The question of being honest and ideal in public life
has always pestered me. How to make the idea penetrate en masse? I always wanted to write this article. Today
I saw ‘visaranai’ movie, which gives the ‘little push’ to overcome the inertia.
The case as shown in the movie ‘Visaranai’ is not much
rarer. NCRB [National Crime Records Bureau] data states 67% of total prisoners
are undertrials. This is despite the Supreme Court’s advocacy for releasing
undertrials who have undergone half their likely jail terms in prison. Many
among the undertrials have supposedly faced this kind of situation in varying
magnitudes.
After the movie I happened to speak to a lawyer of
Madras high court. He was lamenting about the corruption in the judiciary. Yes,
even the much hoped and hyped judicial system cannot be trusted. “Judges are
not always dealing under the influence of bribes” he said. Oh! That means the
system is yet to get fully spoilt, good news isn’t it? If it is much harder to
accept, try his other statement “Honest lawyers are rarest of the rare”. Mind
you the judges are not sprouting out of a lab grown specimen. Today’s lawyers
are tomorrow’s judges. But one cannot universalize that the entire judiciary is
corrupted. At least I wish it is not. The point is, even the ‘last hope’ of a
common man is not much trust worthy.
I want to blame the system as everyone does before
think of the solution if any. ‘Honesty’ always an ideal, but once a ‘possible
way’ is becoming more and more a luxury. This luxury demands unfettered courage
of a suicide bomber and desirelessness of an ascetic. Seems an exaggeration
isn’t it? Actually, it’s not.
Where this starts and why this happens? Apart from the
usual reasons like desire for money, power and position there are some
‘practical’ forces forcing most people into the vicious cycle. For a family man
to lead a normal life in a city he needs lump sum money each month. This is
just to meet the basics like education, health and food. Primary school
education costs above 50,000-100000 rs per annum; family movie outing costs
2000 rs; hospital expenses! Doesn’t demand an explanation. On top of all this
the peer pressure to lead a ‘decent’ life gives the finishing touch.
The entire system revolves outside the written rules.
The ‘Bribe’ is doing over-duty not to break the law, but for the working of the
law per se. For passport verification; driving license; as basic as an address
change request; etc. carries different levels of ‘denomination’. The worst part
is, if anyone speaks against it, the reply is “ennappa ulagam theriatha payanna
irukiye” [“Oh! What a poor ignorant boy”]. Just 'living' becomes a luxury. How
the hell one could confine himself within the realms of ethics. The ‘How’ leads
to ‘why the hell’. This is more apt to public officials who come into mind when
one speaks of corruption or ethics. This sets the trend culturing them during
their formative years and later the desire for ‘more’ governs the rest.
The interesting part comes here. There are certain
sections of people who don’t have at least the ‘compelling reasons’ of the
‘bureaucratic system’ to be corrupt but still they are. Let us take so called
employees of IT sector. They are earning decent money for leading a decent
life. When the financial year is about to end there comes the ritual called
filing income tax returns. How many of them are honest about the provisions for
tax exemption regarding HRA [house rent allowance]; medical bills, etc. Does it
not amounts to tax evasion and stifles revenue to the government? It may seem
trivial, but mind you that the section of ‘salaried employees’ is growing very
fast and India will add millions in the organized sector in the coming decades.
The effect will be debilitating. Secondly, magnitude per se is irrelevant in
the matters of corruption. All most all corrupted people started theirs in
pennies. So, the corruption depends on the mindset and ethical attitude, not on
whether its public offices or not. It is just that the scope is more for it in
public offices.
Yes, It’s you and me who are corrupted. It’s you and
me who are part of the system. Stating various reasons from family needs to ‘pressure
from above’ the reasons vary but the actions don’t.
And the solution! There are many, viz.
institutional, technology based, stringent laws, etc. But again, most are part
of the system and will succumb to it. More than pointing fingers at the
politicians, bureaucrats and officials, it’s you and me who needs to change. Most
of us are ‘leveraging’ our positions as much as possible to gain the extra
penny. We are part of this ‘honourable corruption’ culture. It may seem petty, like
bribing to escape from traffic police; getting black tickets for films; registering
land for lower values; etc. Till we clear ourselves of all the poor behaviors,
remember that when we speak of national wellbeing we are nothing but HYPOCRITES.
