India's Image Damaged with Frequent Corruption Allegations

Mumbai: Most Indian citizen (97percent) unanimously felt that frequent allegations of corruption is damaging India’s image globally, according to the ‘Mood of the Nation Survey’ conducted by global research firm Ipsos.

Half of the Indian citizen (51percent) felt that Arvind Kejriwal, leader of ‘India Against Corruption’ is right in accusing one after another politicians and corporates for corruption. However, remaining half (49percent) were either against or not sure if his ways are right to level charges without substantial hard evidence.

Support for Arvind Kejriwal’s continuous plan of exposing corrupt politicians and corporates are particularly strong in Mumbai (70percent), Lucknow (60percent) and Chennai (50percent). However, citizens of Kolkata (64percent), Delhi (58percent) and Bangalore (54percent) are not sure and didn’t approve of Arvind Kejriwal’s continuous plan of exposing corrupt politicians without strong evidence to back his allegations.

“A large majority of the respondents (94percent) across all surveyed cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Lucknow) thought that the prospect of inclusive growth was getting damaged due to wide spread corruption charges as the government and senior bureaucrats were reluctant to take hard policy and administrative decisions to avoid getting into another round of corruption charges,” said Biswarup Banerjee,” Head of Marketing Communication, Ipsos in India.

Half (53 percent) of Indians felt that Lokpal Bill can root out corruption from India, whereas 31 percent respondents said no and 16 percent said they are not sure. “This suggests that Lokpal Bill (in general and not specifically any versions) has failed to convince half the respondents about its ability to uproot corruption completely,” added Banerjee.