Sunday, October 22, 2006
Welcome to the national festival of bribery
IN the years gone by, it was known as the festival of lights.
Gradually it has transformed itself to the national festival of
bribery. Bribe givers now wait for an entire year for Diwali so that
they can openly slip in not cash gifts, but also jewellery and wads of
notes to those they wish to please.
Politicians, officer, bureucrats, policemen, journalists, excise,
income tax and now VAT(value added tax) officials form the circle where bribe givers
line up on Diwali. The simple old platefull of sweets is passe and
meant only for lower middle class neighbourhoods.
The joke doing the rounds is that a school going son of an IAS officer expressed his suprise that "sweet shop owners now manufacture jewellery as well''. Why? Because the sweet box that his father received did not contain sweets, but had jewellery tucked in.
Officers of some industrial towns are the most coveted persons during Diwali. ``A Diwali in one of the grand cities is worth two crores for the top bosses'', reveals a source. No wonder, knowing the propensity of accepting gifts, very often during the regime headed by Om Prakash, officers would be transferred on Diwali eve. This was his way of ensuring that officers receive lesser gifts. After all, few would go and hand over a gift to an officer who has already been transferred.
Politicians who receive the most gifts from all sections of society including bureucrats are forced to splurge on the media during Diwali, though by their standards the gifts tend to be cheap. The Chief Minister of Indian state of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh was the first to raise the bar on gifts for the media. Instead of theroutine cardigan or watch, which was the standard in Punjab, he replaced the ``official'' gifts with personal ones. Four bottles of liquor meant that he became a rare CM to offer liquor as a gift to journalists, in a country where prohibition is
recommended by the Constitution, A year later, Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal was not one to be left behind. His brother in law personally went to media
persons delivering Raymond suitlelenghts.
Amarinder's media advisor, B I S Chahal is famous for his gift culture and is credited to have corrupted some Delhi based editors as well. His Diwali visit to Delhi is famous when he goes around distributing gifts.
On Diwali day, the entire market in North India remains open, but it is not just for sales. A Patiala based cloth merchant informs, ``I do not sell a single yard of cloth on Diwali, but perforce the shop is open for the half a dozen inspectors that come for collecting Diwali''. His regret this year is that one more official has been added to the list – the VAT guys.
But officers rule the roost while receiving gifts. Many have a huge box placed at the entrance just for people dropping their visiting cards. And back lawns of palatial sarkari houses are often reserved for gifts. For those foolish enough to go with sweet boxes and dry fruit, a customary check on the false bottom of the sweet boxes is made so that there are no wads of notes hidden there.
Otherwise, that is meant for their servants.
Gradually it has transformed itself to the national festival of
bribery. Bribe givers now wait for an entire year for Diwali so that
they can openly slip in not cash gifts, but also jewellery and wads of
notes to those they wish to please.
Politicians, officer, bureucrats, policemen, journalists, excise,
income tax and now VAT(value added tax) officials form the circle where bribe givers
line up on Diwali. The simple old platefull of sweets is passe and
meant only for lower middle class neighbourhoods.
The joke doing the rounds is that a school going son of an IAS officer expressed his suprise that "sweet shop owners now manufacture jewellery as well''. Why? Because the sweet box that his father received did not contain sweets, but had jewellery tucked in.
Officers of some industrial towns are the most coveted persons during Diwali. ``A Diwali in one of the grand cities is worth two crores for the top bosses'', reveals a source. No wonder, knowing the propensity of accepting gifts, very often during the regime headed by Om Prakash, officers would be transferred on Diwali eve. This was his way of ensuring that officers receive lesser gifts. After all, few would go and hand over a gift to an officer who has already been transferred.
Politicians who receive the most gifts from all sections of society including bureucrats are forced to splurge on the media during Diwali, though by their standards the gifts tend to be cheap. The Chief Minister of Indian state of Punjab Capt Amarinder Singh was the first to raise the bar on gifts for the media. Instead of theroutine cardigan or watch, which was the standard in Punjab, he replaced the ``official'' gifts with personal ones. Four bottles of liquor meant that he became a rare CM to offer liquor as a gift to journalists, in a country where prohibition is
recommended by the Constitution, A year later, Akali Dal leader Sukhbir Singh Badal was not one to be left behind. His brother in law personally went to media
persons delivering Raymond suitlelenghts.
Amarinder's media advisor, B I S Chahal is famous for his gift culture and is credited to have corrupted some Delhi based editors as well. His Diwali visit to Delhi is famous when he goes around distributing gifts.
On Diwali day, the entire market in North India remains open, but it is not just for sales. A Patiala based cloth merchant informs, ``I do not sell a single yard of cloth on Diwali, but perforce the shop is open for the half a dozen inspectors that come for collecting Diwali''. His regret this year is that one more official has been added to the list – the VAT guys.
But officers rule the roost while receiving gifts. Many have a huge box placed at the entrance just for people dropping their visiting cards. And back lawns of palatial sarkari houses are often reserved for gifts. For those foolish enough to go with sweet boxes and dry fruit, a customary check on the false bottom of the sweet boxes is made so that there are no wads of notes hidden there.
Otherwise, that is meant for their servants.
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