Graft Or Corruption?: The Demonetisation of India
On 8th November 2016 (this year), our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi made a declaration of making notes of denomination 500 and 1000 as illegal tender starting from 9th November.
What has ensued after till 30 December 2016 is nothing short of mayhem.
Mayhem in terms of the queues, deaths on roads, stalling of parliament, halts on manufacturing, trading and services.
Now who is to say what will happens next? Shri Modi has asked us, the people, to support him.
I’m sixpence none the richer on that.
What I CAN state with extreme solidarity and mindful passion, that nothing has come to us, a majority of us Indians, easy. Ever!
Each and every Indian, barring the politicians, the bureaucrats, babus, government officials, people with clout, has always worked hard for his roti (bread).
What I want to highlight in this article is the regressive Indian nature to look at everything with scepticism and nothing with a pragmatic view toward the future.
I want to post a couple of questions to my fellow Indian brethren, baby — boomers and the new tech generation alike.
Q1.
70 years of independence from British Raj. License Raj. Rani Raj. Whatever you may call it.
But do you think for a minute, how a country of about 50 crore then and 125 crores now, has not forgotten and given up graft?
Didn’t the first politicians make policies and laws in our constitution with the short term in mind? Weren’t and aren’t these same laws been made hostage and twisted by the politicians, bureaucrats to use Indian businesses to amass their wealth? Who gave these people these rights? Why can’t these archaic laws be changed or scrapped altogether and new practices be put in place according to our times and for the next 50 years. We have very capable minds to do that. It’s just that these minds are deepening their own pockets.
Why aren’t the businesses also not revolting, instead subjecting themselves to this graft? What is the need of a business to not pay the said taxes and duties on the goods and services? Why is the need? For higher profits. This greed leads to even more graft, the killer of Indian ethics.
Q2.
Corruption in all forms exists in almost every country of our planet. But in India, I am referring to graft.
What is the difference?
Corruption is when businesses lobby with politicians to favour rulings for their industry for windfall gains. This is done with a promise by the businesses which is mostly kept true to its word, to spread a sizeable part of the windfall gains with the rest of the population in various forms and kinds.
Now the politicians themselves don’t take money in their bank accounts or hard cash. They just ask for their constituencies /states to be the beneficiaries.
So yes this is corruption but for the betterment of all. And this is USE OF POWER.
Graft on the other hand is, UTTER AND COMPLETE MISUSE OF POWER.
It is defined here. (look for graft 2)
And this Graft is what is practised abundantly in India.
Let me explain how and the food chain involved in spread of graft.
So, when a politician in India misuses Power, he/she takes bribes in millions of dollars in cash from the companies to whom they are lobbying for.
These companies, withdraw the white or legitimate capital in their bank accounts to pay these politicians. This is when the economy turns BLACK and the seeds of GRAFT get planted. A parallel system to barter goods and services with cash is born. Parallel only because the first flow of the illicit money happens from the politicians spending lavishly in hard currency and staying under the radar of the Tax Net.
The monies paid by the companies to these politicians has to be recovered. So the companies start fraudulent practises within their companies and sell their goods/services without proper paperwork.
Moreover, the companies also have to grease the palms of the excise, sales tax, octroi (various Indirect taxes c/f from the British Raj) departments and officers to let the smooth flow of goods and services to happen. This is another subset of the parallel economy.
The officials work for the country, the Government but they are only sitting in power/opposition to stash millions of dollars somewhere.
When this exercise exhibits rampancy, there is the birth of the devil in the minds of people. People like you and me. People who are at the receiving end, but give it back as well. This is the vicious circle of graft.
Please tell me if you have come across this in your adolescent and adult lives or not? Of course we all have.
We can all see it, but we turn our heads the other way, because it comes in the way of our own instant gratification. Because graft and greed go hand in hand.
Q3.
The question is : How does this stop?
Well it doesn’t come to a screeching halt, that’s for sure. It has to be analysed, curbed slowly and steadily and then the future generations will bear fruit of our good deeds. It’s as simple as that. We Indians have never got anything easily. A handful of politicians and businesses have of course, but that doesn’t mean that 125 crores of us are screwed in the head. We have to see to it that these seeds of non- graft get planted as soon as possible.
This is what Shri Modi is venturing on. The removal of graft.
We don’t need to be Shana (cunning) in every walk of our lives. We don’t need to see what gain the other person is making, as long as we’re satisfied with what gain we have made. If we could curb this slowly but steadily, then I think we should have a country that can achieve the highest levels of quality and reliability and success, no matter what the situation may be.
The West is the West not because of their colour or weather or diet or anything else. They are what they are because, collectively, as A POPULATION, they don’t intend to practice graft. They want to inherently practise honest sustainable ways of living and i don’t see the harm in that. Yes they practise Capitalism, a term for people who use and develop skills to create wealth and everyone has a fair chance at that, because, well, Everyone of us has a brain.
What we have here in our country is completely the opposite. Our brains are all working toward saving the next tax rupee, by whatever means possible. We have always been told that governments are not going to change. And here we are at the cusp of change and we are running away from it. This is not to say in any sense that I laud or demonise what Shri Modi is doing. This is to just get in the open that our minds are twisted and, he knows it.
What we have forgotten is that although we might run away from this truth, it will one day come to bite us unless we don’t get and smell the truth.
I hope sincerely this is in no way advocating what has happened is right or wrong. It’s just an essay to say that it has happened because of us and to us. So no one person is responsible for the steps taken by this Government and future Governments for that matter. We live in a democracy. So let’s try and practise it!
Rakesh Botadkar
