupt. While India stands at 93, the country’s overall score for 2023 stands at 39, one point lower than 2022.About India, the TI report states, “India (39) shows score fluctuations small enough that no firm conclusions can be drawn on any significant change. However, ahead of the elections, India sees further narrowing of civic space, including through the passage of a bill that could be a ‘grave threat to fundamental rights’.”India’s neighboursAmong India’s neighbours, China is shown at a score of 42 (against India’s 39) but the report cautions that the country’s heavy reliance on punishment rather than institutional checks on power raises doubts over the long-term effectiveness” of its anti-corruption measures. China, which has been grabbing headlines for cracking down on corruption, has punished over 3.7 million public officials in the last 10 years.The report shows Bangladesh at a dismal score of 24, stating that “flow of information on the public sector is hindered amidst an ongoing crackdown against the (domestic) Press”. Myanmar under the Junta rule, is at a low score of 20. The TI report, while placing Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 29 and 34 respectively, has underlined that these two countries are wrestling with their respective weak financial situations and political instability but they also “have strong judicial oversight which is helping to keep the government in check.”“The Supreme Court of Pakistan strengthened citizens’ right to information by expanding this right under Article 19A of its constitution to previously restricted institutions. In Sri Lanka, the Supreme Court found that the former president, prime minister and other officials were responsible for the 2021 economic crisis,” the report highlighted.Among the ASEAN countries, Malaysia is placed at 50 which is “above the regional average” because of its “robust elections alongside an anti-corruption commission that has delivered on high-profile cases over the last decade.”Highlighting the point that its global corruption barometer had revealed the prevalence of corruption around election processes in Asia and Pacific regions, the report also stated that its 2020 survey in Asia showed that “nearly one in seven people had been offered bribes in exchange for votes in a national, regional or local election in the past five years”. Among Asian countries, where corruption is well fought are in Singapore (83), Hong Kong (75), Japan (73), Bhutan (68), Taiwan (67) and South Korea (63). Among the countries globally to have impressive scores in terms of controlling corruption are New Zealand (85) and Australia (75). A silent BJPWhile the ruling party is silent on India’s slipping position in the global corruption index put out by TI, the party was seen making a noise back in 2014 with some of its leaders accusing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of wrongly taking credit for having fought corruption successfully by its government in Delhi by citing a TI report. Journalist-turned-politician Shazia Ilmi, then with AAP, had claimed in public that corruption in Delhi had abated considerably following the party coming to power, citing a “survey” passed on to her by a person who turned out to be a former employee of the Transparency International. The same ‘survey’ was quoted by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal at a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), leading TI to issue a media statement that it had wound up its office in India and had nothing to do with that ‘survey’. AAP soon issued a clarification and apologised to TI “for any embarrassment that this controversy may have caused to the organisation”. Responding to the issue, among others, Delhi BJP leader Harsh Vardhan had told reporters, “AAP and Kejriwal are both liars.” Though TI has no India chapter, there exists a Delhi-based organisation, Transparency International – India, founded by S.D. Sharma, a Gandhian. Sharma was also a part of the campaign against corruption in 2011 which ultimately led to the birth of AAP as a political party. However, he later walked out of the campaign over differences with activist Anna Hazare.
