Corruption for a common man in India

A common man doesn’t get directly affected by defense kickbacks, Bofors, Bank frauds in millions, loot at higher levels or ghotalas, fodder scam, awarding contracts, favoring own kith and kin ‘Bhanja Bhatija’ which involve millions of Dollars.


With freedom of speech in place providing a safety valve- he vents his anger for this high level corruption by abusing the government, present and past loudly but can do little about it, and moves on.

Corruption in high places impacts the nation as a whole by making a hole in the economy- actually it is as big as black hole- where ever it occurs. It is no mean feat as the amount runs into billions. If Chanda Kochar, makes a kill, or a Minister is involved in 500 crore commission or a Banker takes the government for a ride it doesn’t impact my life directly. It impacts our global image as a nation and impacts negatively our foreign investment and national ‘Trust Quotient’ at large. But for me or any man on the street- life goes on.

The corruption that is in your face is what bothers all of us.

A common man is harassed by ‘petty bribes’ which he faces every day. Mostly it has a nuisance value- of high order. You don’t get your dues in time as a babu sits on your file and unless you grease his palm the file doesn’t move, and you can do nothing about it. It has a big nuisance value and rubs on the wrong side of the moral compass of 1.4 billion people of our country. In the long run you feel that it is a necessary lubricant of life in a way ‘elixir of life’ and impacts the national attitude- ‘saab chaltaa hai’ is a gift of bribery or Bribology.

This then effects the way 1.4 billion people work and behave. Ok- if I take a longer lunch break, how does it matter. I drive 500 yards on the wrong side of the road or I park my car in no parking zone or honk in a hospital area- how does it bother you? ‘Kaam chor is better than paisa chor’ he argues. In a way it impacts the psyche of the nation, it impacts the productivity and civic sense too- it seeps into your flesh, blood, skin and head- slowly but forever. Overall impact would run into trillions.

On the back of the truck we proudly write ‘Sau main sey ninyanvey baiman, mera bharat mahan’ it has hit us so badly. People have started taking pride in it! So it seems.

Let us not forget that ‘babu’ I talked about earlier, sitting on your file for house loan in a bank will also be on the other side of the fence and on the receiving end when he goes to a school for admission for his child or can be harassed by a cop on the road or for treatment of his wife in a hospital. We wear different hats of give and take at different times of a day!

Just to illustrate the point the total amount paid by households across 20 states surveyed and 10 public services as bribe, was Rs 20,500 crore in 2005. Which is far less than political and corporate ghotalas, which run in billions of rupees! Personal bribes look so miniscule in front of organized embezzlement that in financial jargon it can be written off or even rounded off.

“People should be conscious that they can change a corrupt system” — Peter Eigen, founder of Transparency International.

For instance Professor Bibek Debroy - an Indian economist, serving as the chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India- and Laveesh Bhandari claim in their book Corruption in India: That public officials in India may be cornering as much as ₹921 billion (US$12 billion), or 5 per cent of the GDP through corruption.

And these guys also ask for wage hike- through pay commissions. Else go on strike!

CVC report (Battling India’s malaise of Corruption an address to the India CEO Forum) quoted below illustrates the point further.

STATUS OF CORRUPTION IN INDIA: ‘There is no denying the fact that there is widespread corruption in India. Petty corruption which affects the basic rights and services of the common man is highly rampant besides the grand corruption scandals which break out every now and then. A report on bribery in India published by Trace International in January, states that - 91% of the bribes were demanded by govt. officials. 77% of the bribes demanded were for avoiding harm rather than to gain any advantage. Of these 51% were for timely delivery of services to which the individual was already entitled. Example, clearing customs or getting a telephone connection.
According to one study among public services, households reported experiencing corruption in police was at 34 per cent, followed by land/housing (24 per cent), judicial services (18 per cent) and tax (15 per cent) and PDS (12 per cent).

In most cases,paid bribe amount ranges between Rs. 100-500. However an amount of as low as Rs 10 and as high as Rs 50,000 was also paid by households in a year for availing one or the other public service – which was their right. Mostly the guys who suffer are at the bottom of the financial pyramid.

With such low per capita income an ordinary man feels the pinch of paying even 500 bucks!

“Corruption is paid by the poor” — Pope Francis.

The reasons for corrupt practices could be broadly categorized as procedural; documentation related; payment evasion and dependency on service provider.

The major cause of corruption in India are poor regulatory framework, exclusivist process of decision making aggravated by, ’discretion’ and official secrecy, rigid bureaucratic structures and processes; and absence of effective control mechanism.

Social acceptability and tolerance for corruption and absence of any system of inculcating the values of ethics and integrity further propagates corruption.’ It reflects.

What is the solution? The runway ahead.

One thing for sure- every Indian living in India or abroad would love to see India as a corruption free Country- will add to 1.4 billion plus people’s national and personal pride which cannot be quantified in money.

A very genuine question asked by most Indians is that if Singapore could do it, why can’t we? Singapore was a very highly corrupt country under British rule and it was a way of life till their first PM Lee Kuan Yew took upon himself to clean up the nation and eradicate corruption. Today it is in top five most uncorrupt countries in the world which every Singaporean is proud of.

First thing that comes to mind is that Singapore is a tiny state- it is a city state with a population of 6,014,723 (.6 Crore) as compared to India with a massive load of 140 Crore- we are 233 times bigger. You are comparing a pea to a huge water melon perhaps!

A few things must be kept in mind. And these are:-

1. We can learn things from Singapore and adopt best practices.

2. If we can execute Swatch Bharat Mission at such a massive scale and pull it off, why clean up corruption Mission cannot be done?

3. We must have limited aim of small bribery which impacts a common citizen and poisons his mind too. If a cop does it, a railway clerk feels that why he should not do it, also a bus conductor. The whole lot gets emboldened and it becomes a way of life. So clean up corruption mission should clean up small pieces of garbage scattered all over and do not get involved in big multibillion boulders- that is done by ED and CVC.

4. The big net like CVC, ED, CBI and several other agencies already are busy catching big fat fish. In fact they are so overloaded that they find petty crimes to be too petty to appear on their radars- even if they do, they can’t get into petty things!

5. To catch a big fish you require harpoons and big nets, to catch small crabs, hatchling, Paedocypris progenetica and Schindleria brevipinguis, you need a sieve. It is a different species and small fry, which irritates you.

6. Breaking down a problem in two buckets will make things possible and doable.

PM Lee Created a CPIB-Corrupt Practice Investment Bureau. With central control ‘ministry of petty bribes and morals’ with a charter clean Singapore, reporting to PM only. He in his interview said ‘You need to trust someone on top’ and that is me. If I am doing something wrong then you go and report to the president and matter ends.
Under PM Lee, the Prevention of Corruption Act was enacted, boosting the power of the Graftbusters.

Singapore’s Old Hill Street Police Station, which housed the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, also known as the Graftbusters, from 1984 to 1998, is now a social media photo hotspot

I feel intention is more important than anything else.

The Prime Minister himself has been the chief communicator of this scheme. He wrote a letter to all 250,000 village president all over the country and encouraging them to reach out to people in their villages for sanitation services.

What can we do? Bypass Surgery is the answer.

The present Government under PM Modi has done the undoable or unimaginable by using technology. Old saying ‘If you have a headache cut the head’ looks silly. But Modi ji did the same thing ‘If the man doing the job is sick remove the man’! He opened 40 crore accounts and all subsidy reached a man directly- removing or bypassing the corrupt man! So it was a Bypass surgery of a different kind! When Rajiv Gandhi openly said as a PM ‘We send one rupee and only 15 paisa reach the beneficiary’. The rest 85% was gobbled up by the middle men? Yet nothing was done for several decades by others till Modi came on the scene. A lot has been done- yet a lot has to be done to make us squeaky clean and I feel it can be done.

The problem is that still there are places or points of unavoidable contact- public and the public servant. Did I say servant? Yes I did. These physical pain points cannot be handled by technology alone. Like Swachh Bharat mission SBM required picking up the broom we need to it that way. Habits die hard but we did it- we were used to dirty things around and by a concerted effort even our mindset towards cleanliness changed. If there is a will there is a way. If there is political and public will there is definitely a way- Dirt around us didn’t pain all of us but bothered some of us, but corruption hurts all of us. With this hypothesis in mind public will participate even more enthusiastically than Swatchh Bharat Mission!

SBM was budgeted at $28 billion. It is difficult to estimate the cost of eradicating grass root level corruption for a country as big as India but Singapore spent 5% of their budget on CPIB.

Corrupt Practices Investigation costed Singapore, 49,480,300 $ annually-around $5 Crore. Extrapolating this figure- we are 2333 times bigger- a figure would be staggering 11665 crore dollars per year. The government and finance ministry could do their homework and allocate 5% of our annual budget for this noble cause which is of paramount importance to our national interest in more ways than one.

Execution

One thing for sure- This government gets the bull by the horn- how ever big the bull may be- article 370, Triple Talaq, Ram Mandir, building world class highways at a lightning speed- New education policy, Airports, IITs, GST and the list of big ticket jobs is list is long and illustrious.

Public – 1400 crore people in the last 9 years trusts them and if I can put it in a more direct way, they are the ‘Master executers’ – Karna hai to Karna hai- that is it.

If you look at the success of Singapore, their figurative expression has POLITICAL WILL as the base and four vertical pillars of execution standing on that firm base.

We need to have a separate ministry for eradicating grass root level- though SBM was under two separate existing ministries. If you want job done get a tough and honest man to head it and give him powers and money. And we will be able to do it.

Narendra Modi our PM in his third term in 2024 should start another mission anti-corruption and 1.4 billion will be with him.

"We are committed to rid India of corruption, nepotism and law and order challenges. The BJP has resolved to a 'can do' attitude like Lord Hanuman, it is determined to fight corruption." - Narendra Modi