Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Corruption - A shortcut or a Virus

Isn't this a very big question? Can anyone of us reply this? Can you deny this? Are you sure you haven't done anything which can be linked to corruption?

I do not think so. 

"Corruption" word was always linked to the Politicians or the Government Sectors. I remember when i was 16 years old my father was in such a position where he could easily get big bribe for just a signature. But he was a man of ethics and thus never excepted such offers. I saw him once shouting at one of his collegue as he was trying to push my father do accept the offer so that he would also be benifited. This thing made me proud of my father. Actually there are so many good things which are tought in school but if you see them practically  it leaves a deep impact on you. I started respecting him a lot. Before this i use to fight with him and had a rebilious attitude against him offcourse of small reasons. Nothing big. 

So, as we were discussing about corruption let me tell you this word "corruption" is a virus which is not only linked to politicians or government sector but also in private sector as well. Also we can't forget its in every house. One person you can easily find in each family. So how this virus grows. There is only one way for it to grow and that is from one person to another. There is no cure but one thing is good about this virus is that it does not infect everyone. The person who does not take care of self, is the most sensitive to this infection. Let me give you an example. A man was driving the car and his family was also sitting with him(son- 14 year and daughter -10 years old)  and was also talking to someone on phone. Suddenly the mama(Traffic Police officer) who was hiding behind the tree comes out and asks this man to stop his car. Asks the man to show his licence and once this fellow shows the licence to the officer he keeps the licence with him and takes out the challan book and starts asking his name and tells him to take out Rs. 500/- for using the phone while driving. The man is upset and starts finding a shortcut and then request the officer to please forgive him. But the officer is in no mood to do this and bluntly says no to him. Now the man is not able to find the solution and thus asks him to take Rs.100/- and leaves him. The officer says ok, and tells him to take care from next time and leaves him after taking Rs.100/-. The man once in his car thanks God and feels releaved. Thus you saw how this virus entered in the man and the officer. What do you think? Has the virus only infected the man or the officer or it has also infected the children? I think it has infected all of them. The kids when they will grow up and drive and if cought in the same situation ( like his father ) he will do the same thing. 

I agree that our system is corrupted but in this system arn't we included? Should we always give this only excuse to prove ourselves clean? We are the only once who are increasing corruption? Oh i forgot! we have another excuse and that is - we do not have time. We are the most selfish creature on the earth. We want the things to happen and for that we do not want to wait also and wants some shortcut method. We do not have patience. All of us are just living for ourselves. We do not care if the other person is suffering from the mistakes we are making. Officer was happy as he got Rs.100/- and the man was also happy that he gave the money and is out of big challan and court visits. Now tell me suppose if there would have been another man who could not afford even Rs.50/- to give to the officer, he would had to go to the court do get his licence back. Isn't this a trouble for that fellow. As the officer knows that he will get money from these kind of fellows the hunger of money will increase and increase and increase. Now suppose a man who is cought by the officer gives challan money which was Rs. 500/-. What will you call this fellow? Most of us will say he is foolish. Just 1% of us would appriciate him. Isn't this true? If all of us try not to break rules and drive on the road with some discipline then we can easily avoid these challans and the hassles we go through.The children will also stay in discipline and follow these rules and regulations. The accidents will not happen and news channels will not have such breaking news atleast. Most of us have not visited the driving license departments also and have licences. How? You all know this. We give Rs. 1000/- or less and easily we are able to get the licence. For every thing we go through the shortcuts. We do not realise our kids and the people attached to that particular event is learning to cheat.

We as parents wants our kids to have the best education. But are you sure we are giving them the right education? I do not think so. When our children are in schools and when they get projects to do at home i have seen parents who help their children by doing their drawing work or writing work. Telling them and doing their work are two seperate things. offcourse you need to help them by making them understand the project but doing their work should not be done at any cost. So how is this related to corruption. This is an example of brother or sister virus. The project is appriciated by the teachers and the child gets good marks for the same and he is happy. Other children as they have done themselves comes to know that this student has taken help from his parents thus demands the same thing from their parents too as they know that they will also get good marks next time. The child will never tell his teacher that his parents have done half of the work and thus he learns "not to tell the truth". And the other kids learn to get the work done from their parents or anyone else. Thus the virus infects all of them. In every stage of our life we are learning wrong things which leads to corruption virus or brother or sister virus. All these things are inter-related. Why are we doing this? As parents you are teaching them wrong thing unknowingly. Tomorrow definately some of them will cheat public and then we will tell them as parents " we tought you good things in life" without realising that the virus has gone in to your child through you. 

I was talking about corruption enterence into the private sector. I am a business women who realised this very late that the corruption virus has very well infected the private sector. I only realised once i started interacting with few administration guys of big corporates who have the power to select venders. I took the right track and started asking for appointments and then meetings and then sending proposals and atlast waiting to get the order. I atleast went to meet 350 corparates and i realised i have only got zero company's order. As per the product, i had taken care of quality and the rate. I was thinking i am not less than others but then why i am not getting work. After few months i realised that the virus has nicely entered in most of the people working in the private sector. But in whom and why. The guys who have the power are the most corrupted. Some are big fish and some are small. Some do it in large scale and some do it in small scale. It depends on their position. Some does - by taking referencial vendor and some do it on comfort level basis. Maximum are expecting bribe in money terms and others want in kind. It all depends on the individual. 

Today our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan singh ji was talking about corruption. As the Prime Minister of India he can only asks us to " say no to corruption" and makes some strict rules to curb this. But is there any thing fool proof to curb corruption? Do you think people who are doing it from years will not find another way to do keep corruption alive? Its good that goverment is in the anti-corruption drive but what about us? Will we stop giving bribe to traffic police officer, licence department or infact any department? The anti-corruption drive should start at home first and once we take care and respect the rules and regulation only then we would be a corruption free country. Lets be more concious.

Jai Hind