BRIBING - A GIVE AND TAKE?

 

Giving bribe and taking bribe are the two sides of a coin of corruption. Some Economic Advisor to the Government of India once said making bribe-takers more culpable than bribe givers is a wise thing to do. In order to abolish corruption from the lower level to the upper level of our society, one has to necessarily think of the two sides of the coin.

Who to blame? – The bribe giver or the bribe-taker? In a way, both are committing a mistake of promoting corruption. Committing a mistake or something to be done in one’s favor or work to be done at once to give a bribe and get a title ‘bribe giver.’

The bribe may be either in the form of cash or kind which induces the ‘bribe-taker’ to forget his / her duties for which one is appointed. So if someone accepts the bribe certainly he or she is going to commit another mistake of not doing his or her stipulated duty. Therefore both people, the bribe giver and taker promote corruption in secrecy. It is the way the whole system of a government – either in democracy or autocracy – runs all over the world. Thus at the end of the day, no system is free from corruption.

Everyone is someway involved either directly or indirectly in promoting corruption. Someone who leads a simple life like that of Anna Hazare only can think of a corruption-free world. But I think in this materialistic world no one will come forward to lead the life of Anna Hazare. How many people on earth will lead a life so simple and depend on oneself? All of us want to abolish corruption. Everyone finds fault with others. The Government brings rules after rules and laws after laws to prevent corruption. Police departments are engaged in looking for corrupt people. Some say the police department is one of the worst corrupt units in every government. Politicians are corrupt although they are the lawmakers against corruption. Then how to abolish corruption? Is there a way out? Punishing the corrupt is one way. But, how to do it? It is a tricky question. No one can give a suitable answer.

Since corruption is a universal practice; all human beings are in a way corrupt. In fact, corruption happens at all levels of the society. There is small-scale and big-scale corruption. Plenty of corruption cases are in the courts. Many are disposed of due to a lack of proper evidence. Even in some cases the advocates and even the judges are biased due to corruption. There are many examples. If that is the case, then how will you abolish corruption in our society? The simple conclusion would be that we have to live with this global pandemic namely corruption or bribing. - NARA