Here is proof that if you are corrupt, you will be promoted and you may even get a President's Medal!
A week ago I happened to call a top cop in Goa. A common name cropped up and my friend said, "You know, that S. O. B got promoted again." The person he was referring to was the most corrupt cop who always managed to stay just ahead of the Anti - Corruption Bureau (ACB), thanks to his closeness to politicians. That phone call brought back various memories.
During a short stint with a Military Intelligence (MI) unit, a report of mine was forwarded from MI to CBI in Delhi, who in turn sent it to the DIG, Goa Police who, instead of instructing the local Police Station, forwarded the copy of my report to the local Police Station. My report had my Goa address. The local cop then went to the person whom I had mentioned in my report, taking along with him a copy of my report and sold it to the ultra for a paltry Rs. 1,000. All this was narrated to me by a “friend”. When we took up the issue that this “disclosure” would place my life in jeopardy, the DIG said he would look into it and then a month later, promoted that very Head Constable!
Yet another incident comes to mind. I was with an “A” team in Assam, waiting near a highway bus stand for we had been tipped off that a top ultra leader with several kills to his credit would be travelling by that very bus. The “A” team was to take him off the bus as the local cops couldn’t be trusted. The bus approached and the team got ready to make the grab. As the bus slowed to a stop, two government cars roared up.
The militant got off the bus to be escorted by a DIG and the PA to a prominent Minister. The militant looked at our vehicle and raised his hand in a mocking salute and the convoy moved off to the Minister's official guest house. It seems everyone knew of the “A” team's mission. The team sent a stinker of a report to a Brigadier who was in charge of the “Operations” and he personally called on the Assam DGP and to nobody's surprise, nothing happened. The DIG was soon promoted as an IGP. All this, which is the tip of an iceberg, proves that the corrupt get promotions.
Two years ago, a senior cop from J & K was nabbed in Mumbai where he had come to sell a few kgs of grade a heroin, which he and his team had confiscated from some ultra groups. He was arrested by the Mumbai Police. The news appeared in all the dailies and soon enough the noise died down and then nothing happened. Then a couple of years later, going through the Indian Police Journal, I saw the same cop had been awarded the President's Medal!
A Westerner who had been living in one of the coastal States for more than a dozen years suddenly discovered that her visa was not being renewed, though she always went back to her country for three months in the year. She remarked to me, "I never knew that it is so easy to get things done in this country by bribing people."
In the recent past, we have been inundated by news about corruption in the high echelons of power with the once glorious Indian Defence Forces being the latest to be in the news. People even at the local tea shops are openly talking about corruption in high places. It is also the first time that the spotlight has been turned on the media for violation of media ethics.
The high priests of the print and electronic media are now at the receiving end and are being openly questioned about their hobnobbing with the suspected politicians and dubious wheeler - dealers. The media's incestuous relation with the high and powerful had always been kept tightly under wraps. Were the guilty ever caught? No, they got promotions! Two high profile media names that were being bandied about in the Radia tapes scam are still up and about!
To be honest, there was a bit of enough skulduggery going on in the media even some 30 - 40 years ago. But then, back in those days, it was a bottle of Sea Pirate or Old Monk and sometimes very rarely a Red Label depending on where you stood in the media hierarchy! At the bottom of the ladder, you more often than not got a cup of tea in a chipped glass!
In recent weeks, we have seen certain captains of the industry who never stepped out without the cloak of righteousness wrapped around them, who are now scuttling for cover as the dirt has begun to hit the fan with increasing regularity. But what is surprising is that politicians and bureaucrats who were under the impression that they are invincible, are now beginning to squirm as the spotlight is being focused on them. But does that mean that things are going to change?
I do not think so, since I am a hard-boiled pessimist who harkens to what his teacher, the great SSK of Maharaja's High School (1961-64), had said then" "This is the most putrescent country. Go away, Go abroad." Pity most of us never listened to him!
For the last 50 years, we have been living in the Augean Stables of corruption. In fact right from the days of the Mauryas and much later the Mughal rulers, the question of corruption and how to deal with it seems to have occupied the rulers. The Arthashashtra even outlines a complex of Do's and Don'ts along with heavy punishment. But the fact is we simply love slumming and wallowing in the muck of corruption. Corruption in our country has multiple suspects: the politicians, the bureaucrats, the businessmen, the criminals and even the media persons. In short, almost everybody.
Years ago, I happened to see a popular Kannada film that had Amrish Puri, the late Hindi film actor and that great character actor, Loknath. Puri is cast as a shy, coy, village Patel, who wants to be a dashing rake but doesn't have the guts and is scared of his wife. Loknath is the man – about - town, corrupt to the core. And there is this scene when Puri demurs about going to a party where the local neta, a couple of girls and a film producer are all swilling drinks. Loknath says, "Alla kano, yellaroo jaribiddare, naavu yake yeddu ninthukolbeku?"
That's the trouble with us! We would rather slip and slither down with the rest!
In India, to live, you must follow this principle: Better be a Roman when you are in Rome! If you cannot beat them, join them. Jai Ho!
By JP
Courtesy: Star of Mysore
