ABSTRACT
The rise of large-scale anti-corruption movements in India therefore reveals more than simply public dissatisfaction and vocal opposition to the rumour of apparently ever increasing corruption scandals. In the last three years, possibly even since the passage of India’s Right to Information Act of 2005, anti-corruption has had an unrivalled appeal across the political spectrum, and nearly everyone has wanted a piece of it. The Congress-led anti-corruption reports argued that the colonial bureaucracy therefore had mapped onto a range of traditional relationships that failed to embrace the ‘modern’ principles of governance being espoused by the ruling regime. The notion of corruption as a decline in political morality then, also appeals to parties who have sought to revive the moral impulses of ‘national’ unity. Anti-corruption movements and public discussion about corruption, for example, are naturally more common around times of electoral contest.
