No outrage left for corruption.

Instead of decreasing corruption liberalization helped to increase it, wrote Prof A Dixit and R Mankar. "Growth surged: that raised the value of natural resources and government contracts. So substantial was this increase that despite the reduction in powers, the economic rent at the government's disposal grew strongly." Advances in technology "reduced petty bribery -- for example in passport issuances --" but "bigger forms of corruption in India are flourishing". The authors think that "Business Community Institution", or BCI, which will provide a platform to the millions of ordinary people to voice their disapproval, is the answer. Their optimism is based on a movement against paying protection money, called 'pizzo', to the mafia in Sicily. Only 10% of businesses in Palermo belong to the movement, "Addio pizzo", which means 'goodbye pizzo', but the mafia has not retaliated despite losing a lot of money. Business corruption or white collar crime, like the Nirav Modi scam, seem far away and do not affect most people personally. Crimes of violence do, and daily there are crimes competing to surpass each other in savagery. "Outrage, like everything else, is scarce. It is costly to produce and express, both individually and in groups," wrote Prof S Rajagopalan, writing about the horrible rape and murder of a little girl in Kathua. "Given the everyday small and large problems and injustices that most Indians face, this is no minor barrier. And our political leaders understand this and often get away with murder while decent people are busy navigating their everyday lives." When a BJP politician was accused of rape in Unnao in UP, the father of the victim was beaten to death by the politician's brother. In an angry article, U Pullat wrote that all these terrible crimes prove "the lack of independence and the capture of the police" by politicians and dominant groups in our country. The situation is particularly bad in Bengal where goons belonging to the ruling party murder political opponents with impunity. BJP leaders in Bengal are complaining of being targeted both by Trinamul Party goons as well as the police. In Unnao local people rallied in support of their BJP MLA accused of rape. A poll showed that most Indians will not seek help from either the police or from lawyers but will try to settle disputes by themselves. No wonder women do not bother to report 99% of cases of sexual assault. "India's culture cannot be changed, from corrupt to clean, simply by relying on the government to enact and enforce laws," said Dixit and Mankar. True, but we are helpless when the government actively protects criminals. And that includes the corrupt.