Time and time again, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has raised the issue of corruption and has even fought several elections on the issue. Even in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which the saffron party won with a landslide margin, the BJP highlighted the corruption under the UPA regime.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often reiterated that it’s his vision to make India a corruption free country. He came up with a ‘viral’ slogan – ‘Na Khaunga, Na Khaane dunga’ (will not engage in corruption myself, nor allow others). Be it the demonetisation move or linking everything with Aadhaar, the government always claims that it is taking steps to curb the menace of corruption. However, it seems that despite ‘taking such stringent measures’ their anti-corruption stance of the BJP is nothing but a farce.
A recent report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has highlighted the fact that there’s no way the corruption is going down in our country. Instead, it is rising ‘tremendously’ to new levels! According to the report, corruption complaints against various government departments have jumped by a whopping 67 per cent in 2016 over the previous year.
Notably, the Indian Railway, headed by senior BJP leader Suresh Prabhu, has topped the list, when it comes to graft complaints. Over 11,000 complaints were received against the public sector behemoth, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has said.
In its annual report, the commission said that it received a total of 49,847 complaints in 2016, as against 29,838 in 2015 – an increase of 67 per cent. “The Commission received a considerable number of complaints against public servants working in the state governments and other organisations who do not come under the jurisdiction of the Commission or which are of administrative nature,” it said.
What the numbers say?
- As many as 6,513 complaints of alleged corruption were received against employees under Home Ministry.
- 6,018 complaints of corruption were filed against bank officials in 2016.
- A total of 2,646 complaints were received against officials of the Income Tax department
- 2,514 against those in Urban Development Ministry.
- 2,393 related to employees working under Telecommunication Ministry.
- There were 1,746 corruption complaints against employees under Labour Ministry.
- 1,668 complaints in Food and Consumer Affairs department.
- 1,420 complaints of customs and excise.
- 1,376 in public sector insurance companies.
- 1,369 against officials of Ministry of Steel.
A total of 759 complaints were against Coal Ministry employees, 724 of Information and Broadcasting Ministry, 689 in Defence, 571 related to employees of Health and Family Welfare department and 479 against officials of Shipping Ministry.
P.S. Congress, which is often dubbed as the most corrupt political party, is behind BJP in this number game if its record at the Centre is compared to the present government. According to the CVC, it had only got 31,432 and 37,039 complaints of alleged corruption during 2013 and 2012 respectively. In 2014, the grand old party of India was ousted after losing the elections badly to the Modi regime.
