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by yummyfajitas
5267 days ago
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It's a good effort, but unfortunately it won't address the real reason corruption persists. Corruption is socially acceptable. Here is an American perspective on corruption: none of my friends or family are corrupt. This statement is tautological - if they were corrupt, they would cease to be my friends or family. Corruption will persist until India takes the same attitude. Creating an anti-corruption website is great. But you'll probably do more good if you publicly disown your corrupt relatives. |
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I kind of agree. It is not that corruption is socially acceptable, the problem is that common man has no choice. E.g. Until recently, Section 377 of Indian Penal Code could be used against you if you are gay. In Mumbai, there has been many cases where cops have pretended to be gay in public bathroom and try to harass other gay folks. Now if you are caught, you have two choices: either go to Jail or bribe the police officer. Guess what choice you are going to make?
Another example: Four Seasons needed 165 government permits to open their hotel in Mumbai, including a permit to use a vegetable weighing scale in kitchen. [Ref: http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/may/07mumbai.htm] Now, Four Seasons may have gone and obtained all the proper permits but if there is a business man in India who doesn't have deep pockets to wait around till all the permits come through, he has no choice but to bribe the government official and focus on the business.
Finally, my own personal story: when I was applying for my green card, I needed to get transcripts from my university because I misplaced the original ones which I had. The clerk at University said it would take a month. It was clear to me that he wanted me to bribe him to speed up the process. Once again, I can stand up to the principle and wait for a month to get my transcript. [And I am sure he would give another excuse to delay giving me the transcript]. As my immigration was important to me, I bribed him and got the transcript the next day. [And I can't complain about him at the University because he did not directly ask me for money.]
There are lots of honest people in India and no one wants to bribe but there is no recourse for them if they don't bribe [law enforcement is a big problem.]
I read govind201's goal with this site and I applaud the effort (anything we can do to fight corruption must be done), I think we need a more radical approach to solve this very difficult problem. Something like a 'Lokpal Bill' [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill] but not before removing the critical flaws present in the bill. Also, working on to reduce government regulation will go a long way towards reducing corruption.