Corruption

Jul 14

Today I almost decided not to continue our experiences at ASCI. Having completed more than a month here one wonders what else can be new here. The day started off routinely enough with Prof Mahadik already at his desk when we walked into the class. The class commenced with Prof mahadik , teaching us about managing finances for any project and how the revenue is calculated , in the next three hours . 

Along the way we came to know that two teams of the Indian Premier League in cricket - the chennai super Kings and the royals of Rajasthan were banned from participating in the competition for the next two years. For the next few hours it became a topic of discussion. If meiyappan and raj Kundra were the culprits then why ban two very able and competitive teams from playing cricket was the question uppermost in our minds. We surmised that some players were also involved in the betting on cricket and spot fixing. Then the question - that if smoking was not an offence, drinking was not an offence shouting on the streets was not an offence and horse trading was not an offence and corruption was an accepted way of life then why was betting an offence? Moreover if we follow everything that is done in the west then if betting was legal in the USA and UK then why was it punishable in India? There were no suitable replies to this rather pertinent questioning. We were of the view that betting should be made legal. This would provide employment to many bookies and betting agents. Infrastructure would have to be developed to to make this possible. Bookies would have to pay taxes on their earnings and this could be a sizable chunk of revenue to the state. There would be no black money to a large extent. All people who lay bets would have to pay taxes upfront and more tax when they won on their bets. This would reduce a lot of unaccounted money in the market. 

Similarly imagine what would happen if corruption were to be made legal. We could officially levy taxes on the earnings through corruuption. For example everyone knows that people would do anything to avoid going to courts for traffic violations. Many times most of us seek to bribe the policeman to get away fromthis rather tedious process of being prosecuted by law. When we travel at a short notice we tend to pay the TTE a small remuneration to provide a berth on the train to facilitate our travel. If we have a corruption tax then imagine the revenue that it will provide us. Rather than fighting to rooting out corruption we could in fact make money for the state. 

The seventh pay commission is round the corner. We should include corruption allowance which will find its way back to the government coffers - one way or the other. In fact it will also ensure that people desist from corruption because no one would like to part with hard earned money.  all government employees will receive the corruption allowance as also the police who will have an enhancement of their pay and stop taking bribes thus effectively ending corruption. 

So please ponder on these few random but humble thoughts and let us make India a corruption free state.