Who is not corrupt?

Before explaining my views , I will answer “Who is not corrupt” in a clearly and categorically manner. (a) Those who didn’t get a chance (b) Those who are too smart, powerful and efficient in covering up (c) A very small percentage of people who really are incorruptible.

Each day dawns with light being shed on a new corruption case and common people express their anger by protesting and media makes stories to cover both sides.

The past few days belong to the Commonwealth Working Group CWG officials who have been caught with their pants down. CWG officials face major allegations of bloating up the bills of expenses for Commonwealth games , which has left the the common man wondering how can they do that; some are jealous, some are sad and frustrated and some are writing and reading stories. CWG officials have bought rain proof umbrella (have you heard of this before?) for INR 6500 and I don’t know whether umbrella company will provide Kamla along with umbrella or the user will still have to sing the song meri chatri ke neecha aaja kion Kamla bheege khadi khadi. Air conditioners have been rented on 0.4 million INR and reason being so expensive is that they have rented it and haven’t bought it. First time in my life I have heard that renting is costlier than buying; I must explore that option before renting anything in future. They have also rented treadmills for 0.9 million INR. Apart from all these goods, the funniest rented stuff is toilet paper; you see the evolution of ideas even toilet paper can be rented. Also check out the taxi rates for the Official taxis. The merc benz would cost 250 pounds per day in UK as against these new taxis which will rung in Delhi during the games costing 400+ pounds.

I am wondering why is there so much anger about these allegations in the mind of common public? Let’s assume that all these allegations are proved as a corruption case then who are these people who are showing their anger against CWG officials for being corrupt? Aren’t we,also corrupt within our own limitations? Or does everyone fit the bill as incorruptible. Let me take you through some common instances.

Fake billing is very common corruption for traveling employee and I remind you that, they consider this money as part of their salary. Before joining the job they estimate how much they are going to make through fake bills and what basic salary is being offered; compare with current gross salary (including corruption money) and then decide. A small sales person goes to a city and stays at station or any friend’s house and then claims 100 RS from company. They travel by bus and try to reimburse taxi fare. They eat 20 INR meal and provide bill of 100 INR. These are few very common cases. Now, if you consider an example of a renowned company’s sales person then increase the above mentioned corruptions with their salary ratio. Traveling by 2^nd class train ticket and asking for AC 3 tier fare is common. Now, what you have to do is to increase their power and chance and you will see that the corruption is also increasing in the same fold as their power/salary ratio increases. On a related note, you can get medical bills from medical shops across Bangalore for a certain “fee”. You can use this to encash your Medical allowance for that month instead of waiting for it to be deposited in your salary account by your employer the end of the year. SO we have a well established machinery in place for generating bills.

I will give you very common kinds of second example, which is fake salary slip. Faking salary itself may not be a big problem in this context, but the problem is forged documents to show high salary from previous company’s letter head which may have been stolen or designed. So why cry if other are providing false document. A little bit of jealousy does no harm, after all it’s a competitive world we live in. But onse should not indulge in character assassination of the bigger fish only. First look into your own sleeve and see how much dirt you have and try to wash it off.

In the era of credit card any one can get credit provided that you have good character record before you do illegal not-paying shopping. Students from India come to UK and stay here for one year and within this period they open new bank account and withdraw, deposit, transfer money and also do online shopping to build their credit. Now what they do before leaving? They loot online shops and to those companies who offer monthly credit shopping. They buy several recent technology phones, nice shoes, shirts and many more expensive items and then they leave without paying. Trust me this is real; you can also try, because people here say that it’s not that difficult, you don’t have to be too smart, just be desi.

Since I have raised the question of chances so I can’t end writing without citing Reliance mobile phone and their kar lo dunia mutthi me slogan. I don’t know whether Indians in general captured dunia in their mutthi or not but middle class Indian certainly did reliance mobile in their mutthi, and among them large section did not even cared to pay their monthly bills. I know some who crossed 50K INR and then threw mobile phone; why? Because after a long they got a chance to do some sort of corruption, thanks to Ambani brothers for letting us taste this, and they considered that as their right, so is CWG officials are doing. They also don’t get games every year. These officials waited for so long and invested their time and energy for this chance to come to India so they are utilizing it.

I do believe that a liar does have a right to say liar to a liar but it would be nice if we correct ourselves before or after at least blaming others.

I would like to end up criticizing out society by saying that corruption does not necessarily depend on how corrupt a person could become but also how strong their digestive system is. Strongest persons like Madhu Koda, Suresh Kalmadi, Lalit Modi and Lalu Yadav can digest billion, students can digest iphone and traveling employee could digest fare costs and restaurants bills. People like me and you can read write and watch because we are very few and nobody cares.