“Corruption is an intractable problem,” N. Ram said ominously in the session titled 'The Corrupt Society' on Day 1 of The Hindu Lit for Life.
Accompanied on the panel by eminent economist Professor Arun Kumar, and Rajiv C. Lochan, MD and CEO of The Hindu Group, Ram, Chairman of The Hindu Publishing Group, warned that society could not “let this problem be,” and pointed at nine areas which need attention. Lochan said that administrations and governments of independent India have outdone their colonial predecessors in ‘looting and plundering’ the nation. “The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves,” Ram quipped, blaming this on the nature of the Indian political economy itself.
Kumar added that state instruments have aided and abetted the large-scale practice of corruption in the country.
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The only solution, Kumar concluded, was in breaking the “triad” of politics, business and the executive, by making each accountable.
On a gloomy note, Lochan brought the session to a close by pointing out that the failure to address corruption and the black economy in the country thus far has made it an indelible part of the ‘national muscle memory.’