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After getting entangled in a litany of corruption cases, the Congress is trying to repair the damage it caused by fast-tracking a slew of reforms like foreign direct investment or FDI in retail and other areas like insurance, among others.

The stock markets may have cheered the move but will the Congress government, which is already set to face a no-confidence motion, last long enough for the people to cheer the decision?

In fact, the string of corruption cases has done irreparable damage to the Congress party (and the polity as a whole). From the telecom scam to the recent Coalgate, the party has tarnished its image and is unlikely to make it big in the Lok Sabha polls slated for 2014 (assuming the Congress manages to survive till then).

In a recent attack, Priyanka Gandhi’s husband Robert Vadra allegedly amassed wealth to the tune of Rs 300 crore from Rs 50 lakh in just three years. These allegations brought up by former Anna Hazare aide Arvind Kejriwal have cast a shadow on the Congress.

Corruption in India is not new. It surged in the 1980s with the Bofors scam, where former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s government had allegedly given massive kickbacks (money) to procure guns from Swedish dealer Bofors.

Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi was one of the beneficiaries of the deal. Despite repeated protests to nail him, he is yet to serve a jail term in India.

The period between 1980 and 2010 saw several politicians amass unprecedented amounts of wealth.

For instance, Lalu Prasad Yadav was seen mopping up thousands of crores in a scam meant to supply animal fodder.

Instead of being implicated, he has served as Bihar chief minister (CM), made his wife Rabri the CM and himself a parliamentarian. And today, he gives his opinion on corruption in Parliament (As they say, it happens only in India).

Also, there was rampant corruption by other politicians, who withdrew money from various government schemes and put it in their personal bank accounts, thereby leaving the country’s poor in the lurch.

In another instance (which does not relate to corruption though), the then chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Arjun Singh, during the Bhopal gas tragedy, that killed thousands in 1984, had released Warren Andersen, the then chairman and CEO of Union Carbide, the company responsible for the tragedy.

Andersen was sent hours after the tragedy to Delhi from where he took a flight to the US. No trial, no sentence, thanks to the Congress government. Andersen is 90 years old today and will never face trial in India.

So, this period of utter neglect (1980-2010) saw a new monster by the name terrorism grow and grow.

Terrorism spread silently across Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and even the Naxalites took in a big way to extremist activities in states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar (which included Jharkhand), West Bengal and Orissa.

The net result: Bombings, kidnappings and terror attacks across the country, which saw thousands lose their lives amid government apathy.

The only Congress government that seems to have put India forward was a non-Gandhi one: Ex-Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, who fast-tracked reforms which immensely benefitted the nation.

Owing to this, we have a clutch of foreign brands to choose from today.

Instead of filling their own pockets, had the politicians concentrated on just population control, taken development schemes to the poor and beefed up road connectivity in a big way, our people would have prospered and probably terrorism would not have seeped into the country.

And, a bulk of these responsibilities lies with the Congress. So, by fast tracking reforms and mulling other developing schemes now, can the Congress repair the damage, which seems to have turned into an irreparable one?