"If hereafter things go wrong, we will have nobody to blame except ourselves. Not to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man or to trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions. Bhakthi in religion may be a road to the salvation of the soul, but in politics bhakthi or hero worship is a sure road to degradations and to eventual dictatorship."
— Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, on our first Republic Day on Jan. 26, 1950.
"Many politicians act like rulers after elections and not like representatives elected to serve the nation. People have to go beg them to arrange basic amenities that a State should provide to its citizens. Democracy is all about empowerment of the people. Therefore, why is the current system imperialistic?"
— Arvind Kejriwal, winner of Magsaysay award and father of Right To Information (RTI) Act.
Corruption takes place for two major reasons. One, when a citizen wants the government officer (or politican) to bend, break, circumvent or simply ignore the law and get his job done in utter violation of the law of the land. Simple examples: issuing land acquisition notice, denotification, Ration card, BPL, driving licence, RTC, khata, old age pension, caste certificate, subsidy.
In the neighbouring district Chamarajanagar, out of 85,567 pensioners belonging to physically handicapped, widows and old - age groups, 26,670 pensioners are bogus, according to a survey.
TWO, when a government officer (or politican) wants the citizen to pay him bribe to do the citizen's legitimate work by harrassing him in many ways.
And a corrupt government officer will have reasons to find the application incomplete in one way or the other. And he will not help the citizen to fulfil the requirements as an act of dharma or in a spirit of social service, as explained by Mahatma Gandhi. In any case, the officer can simply sleep over it, waiting for the citizen to come with Bribe. Call it speed money. Worse is when files or documents go missing in the office.
On 10 – 04 - 2011, newspapers had reported that the Delhi High Court had directed the Minister of Commerce & Industries to trace the 44,000 missing files relating to registration of trademark and fix responsibility on the officials concerned.
It is proof of the way ministries work — without any responsibility till bribe is given. The Law Ministry is no different. Otherwise there was no need for Anna Hazare to go on fast and what followed. The file missing mystery had happened in the Law Ministry too.
Well, the Law Ministry had “misplaced” the copy of the Jan Lokpal Bill given to it by the Representatives of Anna Hazare earlier for consideration. As a result, a few hours before the meeting of Anna Hazare's representatives with the Prime Minister on Mar. 7 (Mar. 5 the fast began) a phone call was received from the Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily's office saying the Jan Lokpal Bill copy had been misplaced and they wanted another copy.
Now you know how serious the ministry was. Did anyone expect bribe here also?
A brilliant, first rank holder in MA wanted to become a lecturer. When he went to KPSC to check his status, he found his caste certificate missing. The tongue – in - cheek response from the “officer” was, "Don't bother about it. In any case you are a rank holder and you will be eligible under the general category." Apparently it was a case of corruption by the vested interest.
In some offices, the clerks and officers have the audacity to tell the citizen - supplicant to "complain to the higher officer or even the minister" knowing fully well that they are the abettors of corruption. The officer would say, "If you think injustice is done, go to a court of law." So, if you can't pay a bribe to get your legitimate job done in the government office, you must go to the court of law. And do you expect quick justice? Or even delayed justice? Here too the evil of co-rruption exists. In some courts it is paanch, dus aur pandrah — LDC Rs. 5, UDC Rs.10 and typist Rs. 15. Otherwise your case would be posted six months hence! So what do we do?
In the novel Godfather of Mario Puzo, the aggrieved citizens, including the one whose daughter was raped by a rich man's son, not getting justice in the court of law, go straight to Don Corleone the mafia Godfather and get justice, of course, of a kind. Therefore, it is important we should not allow our courts to degenerate to a point where people go to underworld dons for justice, as in "Godfather."
In India, the ancient land of Dharma, what we do? First we went to Buddha, then Mahatma Gandhi, then Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) and now we go to Anna Hazare.
Sadly under the present law, both the bribe - taker and bribe - giver are offenders. But under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, a bribe giver is protected only if he does it to nab the bribe - taker. If he complains of having given bribe to get his job done to the Police, the victim - complainant will also be prosecuted for the offence of giving bribe! What a funny law.
Equating a crook who gives bribe with a helpless who gives bribe should be ended to help people report corruption boldly, without fear of punishment. Complete immunity should be given to all helpless, desperate bribe - givers.
But imagine a situation like where the last UPA government at the Centre gave crores of rupees to buy the votes to win the no - confidence motion in the Parliament, according to WikiLeaks. Now in this case, it won't do to give immunity to the bribe giver and punish the MPs who received the bribe. Look at the dilemma! Yes Sir. That is the very reason I say that there are two reasons for bribing and there are two kinds of bribe - givers. This case of WikiLeaks comes under the first kind where both the bribe - giver and the bribe - taker should be punished. But in the second kind, the bribe - giver should be exonerated and the bribe taker must be hanged by the nearest lamp post, to borrow the phrase from Jawaharlal Nehru.
I would expect the Joint Committee set up to Draft the Jan Lokpal Bill at the instance of “India Against Corruption” platform headed by Anna Hazare to appreciate the difference between bribe-givers and make provision in the Bill to prosecute the bribe-giver who is a crook or a mafia [who literally purchases the government officer to bend, break, circumvent or simply ignore the law to get his job done as in the case of confidence vote (WikiLeaks) or in the case of Aadarsh Apartment scandal in Mumbai] and also the bribe - taker who is a Minister, MP, MLA or an officer.
At the same time, make provision to protect the bribe - giver who is innocent and helpless. Like in cases where a government officer takes bribe for doing his legitimate work by harassing the good citizen.
In one case the bribe - giver is a mafia, the greedy, the unethical industrialist (as reported in Niira Radia tapes) who corrupts the government officer. In another case the bribe - giver is an innocent, helpless citizen who is abetted to give bribe by the greedy, unethical corrupt officer.
The Drafting Committee may well keep this difference between the bribe-givers in mind and incorporate intelligent provisions in the Jan Lokpal Bill.
If India loses, who wins?
