As corruption holds centre-stage in Delhi with exposes on politicians and business leaders, a former vigilance chief has said that at least 30 per cent of Indians are utterly corrupt.

About 20 per cent of Indians are honest, regardless of temptations, because that is how they are. They have a conscience, Pratyush Sinha, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, said.

He said about 50 per cent of the people are on the borderline of corruption.

He said this in his talk on ‘Corruption has social acceptance’, organised jointly by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Hyderabad Management Association here yesterday.

Each year millions of Indian families have to bribe officials for access to basic public services.

In modern India — if somebody has a lot of money, he is respectable. Nobody questions by what means he has got the money. India is also regarded as a hotbed of illegal betting syndicates, with gamblers and bookmakers involved in spot-fixing, he said, according to a press release from the Chamber.

Corruption perception index

Transparency International, the global anti-graft body, puts India 84th on its corruption perception index with a 3.4-point rating, out of a best possible score of 10. New Zealand ranks first with 9.4 points and Somalia last on 1.1 points.

Everybody has experienced it. When we were growing up we remember if somebody was corrupt, they were generally looked down upon. There was at least some social stigma attached to it. That is gone. So there is greater social acceptance, he lamented.

>Somasekhar.m@thehindu.co.in

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