When Transparency International, a Germany-based anti-corruption organisation, named India as the 71st most corrupt nation in the world, it didn't seem to surprise many.

For the nation has had to fight a twin battle against corruption and backwardness in its 58 years of independent existence. The fact is probity in public life is the last thing on our minds.

It is in this light that the CBI raids gained prominence.

The CBI has been actively raiding houses and complex of top officials of various departments of Government of India in a bid to counter corruption at higher place.

In the Sept-Oct period, it raided the houses and offices of the following: Commissioner of Income-Tax Tribunal, BR Meena, a 1977 batch IRS officer; Police Inspector Ishwar Singh of Hansie Cronje case; former Punjab minister Nirmal Singh; Superintendent of Central Excise in Chennai & Deputy Chief Engineer of Southern Railways; raids in Jharkhand, Deogarh, Godda and Dumka and Bihar state convenor of the Council for Advancement of People's Action and Rural Technology (CAPART), other NGOs.

CBI booked a senior railway official (K Ramakrishna Rao, a senior section engineer) at Visakhapatnam, for allegedly selling 12 railway wagons and raids former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala's residence in connection with Junior Basic Teachers (JBT) recruitment scam.

These raids, though a step in the right direction, exposed to the world, India's moral fabric.

While corruption in political space was always known, its reach in Indian bureaucracy and other departments severely dented her image.

As foreign companies made a beeline of India, her dismal record with transparency meant that India had lot to be ashamed about.