There is corruption at each and every step in life – admission to a play school, admission to a nursery school, admission to a school, admission to a college, admission to a professional college, passing from a professional college, getting a job, getting a wife, buying a house, getting the house registered in your name, getting the electricity connection, getting a telephone connection, getting a gas connection, buying a car, getting the car registered, getting a driving licence, driving a car, getting admission to a hospital – any hospital, getting treatment, getting a gas connection, getting the gas cylinder, there is corruption even in things as minor as buying onions (when they suddenly disappear from the market like horns from the head of a donkey – gadhe ke sir se singh) - as I said – from birth till death we are in the throes of corruption.
The nation has found a mascot in Anna Hazare and through him and the media, which is, as usual, jumping on the bandwagon when the going is good and there is no other better news like the marriage of a politician’s son or daughter, has added the word ‘corruption’ to its vocabulary. It is good that Anna organized his fast so that there was no cricket match slated for the week. But is corruption confined only to the Lokpal Bill, the 2G, the CWG and many other G’s?
I will put forward very simple examples from almost everyday life:
A parent gives in to pressure from his son and his son’s mom and gets him a licence to drive when he is only 15 or 16 years old – who is the greater culprit – the clerk or the father?
The biggest dealer of Samsung does not send the company engineers to install an AC but a local mechanic in a fake dress. The regional sales head, the service head and the head of the head – do not respond to any complaint about the dealer but try to cover it up. Who are corrupt – the dealer or the executives?
The service centre of IFB BOSCH demands Rs 1000/- for ‘installing’ a washing machine. The region service chief says, ‘Chalo 400 de do’. Then stops responding to the phone. The senior executives feign no control over the situation. Who are corrupt?
There is a great ad blitz about ‘SURAKSHA’ LPG hose which should last 5 years buck cracks in only 2. The area manager, the state LPG chief, the chief of corporate communications – can you imagine that these senior officers of such a big PSU do not open their email inboxes – how can I say this? – because there is no response to emails sent on their official email ids!! Who is corrupt?
Last year I was writing an article on the Gurgaon Expressway and rang up DSC, the concessionaire actually raking in the moolah and doing zilch in return, for some comments on the facilities which should have been available. Instead of replying to my queries Mandeepa, their corporate communications head told me that they talked to only one correspondent. The same correspondent, a defacto ‘bureau chief’, then rang me to threaten me not to publish the article. The article got published and Mandeepa and the same correspondent then lost favour with DSC (If you cannot prevent an article, what use are you?). The same correspondent is now the most vociferous in condemning DSC. Who out of these are corrupt?
Day before yesterday, a patient told me how he paid lacs to get the NOC from HUDA and the Fire Brigade for two guest houses in Islampur Village, now with a big name hospital. The NOC’s were cancelled and the demolition squad arrived at the guest houses at the crack of dawn. He asked the senior police official accompanying the squad (in his own words), ‘Mooh khol’ – ’15 laakh’ – ‘abhi le’ –The demolition was stopped for two hours, enough for him to get a stay order from the court. In this whole sequence, who is corrupt?
A large population of Gurgaon gathered at Galleria to lend their support to Anna in his fight against corruption. But just next to the venue a traffic cop was taking a single note which has the photo of the father of the nation for letting off a child for driving a scooter and that too without helmet! Who is corrupt?
Anna and his army of Lokpals cannot rid the country of this corruption. Will a change in the government suddenly create a conscience in all these persons? As I said before – corruption is in our blood. And, talking of blood – I have an interesting anecdote – we have a lot of blood banks in the capital, many of them ‘charitable’, who organize blood donation camps and collect ‘human’ blood. I have seen patients requiring one of blood being asked by their doctors to get two units. The relatives of these patients then contact the driver of the ambulance who, for a sum, gets them four units from these blood banks! And if only one unit is used, the rest are poured down the drain! Who out of them is corrupt?
Last year I was donating platelets for a friend’s son in a LARGE hospital in Gurgaon where they charge a large sum to harvest the platelets. When I asked them to explain why such a large sum is being charged he told me, ‘Mushkil se is saal season laga hai, aur aap tang kar rahe ho’. As I said, corruption is in our blood.
We do not need Anna to remove this corruption. We only need to say one word – ‘NO’, and we need to say it to ourselves!
(c) Dr Rajiv Bhatia
I was surprised when not one but 2 members from judicial community. I am volenteer and around 8 years back, I had written "Every Indian Judge, sitting or alive" is corrupt and I will continue to go by my stand. "The Indian system is very strong enough to support & protect corruption in India" so no Judicial Law can protect corruption from India. If you want to understand the basics of system, please read "Arthshastra" & the Asian Drama. Indian judiciary system & constitution, does not focus on stopping corruption or promoting honesty & civilized society. Rest is understood, it failed to prosecute guilty. So we don't need at this point of time to punish the wrong doers, but a system strong enough not to make people wrong, and for this association with judiciary is required even from the remotest place. First Define Corruption : Very simply it can be defined as : (definition i had drafted some 8 years back) "An act, inact or misact of individual and / or group, which may lead to loss / not gain of revenue to the state" The objective should be focus on "REVENUE" to the state. And any loss should be recovered with not less than the net loss to the state. These two statement are sufficient to close the bill. Rules & procedure are the descriptive things and should not be added to law to reduce the basic assence of the Law.
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