PRAGOTI

Marxist intellectual, Prabhat Patnaik argues that those 'crusaders', who are concerned over corruption miss out the fundamental point about the root of such a menace in a neo-liberal policy regime that signifies 'a change in the property regime'. Thus, Lok Pal Bill and its vocal votaries do not fundamentally question the neo-liberal policies of privatization and liberalization, which instead of fulfilling the promise of guaranteeing 'transparency' has in fact produced rampant corruption by the rich and the powerful. Following Marx's concept of 'primitive accumulation of capital' in the context of neo-liberalism in India, Patnaik formulated the theoretical concept of 'accumulation by encroachment' in a published article, some years back. In a lucid language as always, the implications of such 'accumulation by encroachment' is audible all through this brilliant analysis of Patnaik on corruption in contemporary India.

  
Excerpts:
 
 “One should distinguish between corruption within any particular property regime, and corruption associated with a change in the property regime… corruption paradoxically has assumed unprecedented proportions precisely under ‘liberalization’. The reason lies in the fact that ‘liberalization’ has been accompanied by substantial ‘privatization’, that is, a change in the property regime. Even if we assume, for argument’s sake, that ‘liberalization’ has indeed reduced ‘old’ corruption, that is, corruption within the earlier existing property regime, it has vastly increased the scope for ‘new’ corruption that arises because of the change in the property regime via ‘privatization’.” 
 
The article can be read here