Choose between removing corruption or bringing self respect?

Veeresh Malik
27 November 2012, 03:57 PM IST

A few evenings ago I met up with a friend, after years, now fairly senior in the civil services. Alumni of one of the best engineering colleges in India, he was amongst those who consciously opted out of heading out of India in the late '70s, choosing instead to stay and work within. So, in the course of the evening, I asked him a direct question - would he, given the chance, join the civil services again?

This, by the way, is a question I have asked more than a few people from the civil services and barring one person, the answer has been the same in all cases. A very blunt and direct "no".

Obviousy, this was followed by a discussion on the main reasons why not, and here's the gist.

Was the main reason corruption? Not really. Corruption in a variety of ways is a simple fact of life, as inevitable as nature, and we as humans can only attempt to shake and stir it somewhat. Yes, the big corruption in India is now mind-boggling, of a scale unseen ever before especially in a democratic set-up.

The personal approach to corruption is, exactly, very personal. You try to lead by example, you hope that some people, especially your children, will follow you, and where it is inevitable, you have a choice of keeping your eyes shut or moving out of the way. In extreme cases, especially if you have secured your pension and benefits and are capable of striking out in the private sector, resign.

Somebody gives you, say, a tray full of dry fruit, sweets, suit-pieces, electronic items and maybe even some cash. Some would return all of it but not make a complaint, others would keep all of it, and some would keep a token box of sweets and refuse the rest.

What do you do about larger corruption, at the policy level especially, is increasingly out of the civil servant's hands I was told. So whose hands is it in? Consultants and lobbyists of all sorts, with their one-line invoices to their masters, and their power structures which tolerate no opposition. Get out of the firing line, is the only option.

So who is corrupt, who is not, is it really all that black and white? Is accepting an out-of-turn reservation for a railway berth or hospital bed corruption, and if not, why not?

That's also because the supply side of corruption, as practised by some of the so-called most transparent and clean countries and corporates and people, is even more difficult to defeat or even define than the demand side of corruption often seen in so-called least transparent and corrupt countries and corporates and people.

I mean, is hard-selling soft-drinks and junk food corruption or not? Is passing off coloured bars of refined oils as chocolates corruption? Is motivating people to get into debt for generations in the name of liberalisation and reforms corruption?

This has been there since time immemorial, there are many schools of thought on the possible benefits of the trickle down effects of living with corruption, and even a country like China could not stop itself from getting corrupted by opium, though they were able to keep the colonials out. And who supplied the opium but could not keep the colonials out?

The bigger issue, according to some of them, is the degradation and denial of basic self-respect to an increasingly larger number of people in India. That's also a fact, though agreeing with it too loudly could have you and me branded as "Maoists".

So for this, point of view of a rickshaw-wallah, in this case a young man with a post-graduation qualification, again from amongst the best colleges in India - and his friends.

The older rickshaw wallahs have this to say - we have always lived with corruption. But till a few years ago, maybe a decade or more, let us say, if we had a real problem and went to the police for example, then even the harshest of policemen or most corrupt of local elected representatives or crooked of babus, they listened to us. And if required, intervened on our behalf, if the assault on our dignity went past a point.

Something has to be left on the table for everybody, right?

All said and done, we got water to drink without paying for it, public shelters were not torn down in the middle of winter, and there were somehow more public toilets or other places for a free relief, if we looked around for them. Now, we have to pay for water and sometimes get kicked in the middle of a shit because somebody wants to make us pay, even if we are doing it in a sewer or nullah.

That was about the most all-encompassing definition of a corrupt society attacking the basic self-respect and dignity of a citizen of a free country. Taking away his rights to free drinking water and having a dump in peace.

I think most of us can not relate to this. But try it. Try to survive a day in Delhi, for example, without buying water or running in somewhere nice or which charges money to take a dump or a pee, and tell me and yourself:- what comes first, stopping the destruction of self-respect or stopping corruption?