How the ‘corruption’ narrative prevents meaningful dialogue on reforming political funding in India

Ten years ago, the current Bharatiya Janata Party-led government came to power in the wake of widespread corruption allegations against the previous government, the anti-corruption movement led by activist Anna Hazare and the demand to appoint a Lokpal – a corruption watchdog.

In more recent years, it has been found that some of those scandals were somewhat overblown – with oversize “notional” estimates of the amounts of money involved – while both Hazare and the Lokpal have largely been forgotten.

Yet, as another election gets under way, leaders of the ruling party have once again made corruption by Opposition politicians a prime issue.

There is a general impression in some quarters that there is much less corruption in India today and a reference is always made to the probity of the prime minister. But the probity of the leader is not the issue – after all, even in the darkest days of the previous Congress-led government, nobody questioned the probity of Manmohan Singh.

At the ground level, there is hardly any evidence that the bribe demands of petty police officers, inspectors or contractors have reduced.

If one goes by the corruption perception index published annually by Transparency International, India’s rank fell from 85 in 2014 to 93 in 2023. The pre-election survey...

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