The root cause of corruption in our polity is the nature of elections that
periodically take place. Elections are costly affairs requiring huge sums
of money to contest. Political parties receive donations from the
business, industrial and other pressure groups. So, they expect the
members of legislatures to frame policies to suit their interests.
The money spent by each candidate is not honestly declared. What is
declared is a small fraction of the total money that is spent. Naturally,
unaccounted money or black money enters through the back door in
elections, which is detrimental to the economy and politics.
Whenever a candidate is elected, and especially if he belongs to the
ruling party, he has to prepare for contesting the next election, which
means he has to resort to unfair means for acquiring wealth that results
in corruption. This has a demoralizing effect on the bureaucracy. Thus
elections set up a vicious circle of corruption, which permeates down to
the bureaucracy corrupting the whole system.
The cost of contesting an election being very high, many a time, good
candidates who cannot afford the expense, stay away from elections.
Thus, criminal elements get to dominate in the august body of the
Parliament.