Can we define graft simply as a “type of corruption”?
| March 6, 2012 | Posted by Britul under Painful, Thoughts |
Can we define graft as a type of corruption? Or it is something bigger than what we think about it. Before we define graft, we need to know what corruption is, and what does graft actually mean. In my earlier posts I have written my views about what is corruption and why people become corrupt.
graft is a cold blooded crime
Now, there may be several types of corruption. Some people involve in corruption for direct monetary gain from the corrupt activity itself. Some people take bribe from others to facilitate corruption. Some other people don’t take bribe, but get other forms of materialistic gains to facilitate corruption.
Now, the question is how can we define graft or explain what is graft? Let me put it in this way; Graft is known as the activity of using one’s professional position or knowledge to gain financial or materialistic benefits.
e.g. a govt official holding some high level position in defense ministry may be able to know intricate facts about defense. But he should never sell this information to intelligence agencies of other nation for some financial gain.
A person holding some high level post in finance ministry may be able to know about the countries financial scenario. He should not use this knowledge to gain profit in share trading.
So, graft is a very critical nature of corruption and it involves professional or social position, intellectual property, trade secrets etc. etc.
Also, it is very hard to detect graft. Since graft is related to intangible assets such as, political or professional position, trust, knowledge etc. there must be well set and firm system of control.
Many governments around the world have system in place to prevent graft. In most of the countries, including India, a code of conduct needs to be followed by the various government officials holding critical positions at various levels.
Ordinary forms of corruption such as bribery etc. can be very easily detected as compared to graft. It is not simply a type of corruption in my view. It is far more dangerous than that. It can cause lot of harm to our society starting from black money accumulation to national security threat. All these without the knowledge of anyone that the doer is amongst us and accessing all other information and planning for the next.
In my view, graft is not simply a “type of corruption”. It is a cold blooded crime.
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