Against anti-corruption movement

One fine evening I saw one of my friends intently watching news channels showing “India against corruption”. He muttered, “ Efficiency has its price”. At that time, I found the comment shocking. But the more I think about it, the more I become convinced that our efforts to remove public corruption lack deep understanding of the malady. By public corruption I mean corruption that general public faces in his day-to-day business with government. Before bringing down a wall, it’s important to understand why it was put up in first place. Without this understanding, we may do much harm. So, why is there corruption in India? It’s simplistic to assume that Indians are inherently dishonest. In fact, corruption has evolved because of certain much deeper problems that must be solved first.

First, corruption is a natural response to shortages. In India, the demand for a service such as access to the courts, education, healthcare, or the attention of civil servants and politicians far exceeds the supply. To prevent the system from grinding to a complete halt, a way of rationing has to be found and corruption provides such a system. In effect it places a price upon a service and enables officials to prioritise the demand. This leads to economically efficient distribution of public resources by creating a capitalistic market, thereby bringing demand supply equilibrium.

Second, misguided socialist principles and lack of reforms in legal system have left us with complex and burdensome tangles of rules and regulations administered by huge inefficient state departments. This makes ordinary people highly dependent upon the actions of individual officials and gives the officials every incentive to exploit their power. This leaves common men with no choice but to bribe even to get their legal rights.

Finally, Corruption fights red tapism and speeds up the implementation of administration. Corruption gives incentive to poorly paid public servant to create a development-friendly system for the economy. As a result, corruption starts a chain of benefits for all the economic players, making obstructive bureaucracies much less harmful.

So what will happen if public corruption is suddenly stopped without addressing the real issues? My understanding is that economy will come to a grinding halt. First, poorly paid officials will have no incentive to do their work. Imagine the amount of time an entrepreneur will take in India to start his business? What incentive will babus have to clear licenses for his business?

Second, even if we believe that babus don’t need incentives, the overburdened government machinery will collapse. Our systems are simply not designed to cater to increasing demand. Most of public departments are badly mismanaged and are yet to see any computerization. So, if corruption goes away, demand for these services will shore as “price” reduces. This will lead to complete collapse of public machinery. Take for example, a totally corruption free RTO that is simply not able to cope with its job. If obtaining a Driving license or registering a vehicle takes years, will it do any good to economy?

Third, people will suffer greatly due lack of legal reforms. Take for example, an archaic law, The Bombay Prohibition Act that came into force on June 16, 1949 and is still in force in maharashtra. As per the act, a liquor permit is necessary for purchase, possession, transport, and consumption of liquor. The police can arrest anyone for consuming or buying alcohol in a restaurant or a store without the permit or even if the license of the store or restaurant is not valid. Now, how many people are aware of this law. Even if someone is aware of the law how is it possible for him to ensure that “all licenses and documents” of the restaurant are in order. So, what will happen if suddenly one fine day all the corrupt policemen become honest and start raiding bars and taking everyone one into custody? In fact, I may ask why they don’t do it when legally they must be doing it?. This is just one example of such laws. Indian laws are full of such examples. Indian Post Office Act 1898 confers monopoly on the post office for letter posts- can you do without courier services? That’s the “cost of efficiency.”

In the end, I guess, if corruption was removed without solving underlying issues, it’s the common man who will suffer. Rich have always found and they will always find a way around things. We must attack the basic problems that common man faces before taking away his only defence- bribing.

Let me make it very clear that i don't support corruption and i don't oppose anti corruption movements. But i just wanted to raise certain issues that are being ignored by us.