Dear Anna,
I am a teacher, a profession I had dreamt of pursuing, and I am presently staying in this beautiful city of Bhopal. The other day, all of a sudden, I planned to visit my uncle in Nagpur. As you know, getting a train ticket nowadays requires more planning than any Indian marriage! My only option therefore was to try my luck at getting a tatkal (emergency) ticket. A travel agent at a nearby shopping mall does this job for a few extra hundred. He knows 'those people'! But, thanks to your effort in this regard, things are not the same as before! I vowed to fight it out as much as I can. It might be that I won't be able to walk until the last mile, but I had decided that I will walk long. You inspired me!
So, my own journey began with getting up at 6.30 in the morning and arriving at the Bhopal railway station on my newly bought moped! There was already a long confused queue to get a token. A young chap in front of me explained the procedures. Soon we realized that the token machine was not working, and after some 'Halla-bol' the railway officials decided to write the token numbers on the applications forms. Needless to say, the queue was filled with touts who repeatedly mentioned why it was impossible to get tatkal tickets without paying money to them! Ignoring them I stuck to my gun, along with the young chap. Even when we were told that every person would get only one token number, the touts in front of us got many forms marked. Honestly, I did not bother! I just wanted my ticket so that I could visit my uncle. Finally I got my number - 227, but without any idea what it meant! I reminded myself 'First thing first', and waited patiently for my number to appear in the electronic display board. "Yes!" It was counter number 12 and hurriedly ran to the counter. I fumbled with the form and the lady at the counter was rude. Then she said, "Seven twenty six". I wondered and asked, "Do I have a ticket?" She casually replied, "Only if you pay the money before it is gone!" I screamed with overwhelming joy, and immediately embarrassed myself in front of all the people.
Honestly, paying those extra few hundred rupees to my travel agent to get a tatkal ticket could have been much easier, but as I said, things were not the same! Thanks to you again! But, why am I telling you this?
No, I am not writing to tell you this familiar story, but to tell you why this story is not workable! In recent times, you and your associates had brought the issue of corruption in the forefront, and argued strongly why an institution like Lokpal may help in curbing it. In my judgement, it will not! Your proposed Lokpal does not look at 'why' and 'how' corruption happens. Instead, it focuses only on 'who', as it tries to find and punish corrupt individuals or groups. I believe, given a chance, people are easily corruptible. It can be argued that on moral values we should not take or give bribes! I am sorry to say that some of the bad human qualities are in every human being's genes, and many of our moral uplifts are against those genes! But, we cannot let our country lose crores of rupees on the moral values of a minister, a bureaucrat, a clerk in the municipal office, or a common citizen like me. Policing, and subsequently punishing people also cannot fix the issue. If someone is honest, well and good, but if not, the system must be such that the chances of being corrupt and making others corrupt get reduced to a satisfactory level. Today, I amy be ready to walk a few extra miles to buy my tatkal ticket, but tomorrow I may not be! Should I then be allowed to bribe? In many western countries, corruption in day-to-day life is mostly absent. They do not pay a bribe to get a driving license; neither do they pay a bribe to the police officials for address verifications. Do we have to believe that people in those countries are morally much superior to those in India? Therefore, the solutions lie in finding systematic changes where people do not get chances of being corrupt or making others corrupt. We must dive into the core of the issue!
What do I mean by systematic changes? When I was discussing this issue with my wife one Sturday morning, she mentioned casually, "We need to book the cooking gas!" It took me few sec to do it over the mobile phone, while continuing the discussion. Now, take flash back to 10 years. First of all, getting a gas connection then was like winning a lottery. Secondly, we had to go to an office to book a gas and there was a good chance that the clerk would ask for Rs 10 to book it. Even today, the story is similar for most of the Government offices where there are 'human links', in this case, the clerk and any citizen, to get a public work done. Now, I do not pay that very important Rs 10 to book my gas, as the clerk no longer exists. The work now is being done by a machine, and thankfully that is not corruptible. Wherever a citizen need to encounter any official for public works, each step must be electronically registered with date and time! Your Citizen's Charter had made some wonderful suggestions along this line.
Now, take the example of tatkal tickets that I started with! Why is there so much corruption associated with these tickets? It is simply because the tickets are scarce! In anything is scare, everyone wants to have it, and even at the cost of corruptions. Whenever there is clear mismatch between demand and supply, certain individuals in the society take advantage of it. Have we heard of corruption in airlines tickets sales? We pay more to some private companies, but government also gets tax proportionally. In a similar fashion, if we reform the railway services so that tickets are no longer coveted, those touts will no longer exist! We cannot get rid of corruption by stationing the police officials during tatkal ticket selling, but by removing the possibility of tatkal ticket itself. Take another example of public food distributions systems (rationing) in India. A large amount of invested resources get channeled to the people who do not deserve it. The solution lies in looking into the issue of how it happens. Possibly, giving money directly to the underprivileged people, who can buy food grains from the open market, is a better options. On the other hand, large-scale corruption can also be easily handled with minute changes in the already existing systems, for example making the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) a constitutional authority as like the Election Commission or Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). We now understand how these last two pillars of Indian democracy are contributing to our nation building.
BY the way, am I undermining moral values like honesty? Sincerely not! Honesty is one of the greatest human values, and we must strive for it. This is our core! Any systematic policy change that I was talking about has to come from some individual's absolute integrity and honesty. But, we cannot leave things on people's moral status; neither should we focus our solutions of corruption in punishing. Finally, take the example of students copying answers during the examination. I recently faced this issue at my institution. We may claim that the students should be ethical and they should not copy. I agree, and we must teach them about the scholarly ethics! But a simple solution, as one of my colleague suggested, is to to keep the sitting arrangements during the examinations such that the students cannot copy, even if they want to! I hope you ponder over my thoughts!
What do I mean by systematic changes? When I was discussing this issue with my wife one Sturday morning, she mentioned casually, "We need to book the cooking gas!" It took me few sec to do it over the mobile phone, while continuing the discussion. Now, take flash back to 10 years. First of all, getting a gas connection then was like winning a lottery. Secondly, we had to go to an office to book a gas and there was a good chance that the clerk would ask for Rs 10 to book it. Even today, the story is similar for most of the Government offices where there are 'human links', in this case, the clerk and any citizen, to get a public work done. Now, I do not pay that very important Rs 10 to book my gas, as the clerk no longer exists. The work now is being done by a machine, and thankfully that is not corruptible. Wherever a citizen need to encounter any official for public works, each step must be electronically registered with date and time! Your Citizen's Charter had made some wonderful suggestions along this line.
Now, take the example of tatkal tickets that I started with! Why is there so much corruption associated with these tickets? It is simply because the tickets are scarce! In anything is scare, everyone wants to have it, and even at the cost of corruptions. Whenever there is clear mismatch between demand and supply, certain individuals in the society take advantage of it. Have we heard of corruption in airlines tickets sales? We pay more to some private companies, but government also gets tax proportionally. In a similar fashion, if we reform the railway services so that tickets are no longer coveted, those touts will no longer exist! We cannot get rid of corruption by stationing the police officials during tatkal ticket selling, but by removing the possibility of tatkal ticket itself. Take another example of public food distributions systems (rationing) in India. A large amount of invested resources get channeled to the people who do not deserve it. The solution lies in looking into the issue of how it happens. Possibly, giving money directly to the underprivileged people, who can buy food grains from the open market, is a better options. On the other hand, large-scale corruption can also be easily handled with minute changes in the already existing systems, for example making the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) a constitutional authority as like the Election Commission or Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). We now understand how these last two pillars of Indian democracy are contributing to our nation building.
BY the way, am I undermining moral values like honesty? Sincerely not! Honesty is one of the greatest human values, and we must strive for it. This is our core! Any systematic policy change that I was talking about has to come from some individual's absolute integrity and honesty. But, we cannot leave things on people's moral status; neither should we focus our solutions of corruption in punishing. Finally, take the example of students copying answers during the examination. I recently faced this issue at my institution. We may claim that the students should be ethical and they should not copy. I agree, and we must teach them about the scholarly ethics! But a simple solution, as one of my colleague suggested, is to to keep the sitting arrangements during the examinations such that the students cannot copy, even if they want to! I hope you ponder over my thoughts!
I will look forward for your reply. I wish your good health and hope to meet you one day!
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