The middle class (including traders), unfailingly portray themselves as Draupadi, when it comes to corruption. Don’t we, many a times, play Menaka in the corruption drama? Our reflex action is to break a rule and bribe when hauled up.
During the Anna Hazare show, a TV channel showed a hilarious video featuring, `a victim of corruption’ who had paid bribe for jumping a traffic signal. This lady had jumped a traffic signal, because nobody was around but was caught by a traffic cop, who was hiding behind a tree and she paid a bribe. Hello, Madam, the cop lost 2-1 to you on the dishonesty count. He took a bribe from you, no doubt, but you broke a traffic rule as well as paid a bribe, instead of a fine. This is Middle Class attitude towards corruption. If they break a rule, that is fine but if they pay a bribe to escape punishment on that account, it is corruption.
Our traders also agitated for a corruption free India. In reality, they disregard civic, health, weights & measures, labour laws and tax norms but get away due to corruption. Most traders in our cities consider footpath as an extension of their shop and pay a bribe to ensure continuance of the encroachment. Are they Menaka or Draupadi in the corruption saga?
All the bloggers ranting for anti-corruption, kindly check if the software in your PC is a legal one. Are we not fueling corruption, when we buy pirated software, DVDs and books? How many of us have built their houses as per the approved plan? Don’t we bribe the municipal inspector who comes for inspection? Why do we agree to pay/receive in black when we buy or sell a flat? Most parents in a benevolent mood allow their under aged children to drive bikes. When the kid commits an accident, don’t these parents run pillar to post, to ensure that a case is not registered? Are we a Draupadi or Menaka in these cases?
Do we have any idea about the manpower and resultant expenditure that will have to be incurred to have an effective Lokpal? The global average is 1 policeman for every 200 citizens. Even if it is implemented, only for central government servants, who total around 5 million, the strength of Lokpal will be almost 25,000 employees. Will the part time revolutionaries (especially the techies and MBAs) quit their high paying jobs and join Lokpal to ensure integrity at the working level? It is easy to scream `Inquilab Zindabad’ but difficult to be an instrument for change.
There is a demand, for a citizen charter setting time limits, for each work in a Government office. The Government offices, in turn, are going to come up with demands for additional manpower, to meet these schedules. How much of manpower is this going to add to the Government machinery? What about the expenditure on account of increased manpower? Does the civil society have an idea about this?
Adequately staffed government departments have its own perils for the citizens. Just take the case of Bangalore Traffic Police, as against an adequate manpower of 10,000, they have around 2,500. As a result, many of the traffic offences go unnoticed and even if noticed, not penalized. Guess what would happen, if traffic police gets fully staffed. What would happen if the municipal authorities get adequately staffed and adopt a Singaporean model for penalising civic transgressions? Given our penchant for breaking traffic/civic rules, they will become self financing within a year.
Corruption is not a disease in India; it is a way of life. If you want to change the way you live, you must change the way you think. We need smarter solutions, to reduce the need for public, to go to a Government office. Merely adding a few thousand policemen will not get rid of the problem, it will only add to the layers of Bureaucracy.
The Civil Society should demand, for, inclusion of a clause that post Lokpal, the bribe giver should also be punished? Post Lokpal, it becomes our moral obligation, to complain against a demand for bribe, rather than comply with it, even if we are at fault. We should walk the talk, shouldn’t we?
Nice one.. This is really true.. Something that everyone should sit and think about
ReplyDeleteBalu,
ReplyDeleteCorruption is of two types - white collared one and the blue collared one. I am not sure whether i am a draupadi or a maneka! but i have legal softwares on my laptop and on my desktop (one is xp and other is windows 7) and all my software is licensed one. i have not paid any amount in cash and perhaps i am the only one among 152 flats of my society to pay in full by cheque although it meant i had to shell out Rs 1 lakh more towards tax! Just because i did not want to bribe RTO of Pimpri, i sold my car back in Vapi despite losing money for having a NOC still not shifted. the thing is, Corruption at the higher level is pretty bad and that needs to be stopped. they have started doing corruption blatantly and openly with a challenge what we could do to them. That should be stopped. Chanakya had mentioned about corruption that means it is in our blood. but to what extent? somewhere it has to stop. it will stop. let us hope
cheers
Gopal
I am not sure you have posted with a similar tone in your "Chinna Veedu"! I think not becuase you are still alive!
ReplyDeleteNothing you have said is new to me, to you, to the tradesr, to the businessman ... But when posts such as yours are running up a steep slope of a milion to one (a million feet vertical to one foot horizontal), it is absolutely essential. However, given your talents, I am left to wonder, you could not have said all these things through the mouths of I, Me, Myself.
You did not spare many. You should have asked Kaushik Basu to enlighten us on which if the instances you had mentioned are of the "Harrassment" variety! The good professor would have been stumped!
Raghuram Ekambaram
P.S. I come here as and when and in a day or two I would have read it, just as I have done most of your posts.
You have very rightly pointed it out.. all the protestors are happy protesting because it has been given the colour of "they are the one who are corrupt" if u point out their own faults, excuses start coming from the first moment. Happened with me at office, when a colleague who had Anna's photo as profile pic was going to have his DL made. When asked whether he has paid any bribe, his excuses started as "My father has paid it not me" and we were able to wriggle out that the bribe had been paid for DL of a 4 wheeler, which he did not know how to drive!!!
ReplyDelete