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VIEWPOINT: FIFTH COLUMN
Conspiracy Of Silence
Economic reforms will restrict government interference
— and the scope for corruption
 One
reason why we are no longer shocked
by the unspeakable corruption of our officials
and politicians-why Jayalalitha, for example, can win again in Tamil Nadu-is
because we are forced to talk about corruption mostly in generic terms.
Businessmen, who understand the nuances of corruption better than most
people, are forced into a conspiracy of silence that makes it impossible
for them to admit publicly how much they pay to build a bridge, set up
a factory, build a hotel or get advance information on what UTI is up
to. So the only hint of how rotten the system is comes when a businessman,
even on condition of absolute anonymity, agrees to speak in more specific
terms. I met such a businessman recently and this is the tale of graft
and bribery he had to tell.
 He
prefaced his story by saying, "You do know that it's worse than ever,
don't you? Everyone is on the take at every level of government and the
prices they ask today ... you people in the press, you haven't any idea."
He recently finished building a hotel in one of our smaller cities, he
said, and no sooner was it completed than a municipal official approached
him with this proposition. He was ready to negotiate the amount of municipal
taxes the hotelier was obliged to pay but for a price. "It should
be at least Rs 1 crore a year but if you give me Rs 75 lakh I can ensure
that it comes down to only Rs 22 lakh annually."
I recount this particular story also because
it is multi-faceted in its representation of the features and consequences
of corruption in India. Think what the cost of bribes must be at our state
government level if municipal officials ask for Rs 75 lakh? Well, why
bother when we all know that by the time it gets to the Centre, we speak
of crores not lakhs. Tehelka was not even the tip of the dung heap, it
was only a small whiff. Another interesting facet of the story is that
it comes from one of our poorest states. The state government-the condition
of anonymity prevent me from naming it-never ceases to beg in Delhi for
more money. Its primary excuse for being one of the worst governed, least
developed states in India is that it is too poor to do better.
How fascinating then that municipal officials
are able to make Rs 75 lakh on a single deal. They make the money, please
observe, by depriving the state of funds that may have gone towards improving
the hideous, unclean, unplanned towns that deface the Indian landscape.
Instead, it goes into the pockets of officials who in a less humane society
would have been shot for stealing public money.
Another interesting aspect of this particular
story relates to how long and complicated a business it still is to try
and build anything in India. My hotelier friend took more than five years
to get permission to build his hotel and at almost every stage there was
someone's pocket waiting to be lined. When it comes to corruption-as this
column has pointed out before-there really is a trickle down effect. In
other countries, it is usually possible to build your hotel or your factory
by bribing-if required-only a handful of people at the very top. In India
we are more democratic about these things one has to work your way up
almost from the peon upwards.
In Delhi there is, per force, a certain decorum
involved so you cannot just march into the office of a joint secretary
in the Ministry of Tourism and say, "Right, here is your Rs 2 crore
(or whatever the going rate is) now can I build my hotel?" In Bhopal,
Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna and even Mumbai there is a more easygoing approach
to corruption so you can, in fact, discuss details openly. Chief ministers
have eminently approachable touts and proxies who collect money openly
and they do it at every stage of a project or a contract. One of the reasons
why 95 per cent of our state governments (or is it more?) have made no
effort to encourage economic reforms is because there is too much money
to be made by leaving things the way they are.
So, although Yashwant Sinha may try to do his
bit as finance ministers before him did, the India that lies beyond the
borders of Delhi remains pretty much unchanged. Doing business is such
a nightmare that most foreign investors prefer to take their money to
East Asia and as for Indian businessmen only those who play the game survive.
There is no point then in throwing our hands
up in horror every time there is a UTI type scam. If we want change we
have to demand that economic reforms-especially at the state government
level-are speeded up so that governments no longer have the powers they
do to interfere in everything. Unless this happens we will have to live
with the horror of even municipal officials making more in a single deal
than you and I can hope to make in two lifetimes.
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