Transparency International comes out with a Corruption Perceptions Index every year. In 2025, India was ranked 91 out of 182 countries. We achieved a score of 39 out of 100 (where 0 means highly corrupt and 100 means very clean). To get a sense of what this ranking means, Denmark was ranked first (least corrupt) globally with a score of 89 while countries like Somalia and South Sudan scored lowest with a score of 9 out of 100. For context, Pakistan was ranked 136 while China was the 76th least corrupt nation. Why does this rank matter?
First, as citizens, we must correctly analyse what the government is delivering against its promises. Secondly, the government has a propensity to dismiss any report that is critical of its performance as fake, biased and with an ulterior motive to malign us as a nation. However, the latest findings by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) on the state of Railway stations and Green India confirms in no uncertain terms that the much touted ‘Amrit Kaal’ (golden era) for our beloved nation is a pipe dream and our corruption level ranking by these international agencies is quite accurate.
CAG Report on Railways: Passenger Amenities and Sanitation Audit
The audit covered 512 non-suburban railway stations handling long-distance passenger traffic, defined as trains travelling 150 km or more. The sample was drawn from a total of 5,908 stations across 16 railway zones, which together operated 7,424 passenger trains daily and served approximately 292.4 crore passengers during 2023-24. Of the 512 stations selected for audit, 325 were non-Amrit Bharat stations. The audit revealed widespread deficiencies in basic passenger amenities. Of the 512 stations examined, 458 (around 89%) were deficient in at least one minimum essential amenity, while only 54 stations, or 11%, had no shortfalls.
The deficiencies included inadequate fans at 42% of the stations, water coolers at 40%, drinking water taps at 27%, urinals at 22%, seating at 15%, platform shelters at 13%, and latrines and clocks at 12% each. At 379 stations, platform shelters failed to cover the areas where general second-class coaches usually halt, while 60 stations had no clocks and 149 did not have dustbins in accordance with prescribed norms.
Significantly, these were not new problems: the CAG noted that similar deficiencies had already been flagged in its earlier audits of 2007, 2013 and 2016. The audit reviewed 395 passenger amenity works across 325 non-Amrit Bharat stations and found significant delays in their execution. Nearly 59% of these works were delayed, with delays ranging from one year to more than four years, while only 41% were completed within the stipulated timeframe.
The audit revealed substantial underutilisation of funds earmarked for passenger amenities over five consecutive years. Despite repeated complaints about inadequate passenger facilities, between 36% and 44% of the allocated funds remained unutilised. 458 of the 512 audited stations, or 89%, suffered from deficiencies in one or more minimum essential amenities, including drinking water facilities. These numbers are a direct indictment of all those who run Indian Railways, from the minister to the station master.
Such widespread sub-standard provisioning raises an uncomfortable question. Who signed-off these shoddy purchases and why did the funds meant for passengers not translate into working amenities? One can only speculate where this money trail ends.
CAG Report on Green India
The Green India Mission was one of the eight pillars of the 2008 National Action Plan on Climate Change and was linked to India’s commitment under the Paris Agreement to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5-3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030. The CAG findings reveal a striking gap between the ambitious objectives of the Green India Mission (GIM) and its actual achievements. Against a relevant target of 1.4 million hectares for forest cover expansion, the actual increase was only 0.03409 million hectares, representing a shortfall of 97.57%.
Similarly, against a target of improving forest quality over 1.4 million hectares, only 0.11 million hectares or around 8% was achieved. One assessment put the overall achievement in forest cover expansion at roughly 4% of the target. Around ₹10,600 crores in proposed funding for the Green India Mission was lost because of failures in institutional convergence, including inadequate coordination with schemes and funding mechanisms such as CAMPA, VB-G RAM G, Nagar Van Yojana and the School Nursery Yojana.
Transparency and financial accountability were also weak, with 14 states failing to provide the required public web links for tracking GIM interventions, while eight states and Union Territories did not maintain annual accounts at all.
Why No Outrage?
Democracy and accountability go hand in hand. If such a damaging report on the state of governance (managing railways and green cover) by the government’s own official auditor does not elicit any outrage by the media, civil society, political opposition and the general public implies that democracy is dying a slow death in our country and there is merely a façade of ‘ache din’ and ‘amrit kaal’.
India’s biggest problem is that its people have fallen prey to a misplaced sense of pride (Hindu asmita) being sold to them in the name of regaining their lost glory and punishing their ‘enemy within’ (Muslim community in India). They have been intoxicated on the ruinous and fake perception that this is a ‘new India’ that does not shy to fight the ‘enemy’ by entering their territory and standing up to ‘Western dominance and interference’.
This fanatical jingoism and inflated self-worth protects the government from uncomfortable questions and accountability. People are too busy hating each other to scrutinise the government it has entrusted with real power. This is the most effective insurance policy a non-performing government can buy. People are too drunk in negative emotional non-issues that the real problems and challenges like governance, education, health, infrastructure, accountability, corruption and falling standards of public services have taken a back seat and do not get the importance they deserve.
Stealing from public funds is such a grave sin in Islam that has disastrous consequences. A man named Kirkirah was entrusted to look after the possessions of the Prophet ﷺ. The man died and the Prophet ﷺ said, “He is in the Hellfire.” They went to look at him and they found that he had stolen a cloak from the war booty. The only way to eliminate corruption in society is to instil the fear of accountability before God on the Day of Judgment.