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Corruption — silence of the many
M.G. Devasahayam
The Supreme Court verdict upholding reservation of a few hundreds seats for ‘Other Backward Classes’ in the elite institutions of IIT, IIM and AIIMS is being celebrated as a victory for ‘social justice’ by politicians and legislators. But no one has ever heard these gentlemen saying anything about the harshest ‘socio-economic injustice’ being perpetrated every day by government minions on millions of citizens belonging to the Most Backward Classes!
This is the ever-expanding ‘extortive corruption’ against which six NGOs in Tamil Nadu have decided to launch a coalition. It is a bitter truth that at every turn ordinary citizens trying to access public services are facing extortive micro-level corruption. The poor and the gentle are the worst affected.
Recently I came across two such cases — an old and withered gardener without issue who has been running from pillar to post and has already spent a princely sum of Rs. 2,000 just to get his application for old age pension entertained. He has not succeeded so far. I have put him on to some VIP and the old man is hoping for the best!
The other is a gentleman journalist (nearing 70) who had to spend the whole day under the hot sun in the RTO office, Tiruvanmiyur (Chennai), just to get his driving licence renewed. By late afternoon, hungry and haggard and faced with the unpleasant prospect of reliving the torture the next day, he called on the services of the ubiquitous tout. Lo and behold, the renewed licence was in his hands in a matter of minutes!
Micro-level ‘extortive corruption’ is like the dreaded AIDS which sucks up and destroys the vitals of a human being and the basic value system on which a society is founded and has no cure. But champions of ‘social justice’ are deafeningly silent on this cruellest form of social and economic injustice that targets the poor and the meek.
Empty jargon
Macro-level ‘sponsored corruption’ is in another league altogether. All these shadow boxing against corruption and empty jargon like ‘zero tolerance’ not withstanding, the fact is that this ‘low risk, high profit business’ is increasingly becoming modernised and sophisticated. It is this ‘sponsored corruption’ that is transforming States into ‘real estates’ handing over hundreds and thousands of acres of land for all kinds of fancy and money-minting projects. To achieve this, vested interest lobbies are willing to pay crores of rupees to position their favourite officials at vantage positions!
Another mushrooming area of ‘sponsored corruption’ is in recruitments, appointments, postings, promotion and transfers. There are lobbyists galore who are willing to pay any price (now running into lakhs of rupees) to purchase government jobs and have their men in the positions they want. Earlier, this was confined to police stations and taluks. Now it has spread everywhere. The Sixth Pay Commission recommendations have come as a bonanza for these worthies because they can substantially jack up their prices and rates corresponding to the high pay packets that are on the way!
The most tragic is that many of the educational institutions, particularly engineering and technical, have become seats of ‘sponsored corruption.’ Posts of Principals and Vice Chancellors are being sponsored and purchased by those who can pay the highest price. So are the positions of teaching staff. The higher the salary scales recommended by the UGC or the Pay Commissions, the higher the rates. The normal practice seems to be for the aspiring candidate to work for the first two years at ‘no-pay’ or make a down payment of an amount equivalent to two years’ salary!
‘Financial terrorism’
Spearheading a massive movement against corruption in the 70s, Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan had said: “As I diagnose the root cause of the country’s critical state of health, I identify it unhesitatingly as corruption and precipitous fall in the moral standards of our politics and public life.” More recently N.Vittal, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner, described corruption as ‘financial terrorism’ indulged in by brutal people.
In this context I cannot do better than quote Martin Luther King: “The ultimate tragedy of mankind is not the brutality of the few, but the silence of the many”
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