Polite Indian

Saw this in the Hindustan Times epaper.

This is some good news.

The latest report by Transparency International (TI), the Berlin-based anti-corruption watchdog, has a surprise. India ranks No. 70 on its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) out of 163 nations. It is a distinct improvement over last year, when India stood at No 88. For the first time, India has reversed its downward slide on the CPI, and a reason for this is probably the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

If not for RTI we might have still ranked the same

Vice-Admiral (retd) RH Tahiliani, president of TI-India, said the marginal improvement was welcome but there was a long road ahead. “Indians give Rs 21,000 crore every year as bribes,” he said.

He credited the RTI Act with bringing in more transparency in the government. “That was objective of the Act,” said OP Kejriwal, information commissioner in the Central Information Commission.

According to the CPI, India has the lowest perceived level of corruption among South Asian nations. Bangladesh, ranked 156, is the most corrupt, followed by Pakistan at 142 and Sri Lanka at 84.

21,000 crore of bribe is a huge amount.  Knowing this would your answer to this question be any different?

I wonder is RTI the only reason or there are other reasons? Have we suddenly achieved higher morals? Is the new generation different than the old? Are they willing to fight longer?

Whatever the reason is, it is good to see this improvement.

I believe most of us have faced this dilemma at some point or the other. People bribe for petty things in India e.g. gas connection, phone connection, phone line repair, passport, income tax clearance, traffic violation and loads of other things. Sometimes one has to bribe just to get an appointment with a senior official. The question is should we be doing this? The ideal answer is no but as most people will tell you that it is ok to bribe as it saves lot of time and energy. Some would even defend the right to take bribe citing low salaries and benefits as an excuse.

I tried looking around to see how most people handled it when faced with a situation. It seems many people in different countries have faced this situation. Here is story of someone who got stopped in Mexico for traffic violations

This particular transito seemed miffed as well that I didn´t offer him money at first. I didn´t want to contribute to the cycle of corruption. But I also didn´t want to suffer personal expenses to be a martyr for a cause. I was trying to be realistic. After my third encounter with a transito, I´m actually starting to believe that bribing a transito, even a particularly repugnant one, may be the lesser of all evils.

while dealing with the transito she found out how much the transito made as salary and that got her thinking

But this line got me thinking - Who is really at fault here? These guys depend on bribes as a way of living. Really, the situation of a transito in Mexico is similar to that of a waitress in the States. Both earn next to nothing and live off tips or bribes.

And she decided to continue paying bribe

I have finally come to the conclusion, whether it be right or wrong, that I will continue to bribe Transitos if need be until I can sell my car and buy a Mexican one. That way, I will be able to let them ticket me without them confiscating any of my documents.

A similar incident where the payment of the bribe was refused, Keith had to suffer quite a bit

Well, I didn’t pay the bribe.

As a result, I lost the bike, missed a key appointment in the afternoon, and finished the day with very sore feet and a sunburned face. The bike had to be collected and the fine paid the next day.

There are other examples as well like one here and here.

Now everybody doesn’t have the courage or the time that Keith had and as was the case Amy she decided to bribe because the risk of losing the documents was even higher.

So the question is whether is it ever OK to bribe? The immediate answer would be no. Some people might say “perhaps”. I personally think given the circumstances sometimes you are left with no choice. An example is of an NRI who goes back to India for a short trip and loses his passport. The only possible way perhaps for him is to have a high connection and pay a hefty bribe to be able to get the passport back in time.

Is low salary good enough a reason to ask for a bribe? The answer again is no. But one might also argue that given the salaries of some it is difficult to survive in a city like say Delhi or Mumbai.

My personal encounter with bribery has come on many occassions but one specific one that comes to mind is the time when I needed income tax clearance before leaving for USA. The file wouldn’t move until I paid. Since time was short I somehow found a friend who knew the Income Tax collector and through him I got my income tax clearance certificate. Not only I did not have to pay the monetary bribe (I used the connection bribe), the official didn’t take even the official fee required to issue the certificate.

Finally I feel that most people will say that it in theory they will not bribe but in practice it is OK to bribe…

For those who have some time at their hands can use RTI to fight small cases of corruption and escape paying bribes.