A former bureaucrat has said that most business houses "maintain" MPs to influence government policies or decision making in their favour.
"Some of the large industrial houses also fund politicians who are in the Opposition as a hedge to ensure that any decision that may be given in their favour is not opposed by them. They also treat such funding as a long term investment," writes former Economic Intelligence Bureau director general BV Kumar in his new book "The Darker Side of Black Money".
According to Kumar, who joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1958 and held various coveted posts in his 35 years of service, politicians who are exposed or charged for corruption change parties and join the Opposition.
"Surprisingly, they are not only welcomed but are also treated as heroes. This removes the sting from the crusade originally launched," the book by Konark Publishers says.
Kumar was also the director general of Revenue Intelligence and Narcotics Control Bureau and was responsible for busting many syndicates operating trans-nationally, smuggling contraband, drugs and organised economic crime.
He writes that most of the political parties show interest in exposing corruption when they are in the Opposition.
"Once they succeed either in pulling down the government or bringing about a change in the government, they lose interest. This is because corruption has become all pervasive and substantial amounts have been received at some stage or the other, by politicians of all hues either for themselves or for their party."
Kumar says that corruption has ceased to be an issue among the political parties and most of them have not submitted their accounts to the Election Commission in spite of Supreme Court directions.
In his foreword, former NSA and IB chief MK Narayanan writes, "The publication of 'The Dark Side of Black Money' could not have been better timed. The seamier side of the illegal flow of funds from India to tax havens in different parts of the world, causing loss to not only the country's exchequer, but giving rise to possibilities of misuse of such funds by crime syndicates, terrorist outfits, and other anti-establishment and anti-national forces has lately come in for unprecedented public scrutiny.
"The movement of 'hot money' across national borders is not easy to check in today's interconnected world. Financial outflows and inflows are often viewed as indices of the dynamism prevailing in a nation's economic makeup. Macro and micro-management of financial flows in such a scenario becomes exceedingly complicated. It is often difficult to separate legal from illegal transactions."