CHENNAI, India — Now that President Hosni Mubarak has finally relinquished power in Egypt and the military has taken control, the question in India is whether such a people's revolt can possibly happen there.
The issue has gained enormous significance in the light of how the Egyptian revolution has provoked others in the region, notably Iran, Bahrain, Libya and Morocco, to try to get rid of their own dictatorial regimes. Their aim is democracy — to transfer power to the people. What is a more pertinent point there is corruption. The people are tired of seeing dictators plunder their countries of their wealth.
Corruption is also an extremely pressing problem in today's India. It has seen in recent years a virtual anarchy in its administration that has even spilled over to its media. The country had two terrible scams recently. During the Commonwealth Games, millions of dollars were taken in kickbacks by corrupt bureaucrats and ministers. Earlier, the allocation of the "2G spectrum" to telecom players also saw huge losses to the state exchequer.