Need Versus Justification January 27, 2006

There was a time when corruption was spoken of only in hushed tones. These days, there is a certain bravery associated with the ability to be corrupt. However, there are people, organisations and institutions in India who have become both successful and impactful without compromising their values. It is quite another thing that they have to speak up to get noticed and are overshadowed by those who push the envelope of professional integrity every day. The tentacles reach out to every part of life and living in a country of a billion people.The most heart wrenching sight of corruption I have been witness to was on the platform of the railway station at Howrah in 1987. It involved a Railway Protection Force guard and a young girl. The girl was probably 16 or 17. Everything about her was normal except that she had contracted leprosy and when you looked at her closely, you could see the disease eating away her fingers. Her body was a sad combination of her blossoming youth and a disease that had decided to live on it. Quite obviously, she made her living by begging on the railway platform. The well-fed railway guard was extorting money from her, just as he did from any other unlicensed porter or a vendor selling sundry merchandise on the platform. Such a tragic sight brings one face to face with the ugliness of a nation in the most graphic manner possible. A question emerges from it: Is there a need for someone to be corrupt, or are there only justifications? As a citizen of this country, I am yet to see any one individual who absolutely had to be corrupt in order to stay alive, to exist. The man or woman who has nothing, and that broadly describes more than half a billion people, is not corrupt. When you have nothing and have to toil for a day’s living, usually you feel no need to fleece others. So, who among us is the one given to corruption? It is someone who really does not need the extra money. Yet, as you probe further, you find that just as the need factor becomes non-existent, it is the justifications that pervades.Everyone does it, so why shouldn’t I? My bosses want it from me. Without being a part of the system, I would lose my job. My child’s education depends on it. My wife asks me for things I cannot afford on my salary. I have to do it to build a house, provide for my children’s future. And of course, “How can I be in business without cutting corners?” The list is endless. Yet, they remain justifications. None of them is really a need.Recently, two young engineers met me. They have bucked the trend and not sought jobs for themselves; instead, they have started their own enterprise. Today they employ more than 40 people and have met with admirable early success. In the course of our conversation, I asked them what would they do if someone asked them for a bribe in exchange of a business deal. The two were flustered for a while and remained silent. After a while, one of them mustered courage, cleared his throat and said with youthful bravery, “If business requires it, so be it. We will do what it takes”. It was my turn to fall into silence. What portent of the nation’s future is contained in his innocent statement? His affirmation will one day deepen the reach of a poison further down into the veins of a nation that was born as a protest against injustice.In the course of our day-to-day business, there are different kinds of people we interact with. One kind is professional, hardcore and unrelentingly corrupt. This kind, both big time and small, does not care whether you are a leper or a destitute. Then there is the much larger group that treads a softer path. It consists of people who take a bribe if you are happy and willing to offer one. They are selective in whom they seek favours from. They are not hardcore and may not create permanent roadblocks if you resist their overtures. In dealing with them, it is for you and me to make up our minds on what is our personal ethic or standard. These are people who are looking for an accomplice not a victim. Finally, there is also the kind of people in business, in government, and even in politics that is on the right side of things and is not corruptible.India continues to exist thanks to their personal conviction that, irrespective of the justification, at the end of the day, there is really no need to be corrupt. Source : http://digvijayankoti.blogspot.in/2009/04/subroto-bagchi-speaks-all-articles-by.html