The day when I bribed for the first time

It was a somber Friday morning when my mobile sprang up to life, my friend on the wire,”Hey da...gonna apply for No Objection certificate, you wanna join me?” As I too had need for those, we started with the necessary documents to taluk office.

            It was our first experience at taluk office. So we were quite bewildered without knowing proper procedures. On enquiring a person, he pointed another person who was sitting behind a pile of applications.

            With some hesitation, we asked him, “Sir, how to get No Objection certificate application?”. Without looking at us, he replied, “In Xerox shop opposite to railway station”. We got that quite easily. After that we had a really hard time filling up the application as they asked for too many details. The man behind the pile of applications was also not replying properly for our doubts.

 A neatly dressed man around 30s came near me and asked caringly, “Do you have trouble filling the application?” I was quite happy that there’s someone to help us. But it didn’t last long. I answered his question in affirmative and thought of seeking his help. But he just stopped me with that and asked me to follow him and led us outside the office. He then gave the application to a man dressed in filthily in rags, sitting in platform outside the office. The decent looking man said to me proudly, “He’s the only man who can fill applications in English”.

I was bit hesitant at first and my heart alarmed that he’s moving in for a bribe. After talking with him for a while, I found out that I cannot get my certificate by actual procedure. So I got little tensed, but later decided to go back home. Just before I was about to start, he struck a deal with me, that he can get the certificate I wished for by evening itself (which usually takes 15 days). Even though that certificate won’t be useful to me anymore, I accepted his offer, just because of curiosity. So he showed green signal to that filthy man who fills the applications for him and he started filling the application. The most shocking part which flushed out my face is that, he signed the part where revenue inspector (RI) has to sign (!). When I asked whether it won’t raise any problem, he said that they will be filing at least 50 applications a week in this manner.”

            With corruption so casual in the grass root level, I got ambiguous about the movements by Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev, and other so called “Anti-corruption crusaders” and the electronic media which made them over night heroes by giving extravagant importance to them. It finally occurred to my mind that a great “Social drama” on anti-corruption had been successfully staged to the whole nation.

I recently heard about a shocking incident from my friend who held an active role in “India against corruption” movement, and recently withdrew from it. He said to me that, he had attended the meeting of the IAC Chennai chapter, and that he directly saw the incidents of bribing in trading of the food items, badges, T-shirts, and water bottles too. The chief guests of the meeting were corrupt personalities. I felt his pain as he said that.

Recent remarks of Markandeya Katju on Anna Hazare which goes like, "This Anna Hazare movement, I have not spoken about it because I am attacked by the media as if justice Katju is some kind of demon. I regard Anna Hazare as an honest man; there is no dispute in that. But what are his scientific ideas? I don't think he has any scientific ideas".

It’s true. Paid media worked like a right hand servant to that movement. Some bigger corporate with vested interests have used Hazare as a tool and accomplished its need, by diverting entire nation with media hype. No common people would have known about the behind the screen activities.

If they wished to drive an anti-corruption movement successfully, it should have started from grass roots. They should have educated people about the lokpal bill. As Hindu’s ‘State of the nation poll’ clearly indicated that, “Only one third of the respondents have heard about lokpal bill and only one-fourth know what it actually is”. My friend I had mentioned earlier also said the same thing that three-fifths of the people who attended meeting didn’t know what lokpal bill is.

No politician or civil society group would be ready to educate people on this, as Lord Brougham’s words goes, “Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern; but difficult to enslave.”

At the whelm of our 65^th independence, I remembered Sir Winston Churchill’s statement on our independence, after the Gandhiji’s assassination, “When you cannot even protect a old man, whom we protected for 60 years, what are you going to do with your independence?”. The answer instantly flashed in my mind, “Sir. Winston Churchill, with our independence we can get birth certificate to a dead person, driving license to a physically challenged person and we have so much freedom that a common man in rags can sign on behalf of a government official and issue certificates to anybody.”

P.S:

1. The decent looking man handed me the certificate that evening itself.

2. I didn’t used the certificate for any purpose and it’s still with my documents.

3. My friend too got the certificate through another ex-decent looking man.

4. Anna Hazare is busy organizing his next fast.