Why Scams Are Here To Stay

Corruption in India today is pervasive omnipresent and diverse covering every branch of the Indian state and key sectors of the economy. Far from declining and fading away as predicted with deregulation and liberalization it has increased exponentially in the twenty-first century at all levels—central state and local. It can be seen today as a normal not a pathological condition within the political economy. In several states corruption involving politicians bureaucrats businessmen and in some cases criminal elements has graduated to a new qualitative stage transforming itself into a well-oiled rule- and rate-bound and self-propelled system of collecting and sharing the illicit spoils of office. In this seminal book N. Ram who led the investigation into the Bofors grand corruption scandal attempts to get a measure of ‘political corruption’ in contemporary India and explains why it has become an intractable problem.