If you have seen ‘A Wednesday’, a brilliant film directed by Neeraj Pandey, you will remember Naseeruddin Shah saying “I am just the stupid Common Man.” Well that’s exactly what I am, a stupid common man who has been taught by his honest and stupid middle class parents to obey the law, pay his taxes, say his shlokas everyday and generally do good to the world. That’s me!
The world unfortunately for people like me, is made up of a number of people who are taught differently by their parents. I will not go into what they might have been taught or what their actions tell you about their upbringing etc. This is not about what they have been taught but with the results of a faulty upbringing, in my humble view, that results in breaking of the law with impunity and, on being caught, using strictly ‘unkosher’ means to escape the long arm thereof.
I am of the POV that had there been a better teaching of ordinary middle class ethics that characterised the 60s and even 70s, there would have been far lesser economic and political crimes than what we are seeing now. As regards corruption, what used to be the exception in the 70s and 80s is slowly becoming the norm now. Sad but true.
What we see now is the result of unbridled consumerism, the kind that consumes the consumer. When I first went abroad at the ‘young’ age of 42, I was astonished at the variety of goods that one saw in the shops of duty free in Frankfurt airport and later in the beautiful shops along the Banhoffstrasse in Zurich. The cleanliness, lack of crowds and everything else was a new experience for my wife and me (Oh yes, Mrs K was with me!). Over a period of just 17 years, we have seen India grow in stature and in knowledge, enough to be considered important to the World. With growth in telecommunication infrastructure and liberalisation of the economy, as also Indian ventures into markets outside India, greater opportunities have been created for people to go abroad for business trips, vacations and even for settling down in what they perceive as better countries. Such people bring back their perceptions and goodies that were denied to Indians till a while back. Further, liberalisation of imports has brought the latest goods to Indian shops and one need not go to Dubai, Singapore or even the shady by lanes of Burma Bazaar to get these.
This has led to opportunities even for oldies such as yours truly who, at age 59, is considered good enough to be employed by an IT company for heading IT related projects in the Gulf. India’s prosperity for a few enterprising souls and employees of venturesome companies, has left many others hankering for higher levels of prosperity. Aspirations are very good but have to be tempered with ethics and a burning desire for improvement of skills and knowledge. I met a smart young man in 1995 to whom I rented out my flat. This gent was a part of his father’s business and through sheer hard work and business acumen expanded the wholesale business into the retail arena. He now has three stores that sell optical aids. I still remember a time when there were some business challenges for him but I always got my rent on time. This is what a smart person does. He grows his prosperity by riding on dreams with the aid of hard work and business acumen. There are others who are fortunate enough to hang on to the coat tails of companies founded by entrepreneurial souls and get a better life. For instance, there are people who have shared in the prosperity brought about by Infy or Wipro or other such ventures. These companies have created markets in the Gulf and USA and Europe, allowing many people hailing from Arsikere or Bhatinda or Moradabad to become engineers and work in these markets on projects that come by because of the marketing and technical skills demonstrated by the companies in question. I have worked on projects in Africa and the Gulf with Wipro and have a very healthy respect for the quality of its engineers and personnel. Working as a domain specialist, I was sometimes twice as old as some of Wipro personnel on the project. These guys were smart and skilled and always scrupulously honest. That was because they were paid well and the company had a strict policy of zero tolerance for unethical behaviour.
Even for relatively less educated but entrepreneurial people, there are tremendous opportunities for earning a very good income legitimately. For one we have a very large population and thereby a wide catchment area for business. All a person needs to do is to identify unfulfilled needs and find ways to fill these. Being ready to commit ones time and to make the effort to expand ones income is the only criterion.
The sad part is that people have started looking on the good life as an entitlement rather than something to be earned. There is a class of people who want the good life and do not wish to earn it by dint of hard work and entrepreneurship. Throughout the history of the world we have seen people who have succumbed to the lure of lucre and sought to earn money through foul means.
And what is the reason for the proliferation of black money? Three sources and all these involve fraud of one kind or the other. One is the businessman who seeks to extend his gains without paying taxes due from him. There are legitimate means of reducing taxes and these are available only to businessmen and entrepreneurs. For one a businessman pays taxes on income after deducting his expenses. The residual portion of his income is subjected to tax. A salaried person on the other hand has to pay taxes on income earned and spend what remains. It is possible for a businessman never to pay more than 15% of his income as tax. Nonetheless, these people are loath to pay even this amount. This leads to creation of black money. Some of it may also be attributed to arbitrary powers of tax officials and difficulty in compliance with laws which leads to harassment inflicted on these people. To some extent therefore this may be explainable, not justifiable.
The second and third categories are the bureaucrats and politicians. Even corrupt bank officials come in this grouping. These people use their powers to benefit some people and enrich themselves through bribes received as a quid pro quo. Dr Subramaniam Swamy says that generation of black money results in economic distortions. People who have black money indulge in conspicuous consumption and buy luxury goods leading to import of these to the exclusion of necessities, like say food items. Further with illegal money sloshing around in the system, these worthies think nothing of buying food items at whatever price leading to huge inflation in necessities.
The media has been blamed for a number of things but glossy magazines that glorify expensive gadgets create a desire to buy the non essential. Young people have started mortgaging the future for fulfilling their desire for the latest gadgets, mobiles, ipods, ipads etc. From buying on credit to seeking illegal income to buy more is but a short step, when ethics are jettisoned. There is a magazine called ‘What hifi’. It talks of sound systems that costs around Rs 3 lacs or so and makes it sound as if acquiring these is as easy as buying a kg of tomatoes. What do our schools teach? They teach history, geography, science etc. How about teaching prudent spending for one, savings schemes and building a financial future?
It is not corruption that is the issue; it is the lack of Ethics, of Dharma that creates corruption. Our glorification of Adharma is the issue. In the 60s and 70s when I grew up and started working, the corrupt were exceptions. Social stigma was a stronger preventive than any other factor in the realm of corruption. My family lived in Govt. Quarters and it was very easy to spot those with ‘extra income’. Socially everyone would look squiggly eyed at such persons. My father was once posted to Rajkot and we had to walk a good distance from the nearest bus stop to our colony situated on the outskirts of the town. My brother and I were walking on the road and the office car carrying my father was returning from a trip to his place of work. He just proceeded without giving us a lift, and we did not even feel we had been entitled to a lift in any way. It was the norm. Official vehicles were not meant for personal use and my Dad being the head of the office had to lead by example. He was able to enforce discipline in the office because he was honest. Even at that time there was misuse of office vehicles but when my father retired in 1974, he had created an example for all of us in the family.
In SBI, which I joined in 1974, all my batchmates and I had times when business decisions went bad, but nobody ever suspected or investigated us for malafides. One of my batchmates joined the bandwagon of suspected corrupt people and we were all aware of it. This person was the exception and a customer complaint made him the subject of an investigation for corruption. The Gods were kind to him and he escaped due to lack of proof. When I worked in the Treasury, I saw Deepavali gifts being showered on people sitting in the dealing room. I am sure that the gifts were things of some value and not the permissible dry fruits and sweets. Many of them used to hire taxis and go to their distant suburban homes, as they were unable to carry these gifts by the local train. I know that some senior officers were not straight and some of their business decisions were less than kosher. As a junior officer I did not recommend some dubious proposals that came to me as a desk officer. In one case, a person who later became MD of the Bank was keen on rehabilitating a dead unit and I refused to recommend it. Since the proposal was signed by my senior, he took the brunt of the consequences, denial of promotion, posting outside Mumbai and so on.
My direct experience relates to a truck loan that one of our clients wanted in a small town in MP. As is the norm, being the Field Officer, I visited the guarantor’s place and was making the usual enquiries on net worth, income and other factors for acceptability. Suddenly the borrower took me aside and pulled out his purse and said “Koi Seva?” All my middle class reflexes took over and I refused angrily. When the borrower pleaded and told me that this was the norm in other banks, I told him that I would consider his loan only if all was well. The market reports were bad, however, and I refused to recommend it, despite the Branch Manager’s request to consider it. My BM was a good man and certainly not corrupt, but was concerned about his budget and a boost to his loan book. In SBI, the good part is that once a loan is not recommended by someone down the pecking order; nobody can sanction it without being questioned.
There was no other such ‘direct ‘experience for me. I never hankered for lucrative postings and for ‘making money’. Dharma needs to triumph over baseness, and corruption is, in any case, a form of baseness. My breeding kicked in, always, even when I was just living hand to mouth. God was kind to me and he always provided for me in my worst moments. And, believe me, I have had terribly broke moments.
Luckily all is now well. I have consultancy assignments outside India, thanks to my hard work and efforts at skill upgradation. I have helped in creating value, designed specs for software, taught kids in the IT industry about financial modelling, learnt new things from all whom I have interacted with. Twelve years ago, I would never have dreamt of all this and of earning what I am earning now. Overall I still feel that there is a dividend for honesty, commitment and hard work.
When people talk of corruption, I remember my experiences, the temptations eschewed, the consequences that I have faced, the happy endings in my life, and wonder what it is that makes people go astray. What tempts a person to make not crores but thousands of crores? Whatever outer circumstances, the inner state has to be one of being well provided for by the Maker. To my mind that is the key. Only a person, who feels that it will all be snatched away from him or her, hankers after more and more and goes about acquiring and accumulating. This shows what the Chinese term as ‘poverty mentality’. A poverty mentality believes that there is never enough to go around and that the only way to get enough is by snatching it away from others. I believe that the poverty mentality is there in most politicians, and being unqualified as well as unemployable, they see a good life to be acquired in corrupt ways. To my mind the basest form of corruption emanates from the Congress party that has transformed the country into a ‘home’ of corruption. They have been the gurus and taught the lesser parties on making money by abusing positions of power. Nehru, who, I believe, was personally clean, committed a crime of omission by not making an example of corrupt Chief Ministers and Ministers. He had the moral authority and the power to do so. By abdicating his responsibility, he allowed a small wound to fester and grow to such an extent that it is virtually impossible to eradicate corruption in Bharat. We are now a broken Humpty Dumpty morally.
What is the solution? Is it a Lokpal that will become another source of corruption, regardless of what people say now? Or is it a dictatorship that ruthlessly executes all corrupt people? The second will no doubt come when pigs fly! The JLP is a pipedream and will be scuttled, in my opinion. If the JLP bill does not come through by 15th August 2011, what will Anna Hazare do? Will he fast again or threaten to fast again to death? Given the cynicism and the general attitude of indifference, nothing will happen. The scope of the JLP will undoubtedly be confined to sins of the future. What about the loot that has already taken place and the return of wealth locked up in the Swiss banking system and in other ‘funny money’ places?
Legislation is only a means to an end and should not be confused as the end. The Dickensian quote of the Law being an Ass is true. The Law can be rendered an ass by clever lawyers. Hence, I remain a sceptic about the utility of anti corruption legislation. The funny part is that when you talk of anti corruption, you have already assumed there will be corruption!
The only way to weaken and finally slay corruption is by two means: -
· One is to reduce the scope for corruption by practising what Narendra Modi, the incorruptible CM of Gujarat calls “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.” The beast needs to be slain by denying it food. Concentrating discretionary powers in the hands of a few is what leads to corruption. As an example, the powers of the DGTD were curtailed drastically, once the permit raj was dismantled and the Babus stopped making money, as a consequence.
· Naive as this may be, there has to be a return to Dharma. What made India great and allowed it to survive was the existence of Dharma. This did exist for centuries and was there even till the 60s and 70s. Excessive secularisation of education, the slow erosion of moral values thereby and aggrandisement of wealth has resulted in chipping away at the resistance to wrong in society. Slowly, it has started becoming foolish to be honest.
Despite all this I do believe that the vast majority of our countrymen are honest and will rally round the call for Dharma and return to honest values. My experiences have shown how large hearted people are. People who come from outside India are surprised at the generosity of our people. They will share their simple meals with a stranger and even their living space, without expectations of any return or reward. So many times, people have helped me in small ways, always with a large heart. This is my country, Bharata! These simple folk should be able, however, to see a moral and material dividend in being honest and that is a task that needs some thought.
Here are a few things that could be done, and this is not something that needs a great deal of effort: -
· Abolish all individual income tax upto an income of say Rs 5 lacs p.a.
· Beyond that keep a tax rate of 5% and 10% only
· Peg maximum corporate tax at 15%
· Create a turnover tax of just 2% on all goods and services, that should be automatically deducted at source and paid to Govt. directly online
· The Income Tax department should be given a deadline of 5 years to settle all past cases
· After that, there should be minimum tax personnel in the department to take care of corporate cases and high net worth persons
· Abolish all perks and privileges to MPs and MLAs. Pay them a flat tax free salary of say Rs 10 lacs p.m. and then let them pay for everything out of that, including market rent for quarters, telephone charges, servants etc.
· Abolish the MPLAD allotment
· Abolish the institution of upper house
· Abolish subsidised food in the Parliament House canteen
· Redeploy surplus Govt. Staff as are left, as there will be a lesser need for their existence
· Give staff two alternatives, transfer or a lumpsum payoff and full pension for life
This is not meant to be a detailed thesis on solutions. You can get the general drift. The idea is to create an atmosphere of compliance that rewards all those who earn by legitimate means and make it easy for them to comply with laws.
On the matter of Dharma, we first need to get back to our ancient values and start to virtually ‘indoctrinate’ future generations in honesty. Also create a social taboo for dishonesty, and shun dishonest people. In ancient times, the Brahmanas had no money but had a very high social status. This was the system. Every person is entitled to earn money through fair means. People who earn by dubious means need to be isolated and condemned. That way there will be no social dividend for dishonesty.
This is it. The viewpoint of a stupid common man! Please contribute your views and debunk or even wildly refute whatever I have said here.
