There’s probably nothing more exciting than being offered a bribe to make one feel like a government servant. Not that I look forward to it but I too need to be reminded now and then that I work for the government. There’s something about this whole business of bribes that it is connected only with government people. It is as if that if one is working for the government there, inevitably, has to be a bribe somewhere whether one takes it or not.
It had been a long time since anyone’s offered me a bribe. Not that it is anything unusual for me. Less than a year ago, when I was posted at the Head Office in Hyderabad, not a day would pass without at least two offers of a bribe. I was in a lucrative post which meant an extra income for those who look for such things. I was dealing with files relating to issue and renewals for manufacture of insecticides. One would be amazed to know how many people assume that just because someone is in an important post he/she needs to be bribed unasked to get their work done. So it took a lot of my time convincing people that I wasn’t the sort to accept bribes.
Most of the time it is the general public who attempted to offer me bribes but a couple of weeks ago it was a fellow officer who made the offer. In the present post I had assumed that there wouldn’t be much corruption but I was mistaken. There's no department in the government where there is no corruption. Corrupt people wherever they are look for ways to make money. There’s a lot here but not as much as in the field posts. To my surprise, I was sent on an inspection tour to a far off area in the district. Normally, others would welcome such an assignment but I am wary of such inspections because I know what happens during such inspections. However I was taken by surprise by what happened on that day.
The local officer, a young person was someone I liked because he appeared very intelligent. Also he was very deferential. He was accompanying me on the inspections that involved going around villages and checking on dealers who sell seeds to farmers. I had spotted a truck laden with fertilizer bags while passing through a village. I told the local officer to check it out as a matter of routine since seeds, fertilizers and insecticides have to be sold only by licensed persons. I got busy with another inspection and did not notice that the officer was gone for a long time. He came back just as I finished my inspection and after he told me that nothing was unusual about the truck I did not think much about it.
We were on our way to another village when he got a call on his mobile. I got down from the bike to stretch. Just as I was getting on the bike he told me he had something to tell me and suddenly took out six five-hundred rupee notes from his shirt pocket. He told me that the person who got the truck had no licence and had given him the money to let him off. It was a major contravention to sell fertilizers without a licence. We should have seized the truck and the fertilizer bags I told him. He said that the bags were already unloaded and disposed off and the truck too had left the village. You take whatever you want sir, he told me holding out the stack of currency. He said that though he knew I wasn’t the type to take bribes he assured me no would know. I wanted to ask him why he offered me the money if he knew I wouldn’t take money. I felt betrayed and insulted. There are certain types of people who want to test first hand whether what they have heard about someone is true or not. I don't know whether he wanted to find out if I really was what I claimed to be. It wasn't the first time I was tested but I felt offended.
I told him he had made a big mistake in letting the truck go. He was the local officer and only he had the power and authority to take action. I could only guide him but he chose to go his own way. I remained silent after I told him I wouldn’t have anything to do with the money. All through the journey until that moment I was doing the talking telling him about my Shimla trip. For the rest of the journey he kept babbling nonsense probably to cover up his guilt. I added him to the list of my own colleagues who had tried to bribe me. Of course, he was not the first one and I also know, won’t be the last. As long as I am in the government I have to face such situations.
It might surprise the general public to learn that the corrupt government employees not only ask bribes from them they also ask for bribes and also offer bribes to their colleagues in the government. Though I have learnt to live with corruption in my seventeen years of service in the government what I cannot stomach is working along with the sort of people who think that taking bribes is their birthright. One would be amazed at the justification they give for taking bribes.
Corruption in the government staff is too large and important issue to be dealt in a post but I want to make a beginning somewhere. Sometime in the future I will begin with an article about corruption in a section of people no one expects to be corrupt.
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2 comments:
Good thought Vinod bhai. I can understand your plight. I feel too, that it is an insult to anyone's intelligence and integrity to be offered a bribe, much less ask for it. But we have people doing it and falling to abysmal depths of humiliating themselves.
I am sure there might be readers who feel that the corrupt chap should have been reported etc. Which is one of the common reactions we have of what "should have been done" and is easier said than done. I do like your forthright approach of bringing a small incident like this to notice and put forth your intent to do something about it.
Look forward to your articles on corruption. It is good to begin with one small step.
Hari, such incidents are so common that if I want to do something about it an entire lifetime wouldn't be enough. Maybe writing about it is a better way to bring such things to everyone's notice.
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