If you think I’ve given you some sort of a derivation for corruption, let me just say that even if the equation is correct, it is just one way the corrupt thrive. A heady cocktail of corruption, incompetence, and ignorance is what exists all around. I do not mean just Delhi where I stay… or India where I live… this deadly cocktail is in the developed world as well. The only difference is that while all over this cocktail is sipped in style, we are literally inside a massive cauldron and splashing around without even knowing what we are doing.
Look around, dive into history, or fly across to other parts of the world… you’ll be able to discern the symptoms clearly. A babu, for instance, evolves into a corrupt entity only because the people he is surrounded with are either ignorant or incompetent… and people here are not necessarily the public coming to an office to get some work done. I know of corrupt hierarchies in organisations where corruption exists because the immediate boss was incompetent or ignorant. Let’s just say that where the value of a boss gets undermined, corruption reigns.
Thus we have seen the MCD in Delhi create new records in corrupt dealings because people who matter were either looking the other way or willing to be misled. This could have been because of ignorance of regulations and the laws, inability to implement rules with firmness, or simply a wish to cohabit with the corrupt. Let me however point out that this would not have been possible had the people not displayed an equal inclination to be incompetent and ignorant. Officials in the government machinery love to interact with people who are ignorant… and this parasitic behaviour can be seen at all levels. Look at the touts in and around post offices or other offices where forms have to be filled and you’ll know what I mean. But this is just one level of ignorance that makes corruption so sought after. There is the corruption interface visible where even an elected leader gets easily ensnared into foolish actions because he is not so well versed with the concerned laws. Thus we can find politicians with a serious will to get some good done being made to run around in circles… yes, the same thing can happen the other way round too when even senior civil servants are either wanting in competence or are willing to seem ignorant if the payout leads them to a better posting or some other goody. Corruption can thus make people realise the merits of being incompetent sometimes!
Charlotte Whitton once wrote that ‘Man cannot live by incompetence alone’ and my wild guess is that corruption was smart enough to reach out and ask incompetence to be its liv-in partner.
The obvious question then is if this partnership can be broken easily. Obviously, the answer is that political parties in power need to make efforts to inform everyone that incompetence is akin to criminal negligence and that to get over this they need to educate themselves. Know the laws. But before all of us can do that, we need to be educated enough to know the laws. We have seen decades of post-independence India being mercilessly thrust towards mass ignorance where communication channels were tampered more than once. It sometimes appears to me that there has been a massive incompetence revolution going on in our country. A political and administrative WILL is essential to pull India out of education apathy.
Ignorance and incompetence do not just mean knowing the laws and being able to read and interpret them… it is equally vital to be able to get together to effectively push corruption out of our lives. This is where an active interaction with the social media comes in. I am looking forward to a time when no political party decides to hand out mindless punitive verdicts to people punishing them for their incompetence in the virtual world. Come on, dear neta ji, a lively social media is an indicator that the disruptive floods of ignorance and incompetence are finally showing signs of receding.
Combat corruption by reducing ignorance and incompetence at all levels within and outside the government machinery.
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Post published in ‘The Education Post’ dated 18 May 2015:
2015_05_18_The Education Post_The Real Fiction_Incompetence and corruption
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Arvind Passey
20 May 2015
