Commonwealth Games -The Games, too, will serve

A joke making the rounds says Kalmadi tried, in despair, hung from a ceiling fan, but the ceiling collapsed. We can not do anything right. Corruption and inefficiency have come to symbolize the organization of the Commonwealth Games, in the popular imagination.

And people are angry, upset. And with good reason. But what is this atrocity if it leads to a systematic change in the way we do things in this country? It is easy to hang a Kalmadi, figuratively, but not easy to fix what is wrong with the system.

Corruption is widespread, increasing the cost of doing something worthwhile, making India one of the worst places to do business in, destroy the quality and stability replaced with uncertainty. India can not realize its full economic potential if corruption continues to create real obstacles in the way of doing business in the country. Repairing the damage goes all the way to the reform of political funding. costs money politics.

A political party generates legitimate expenses, even in a non-election year, which together account for a fortune. In the absence of an institutional form of political funding, legitimate expenses related to political activity is financed through corruption, the plunder of the exchequer, the sale of sponsorship or simple extortion.

The politician can not mobilize the resources using the state machinery without the connivance and complicity of officials. The system suborns them and, despite brave exceptions. Corruption will not go away just because of the political finance reform, but without the funding of institutionalized politics, the fight against corruption can not even begin. The reform of political financing is key.

It is this type of cancer of the Indian democracy that the Games have brought to light the dark. The Games will be exposed to international scrutiny, and hang its head in shame. Hanging is not particularly creative, however. It is attacking the root of corruption and political finance reform.

The initiative must come from those who give money, they are also victims of the system, not its beneficiaries. The question is: Do we have what it takes to convert the outrage in the drawing room in the company's decision to reform political funding?