UPA-II has mostly been about shocking big ticket scandals. The size of these is mind-boggling indeed. Scandals to the tune of Rs 1.76 lakh crore and Rs 1,86 lakh crore happen rarely.

The Congress-led ruling coalition has the unique distinction of presiding over both and many others similar scams. If all the coming general elections were to be fought over the issue of corruption only, the ruling coalition headed by the Congress would be out of power for a long, long time.

Well, this could be the view of people following the activities of the government closely on a regular basis. But how does the general public perceive the issue of corruption? Is it any different? No, a CSDS survey conducted for CNN-IBN and The Hindu recently confirms that the public perception has gone from bad to worse in the two years between 2011 and 2013.

In 2011, 28 percent of the respondents felt the UPA-II government was very corrupt; in 2013, the number stands at 34 percent. In all, 66 percent of the respondents are of the opinion that the government is corrupt, compared to 60 percent in 2011. Four out of seven respondents say corruption has increased over the last four years.

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The feeling is understandably strongest in metropolitan cities and among the college educated, which should be bad news for the Congress. As many as 46 percent of respondents in metros believe that the UPA government is corrupt, while among the latter, the number stands at 43. Across India, 34 percent in these categories feel that way.

The perception that the BJP is better bet for curbing corruption is across all categories of class and localities, but the sentiment is strongest among the upper and middle classes and among city dwellers. However a large proportion among these particular categories is also of the opinion that there is no difference between the Congress and the BJP on the issue of handling corruption. As many as 30 percent of the respondents said the BJP was better at fighting corruption to 20 percent of the Congress. However, 28 percent saw no difference between the parties.

While the Central government is viewed as being corrupt in all the states where the survey was conducted, people also view their respective State governments as being corrupt. But in most cases their corruption perception regarding their state government is less than their corruption perception regarding the Central government.

In Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi and Haryana for instance, all of which are Congress-ruled States, the perception that the state government is corrupt is slightly stronger than the perception that the central government is corrupt. The worst rating for both the state and central governments comes from Maharashtra where 8 out of 10 respondents rated both the governments as corrupt. The state government that is viewed as least corrupt is of Chhattisgarh.

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Interestingly, the awareness level on major corruption scandals that broke out in the last four years is less than expected. While the awareness among the college educated respondents about scams and corruption controversies is much higher than the overall average, the awareness among women, the poor, and respondents residing in rural areas is much less than the overall average. Only 50 percent of the total respondents were aware of the coal scam, while 41 percent and 33 percent were aware of the 2G scandal and CWG scandals respectively.

source:http://www.firstpost.com/politics