Sunday, December 11, 2011

Corruption - Acceptance in Real Life 2

A friend of mine was working in a MNC. I asked him once as to who were his customers. He categorically said that he never sells products to government departments because getting payments invariably involves under the table payments. After a year or so he set up his own unit producing same items under his own brand name. When I put the same question to him, this time his reply was rather shocking. For now he would sell only to government because the payments were totally assured once the requisite bribe was paid, irrespective of the quality and cost of the product. Such change of business ethics can only happen in India.

Corruption - Acceptance in Real Life 1

When I bought my first car, a second hand Fiat I went to the concerned authority for its registration in my name. I was shocked when the clerk told me that all the papers were in order but I will have to pay Rs 300 as bribe for getting the job done. I was shocked because I never subscribed to the idea of a bribe. I took up the matter with higher authority but to my dismay I was sent back to the same clerk. Like a true warrior I approached a Judge of High Court who was a friend of mine and was overseeing the judiciary in that very district. Instantaneously he told me that touts around these offices get the job done for a measly sum of Rs 300 or so. Why bother a man of his status for such a trivial job.When I insisted that I will not pay any money for a perfectly legal job, he instructed the Chief Judicial Magistrate to look into the matter. With this intervention I was told that the change in the name of owner of the car has been reflected in the file but the old Registration Certificate submitted by me along with the application has been lost. I had to get a fresh duplicate Registration Certificate made through a tedious procedure of registering the case of theft with the police, getting no dues certificate regarding road tax payments and once it was done it took the official just five minutes to change the ownership of the car to my name. Agony of nine long months and harassment on innumerable visits to the concerned office and various other offices which were put into this loop for not coughing up Rs 300 is perhaps a little too much for not accepting the reality of life in India.