Corruption

Today corruption is virtually synonymous with all government agencies and bodies. We constantly crib about the level of corruption we face at all levels while facing government agents or officers. The idea of a corruption free India looks bright and beautiful to each one of us while we are discussing about the Indian governance system, sitting cosily in our living room. But can we Indians really live in that totally fare and just system?

I can not think of any person around me who has not offered that 100 bucks to the traffic constable to avoid getting a ticket, or giving that extra amount to get a confirmed berth in the train at the last moment. So is it just the government officials that are to be blamed? It has always been very convenient for us to put the entire blame of doing wrong on these Babus at various offices.

So why is it that we Indians who have historically been just and fare by nature; started this epidemic that till this date; about 60 years down, stand untreated and with no immediate cure. I feel that the corruption was the cause of the economic utopia that our constitution makers assumed India to be.

As the constitution of the nation and the government policies treat each and every individual as equal, this fact is hardly true in the real world. It is these corrupt practices that act as the external correcting agent to balance or bring the whole system into the stable equilibrium state, which can be sustained over the years.

Let us take an example, suppose you want to get your LPG connection or even passport, if you are a poor man who can’t afford to bribe, the process has a lot of complications and reiterations of form filling. But for a person who grease’s the system with a few gifts to the right people, the whole process streamlines to a smooth and efficient system, with his work being done virtually in a flash.

Now if we look at the most basic diagram of economics.

The root cause for the whole bribery dominated system is that the government is charging a very small amount of money. But there are people who can pay higher amount than the prevailing rates to get the things done faster or more conveniently. So the bribery nexus just taps into this group of people, charging them the amount that rich people are willing to pay.

Had the rule makers made different set of rules for different people, these things would had scaled down considerably. So as it is well known that the forces of demand and supply actually take care of a lot of things in the free market, so a lot of rule making and guidelines are indeed not actually helping the cause.

The “haves” and “have not’s” can never be equal, and finally a few departments are now appreciating this fact with the services like “Tatkal” in railways and passport office actually accept the fact the people who are willing to pay more should be given preference. I hope one day all the agencies do appreciate this fact and try working in tapping it to get more revenues for themselves instead helping Swiss Banks accumulate the wealth.

Bharat Nirmaan… Is it taking India anywhere??

India Shining!!! Bharat Nirmaan!!! These were the slogans to which; till recently; I regularly fell for. And I believed all these slogans with the heart and soul. Where ever I went I saw prosperity all around me. Roads built, green fields, children running in school uniforms, India doing great in all fields it was in…. nothing actually is bad in India. And India is moving at express pace to get into the league of developed nations.

I was born and brought up with high level bureaucratic officials all around me, in my family and my relatives. I had always seen them working for about 10-12 hours a day. So when ever I was told about the reports of inefficiency and non productiveness about Indian bureaucracy I conveniently used to believe that it is the lower level that does not work, it is the lower staff that is ineffective and uninterested and it was just the politicians that made false promises, but rest all is good.

But recently for some project in my course I went to a village called “Lodhar”. This village is just about 1-1.5 Kms from IIT Kanpur. When I reached there my beliefs were intensified in the growing brand called India. The streets were paved; there was proper drainage system on both sides of the road, electric wires reaching all houses. That village was looking more like a sparsely populated town; instead of a village; and that too a developed town. I also found out that it was declared as Ambedkar Village by UP state government. That is it will be a model village for all other villages in the state. And at macro level it surely looked impressive.

Then I met few people there, ranging from the ex village chief “Pradhan”, to a labour working in some field, to children playing on the village streets. For first five minutes they looked very excited, both about my visit to their homes as well as the system around. But then as we spoke about one topic and the other, striking differences started shaping up. I was told that politicians of all ranks; right from party workers to CM’s to party chief; do visit their villages regularly and make promises to them. But the villagers are so much habituated to that, that they don’t believe a single word said by them. (This was very much on expected lines of my belief).

Then I was told about the other MAJOR issue which I would like to mention here, I was told that the electric poles; about which I was very happy initially; were in place for a long time, but are mostly there for just ornamental purpose, electricity rarely comes. They told me there had been no electricity for even a single minute in past 7 days. Then a very sensitive topic came up; topic of land. I was told that initially they were encouraged to build houses in a particular area near village which was earlier demarcated as pasture land next to the village. But now when they shifted to this place the authorities are reluctant or shall I say, hesitant to legalize that area as a residential area. In this by authorities I mean the likes of District Magistrate and Community Development Officers. They had been regular visitors to the village and even said that they will get the issue done. But then words are just words.

For past few days I had been constantly thinking about this particular village and the attitude of these officers towards this village and their duty in particular. The only word that is residing in my mind is WHY? I was thinking, observing and even discussing about the possible answers to this question.

I figured out that the answer to this question can never be objective or simple; here I am talking about just the answer and not the solution to the problem. I felt that, in the rigid and long bureaucracy like ours, these higher officials are not all that powerful as they look. Even when they have full authority over their department but to move higher up the ladder; they need to have clean unbiased track record. And with India’s mean and corrupt practices being talked around the globe, being productive is the biggest sin for these officers. A top official in a government body said, “To get promotions, one has to stay quiet and not do any thing. As if one tries doing any thing positive, then there are so many vigilance and other probing committees which are ready to go over-time to read between the lines and build issues from nowhere.”

I also felt that though our politicians don’t have much interference on the day to day work of any government body. But they have kept the power to relocate these bureaucratic officials, and we regularly see the politicians use this power with full efficiency, every time when state observes a change in power. The main focus of these politicians is to appease their respective vote banks, their supporters in co-operate firms and also several other activists in other fields, and thus they are more than happy to use their powers if action of any officer does not suit their personal or political agenda.

I also found one more thing, that even when these officers are willing to work for the cause, the department is not willing to sanction adequate funds to them. This hesitation by the department can be due to a lot of reasons from as fundamental as no availability of funds, to differences in priorities between different levels of hierarchy.

I feel that the real change in India or dreams like India Shining or Bharat Nirmaan can come true only when we have a massive change in mindset of our top hierarchy. Things are improving slowly but surely, with “Gen-X” coming into the government system. But with the government structure being so rigid and bulky, we should hope that this generation can sustain its enthusiasm and change the system, instead of system changing them.

(Written 8th March 2009)