Bribery and Bureaucracy

8 trips to the local Police Station, 5 trips to the Police Commissioner’s Office and 4 trips to the State Government office – all this to get my finger prints certified by the State Home Department in Karnataka.

Sitting at the Police Commissioner’s office can have strange side effects. To kill boredom I carried a novel with me everywhere I went. The book is titled ‘Business @ the speed of thought’. Business happens at the speed of bullock carts in our government offices. In this book, Bill Gates talks about a digital nervous system, a paperless office, automation etc. In every government office, I only saw mountains of paper, archaic systems, sulky faces, etc. So each time I read about process efficiency, I saw equal and opposite process inefficiency. I soon discovered that increased blood pressure and reading has a strange co-incidence, when books are read anachronistically out of context.

There were plenty of long-faced foreigners waiting for their mandatory police verification seal at the police commissioner’s office. A few rich ones bring translators or agents with them. They cling to them for dear life, like children cling to their mother’s sarees. Soon, the grumpy man at the counter calls out sternly for them, addressing them by the name of their country. This reminded me of my school days; when I would be embarrassed as hell that my roll call number was 1 and people found it easier to address me as Number 1, forgetting that I ever had a name.

Moving a paper from one desk to another used to be the major achievement for the day. Each time I went to collect something; I would inhale deeply, count from 10 to 1 and each time I exhale remind myself that patience is a virtue. In an age where even marriages are happening over the internet, there are no traces of emails. Every system and procedure is so long drawn; that it shortens your lifespan. We call ourselves an IT city, but whose duty is it to allow the beauty of IT to touch our lives?

One incident took the cake. After the average waiting period of 3 hours had passed, we got the summons. The officer simply said ‘Follow me’ in James Bond style. By now, some 5 people waiting for the same man, had befriended each other out of a common sympathy. All of us followed him like the woeful rats that followed the Pied Piper of Hamelin. We were furious rats, fuming rats and perplexed rats - allured by the hope of getting our respective papers. Finally about half a mile from the Commissioner’s Office we were handed over our papers. It felt like a priest handing over the prasaad (holy offering) after elaborate prayers after snaking our way through long queues at the Tirupati temple. Till today, I don’t understand the motive behind this bizarre behaviour. If the man expected his hands to be greased, why did he thrust the papers in our hand and run? You are better off though leaving your common sense and sensitivities at home.

I often hear horror stories of how, ‘chai pani’ (tea & water) has to be offered at each level to get work done. As much as we tried not to bribe anybody, there are times when you just cannot help it. It is either – bribe or forget about your papers till time immemorial. Innovation is seeping into our police stations as well. One police constable asked for ‘Stationery’. I had half a mind to give him a carton full of used pens and one side used paper. I realized only later that it was an innovative way of asking for a bribe.

Bureaucracy and Bribery are latching on to our country like leeches and sucking the blood out of every individual.

Starting out as a Socialist State, the Indian government initiated plenty of policies and procedures with the noble intention of ensuring equitable distribution of wealth and plugging the loopholes so that people could take not take advantage of it. But we have still not come out of these pre-historic procedures and the fossil like officials refuse to come out of their caves to see how the world outside has evolved. Bureaucracy is one of the major reasons why foreign firms shy away from investing in India. It takes 31 days to set up a business in India, and ranked 122nd in the world Doing Business Report 2009.

India is ranked as the 75th (out of 179) most corrupt nation in the world today. The amount of bribes every year at different echelons of the government is said to be a whopping INR 21,000 crores. This could be our annual education budget! The root cause of corruption is - Too many people chasing too few goods. The GDP pie is too small for a billion people. Unless this pie grows significantly a lot of fingers will try to dip into it. Corruption is said to have begun during the License Raj period. With too many regulations and processes in place, a parallel economy of black money developed. Ever since then it has got itself ingrained in our economy.

Corruption is in the roots and fruits of our country. Weeding it out, will be a long and weary war. Nevertheless, if we desire to propel India into peace and prosperity, we have to fight it out.

What can you and I do?

- Avoid bribing government officials as much as you can. Giving bribe is as bad as receiving it.

- Be patient with government officers, they are humans too.

- Invoke the Right to Information Act (http://righttoinformation.gov.in/), if you need more information. As citizens, we have a right to know how our tax money is being spent.
- Escalate matters to higher authorities when necessary.

Any more suggestions?