Corruption has social acceptance

This is what the recently retired CVC has to say about corruption in India:

(The full txt is here:http://www.livemint.com/2010/09/06234313/Corruption-has-social-acceptan.html

Two things bother me greatly. One is the social attitude towards corruption. In India, the most unfortunate part is that the society is no longer seriously concerned about corruption and there is social acceptance. When we were growing up I remember if somebody was corrupt, they were generally looked down upon. There was at least some social stigma attached to it. That is gone. So there is greater social acceptance. This is a kind of paradox. On one side, civil society has become more active in exposing corruption; people are filing PILs (public interest litigations) and various other ways of highlighting corruption, trying to do something about it. On the other hand, in society, there is a general acceptance of corruption. If somebody has a lot of money, he is respectable. Nobody questions by what means he has got the money. Second, the final punishment is becoming increasingly difficult. I am not saying that everything is right with CBI, but there are times they are blamed for things for which they are not responsible.

Look at an average case in the special judge’s court, which is the first court where a chargesheet of CBI is filed—(it) is taking 10 years. We got a survey done for a small pocket of CBI in one of their zones; only 4% people out of all those who were finally convicted actually went to jail. On some ground or the other they went in appeal. One appeal after another, on one ground after another. Same is happening with the departmental proceedings… they take years and hardly any punishment is given. Let me make it more mathematical for you. There would be 20% people in India even today who would be honest, regardless of the temptations, because this is how they are. They have a conscience, they would not be corrupt. There would be around 30% who would be utterly corrupt. But the rest are the people who are on the borderline.

Cops or Robbers

Delhi Traffic Police are on Facebook (as DTP).

They use the site to deliver updates on the traffic situation across the city. The most substantial traffic on the site comes from citizens' photographs of errant drivers - crashing red lights, using tinted glasses, or parked in No Parking zones.

If you upload such a photograph on to the site, DTP will issue a challan based on the evidence. A good idea, except that - as DTP point out - today, Rs. 100 is not much of a deterrent to doing exactly as you please. Higher fines had been set a couple of years ago, but the High Court knocked them down. Someone had told them that breaking the law should be cheaper than watching a movie.

I used the site to report a Hit and Run to which I was witness. In the real world, I had picked the victim off the road, and brought him to the pavement, got him water, and called 100. A patrol car arrived, and ferried him to the Trauma Center at Safdarjung Hospital; mercifully, he was not too badly hurt. On Facebook, though, my report was not acknowledged. The next morning, I posted the details again, asking to be told whether the driver had been arrested. Again, no response.

A few days later, I posted a photograph of a car parked under a No Parking sign. Boom! Within a couple of hours, there was an acknowledgement.

So, obviously, the Facebook system works. Why not for the Hit and Run? One of the bystanders at the incident said, "Police ki acchi kamaai ho jaigi - driver ko pakkad lengey - rupai mal lengey" (Pay day for the cops - they'll catch the driver and get some cash of him). If they have to be responsive to my complaint, they will have to officially prosecute the driver, rather than doing a quid pro quo with him.

Is it any consolation that he didn't get off scot free?  Not sure - by giving the cops the driver's number, I seem to have helped them make some illegal gratification.