In a distinguished lecture series, Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, conducted an expert lecture by Prof. Dr. C Rajkumar, Professor and Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University, Haryana, on the topic ‘Combating Corruption: Challenges for Inclusive Development And Rule Of Law’.
According to Prof. Rajkumar, corruption in India is a problem that has serious implications for protecting the rule of law and ensuring access to justice. It is also pervasive in the system of governance in India, undermining the effectiveness of all institutions of governance. The incompetency of successive governments has failed to take advantage of the numerous measures to reduce the levels of corruption in India, where absence of political will and sincerity in taking concrete steps to eliminate corruption has resulted in most of these measures not achieving the results that were intended.
In order to eliminate corruption, Prof. Raj Kumar emphasized on two reforms i.e. undertaking legislative measures and building institutions to fight against corruption. The cornerstone of these new reforms is the empowerment of the citizenry for the fight against corruption. In order to combat corruption in India, Prof. Raj Kumar has recognized the institutional approach to corruption which has been quite successful in Hong Kong due to the work of the Independent Commission against corruption, which in India is still under government control.
Prof. Raj Kumar, in his concluding remarks, gave importance to the accountability which is infused by building legal and institutional mechanisms so that official corruption is not tolerated at any level of the decision-making process. The change of political culture in India is possible only if the right to corruption-free governance is guaranteed through the empowerment of the India citizenry.