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E-mail from readers the world over
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 10:43:10 PST Hats off to you on this report on corruption (Tatkal). This was indeed a splendid report. The words were so strong. I think every politician in India should be made to read this. Being in a foreign soil we feel so sad to hear things about this still happening in India. When is India going to change? When will we see a renaissance in India? When can we see hope in our land? Are we approaching the end? Why don't we do something? Is it not time we did something. My heart breaks when I read articles and hear stories from my dear ones. Once again my appreciation for a job well done. Krishnan
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 10:19:43 -0800 Well written Pritish Nandy. I have been a fan of your articles, for years now. It is full of harsh truth. Let your writings make we Indians, reinvent the wheel of morality. "We are a moral nation ruled by immoral people." It is absolutely true for India. These two faces of the same law, is eating up our moral thinking. It has made the common man's life full of fear and frustration. We live in a world where we just cannot survive without paying extra. Though we are doing everything right, but people are sitting over there, with all the years of experience to make it look wrong and make some money. We need to fight it out. Amit Saha
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 11:43:30 -0600 (CST) This is with reference to Pritish Nandy's article. The author, whose good intentions are clearly obvious, seems to be oblivious to the basic laws of economics and the market economy. Goods must go to those who are willing to pay the highest price for it. The supply and demand curves must intersect at the equilibrium price! There is a difference between bribery (which is unethical) and demand for goods and services, which is morally justifiable. I appreciate Mr Nandy's concern for the general decline of standards in Indian society and have enjoyed many of his well presented television programmes. However, this article is clearly a misguided missile. Vivek C Rao
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 19:29:16 +0100 Mr Nandy you are trying to solve a economic problem with moral reasoning. It won't do, it is simply just too many consumers chasing too few goods. Anurag
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 11:12:46 -0800 Exactly my thoughts too. I was talking about it to my colleague here yesterday on the same topic. M V Venkatesh San Francisco
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 14:28:57 PST I agree with most of the points made by Pritish Nandy in his column on the Tatkal scheme. However, when he tries to state that the "common" people are against this kind of chicanery, that is where I beg to differ. Show me one man in the country who does not indulge in corrupt practises. Whether you are a Babu currying favours for getting jobs done, a Pandu wielding the lathi to get freebies, a bank employee willing to look the other way while scamsters make merry, a salaried employee with the private sector hiding your money in stocks, property and gold to escape the tax dragnet, a slum- dweller peacefully parked on free government land by paying off the local goon, anybody who has anything to show for in India has to be corrupt. Corruption is not imposed by unscrupulous characters and pliable politicians as the hapless Indian watches by. It is very much part of our culture and our value system. What other explanation can Mr Nandy give for the people willing to elect the same rotten bunch of rulers every time they get to vote? If they disapprove of the money and the Mafia, why do the Bhai Thakurs and the Pappu Kalanis win elections -- patronage from political parties or not? The simple fact of the matter is that we are all corrupt. Yet, being a nation of talkers, we also like to go on wailing like hypocrites that we are "forced" to be so. That somebody bullies us into bribing the rationing officer into getting an additional quota allocated, that the powerful local neta is involved when we bribe the policeman catching us for a traffic violation, that it is due to unmitigating circumstances that we bribe our way around each and every regulation in this country. No sir, we are simply not born to follow rules, obey laws and pay taxes. Our 5,000-year-old culture encourages getting around rules, bending rules, breaking rules, offering conniving explanations and yet shedding crocodile tears about how the politicians have ruined the nation. The sooner we accept that India is a nation of the corrupt, by the corrupt and for the corrupt, the faster we will come to understand why we are in the position we find ourselves in. Any other approach or explanation will be just meaningless prattle that befits retired people sitting around the chai table wondering what to do with the rest of the day. No purpose will ever be served trying to root out corruption -- something which is so deeply ingrained in our national psyche.
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 10:50:25 -0800 Simply brilliant article! Aneel
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 13:01:37 -0800 Wake up from your socialist fog Mr Nandy! It's a refreshing change to see the government starting to inject elements of market pricing, for example with the railways Tatkal scheme. Clearly, several government run services are underpriced. Railway tickets are one of the most egregious examples of that. The market is willing to bear higher prices, as is proved from bribes, speed money etc. Finally the railway administration is waking up and soaking up the excess prices themselves (the provider of the service), rather than letting it go to the middlemen (touts, black marketeers) etc. Let's have more legitimate Tatkal schemes instead of corruption, bribery and the like that goes with artificially low socialistic price structures.
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 15:37:03 -0800 The column is really well written. This is the real fact. We needed our marriage certificate for visa purpose immediately. But it took us 5 days to get it. I know a person who got it the same day in 2 hours. This is really sad. Politicians are to blame for this and at the same time we have to blame ourselves.We are also partly responsible for our country's future. The people who are troubled because of this are the middle class. This has to stop sometime and we can only pray and hope that this will happen some day. Aparna
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 17:01:04 -0500 There is no doubt about Mr Nandy's skills in journalism. Bringing to light the dismal state of Indian affairs in idiosyncratic light made easy the problem, which unfortunately is true. It is articles like these, which make Rediff one of my favourite news sites. Keep up the great articles. Harshad Daswani
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 18:20:10 -0600 Well, ain't that the truth!!!! Pritish Nandy's article 'The State as bribetaker' really cracked me up, because it is funny but at the same time tragic. Funny because it just is, and tragic because it is true. Mohan Marette Fort Worth, Texas
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 16:47:52 -0700 Good article. But, who is paying attention? May be the author should recommend the money collected under Tatkal be set aside for a legal fund to 'bail out' corrupt politicians and the bribetakers. Sad!
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 20:32:16 -0600 Could not come in a better time but will the people of our country wake up before the whole country is given as tatkal to some one else. Rajesh Rajappa
Date sent: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 13:56:49 +0530 Nandy's article looks at Tatkal and VDIS schemes from a common man's angle and what a rare insight. I wish the Supreme Court did take these issues suo motu and declare them as bad in law in so far as they are prejudicial to the common man and the honest tax payer.
Date sent: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 17:42:44 +0530 The article on Tatkal was an interesting observation. Don't you think all these things are primarily owing to the fact that tax rates were very high and the people who were ruling were poor visionaries? Why the hell do you blame the scheme now? What everyone thought was essential in other countries like telephone, gas and other amenities were considered luxuries in India. Even today, petrol costs 2.5 times the actual price. Why? It is populism in the form of subsidies. Where else will you find the joke of seeing mineral water being more expensive than diesel? Cars are a rich man's property. Dump a duty of 200% on imported cars. Destroy his morale. If he can afford a Mercedes, he must surely be a rich person. This could have been either through hard work or corruption or other wise. Yet, did anyone give him the courage to say I own one. If he said so, the next day an IT guy comes over to his door and tries to book him and make him pay heavy sums as tax. After all, he isn't paid well either. So, the next best thing happens. He is bribed and everyone is kept happy. The low salaries, high taxes, populist policies and myopic attitude of those so-called visionaries are definitely responsible for this Tatkal raj. Irrespective of whether the person works or not, he can't be sacked from his job. So, there it is. In how many places can you be rewarded for inefficiency? Well, it is India alone. After all, you lose very few bucks to get a job for the rest of your life. Isn't it great stuff? When all the economic fundamentals go wrong, the system cannot function effectively. This is precisely what has happened to India. It will certainly take a lot of years to undo the misery caused by the visionaries's acts. Until such time, such schemes will continue to exist. Though, this may not be acceptable to everyone, there is no silver bullet to cure India's ills.
Date sent: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 12:35:05 -0000 EXCELLENT. KEEP UP YOUR GOOD WORK. I HOPE THERE ARE MORE PEOPLE IN INDIA WHO THINK LIKE THIS, WHO CAN COME OUT AND REVOLT AGAINST THESE HAPPENINGS IN THE COUNTRY. BUT I FEEL THE PROBLEM IS THE PEOPLE IN INDIA (AT LEAST THE MAJORITY) WILL JUST SHRUG THEIR SHOULDERS AND SAY WHAT CAN THEY DO AND THAT THIS IS NORMAL IN OUR COUNTRY. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO OUR FOLK. THESE ARE PART OF THE SAME BLOOD WHO DEMONSTRATED AGAINST THE BRITISH AND ONE OF THEM EVEN SHOT GANDHI BECAUSE HE FELT THAT GANDHI WAS WRONG.CAN'T WE FIND MORE PEOPLE LIKE HIM? THE POLITICIANS WHO HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY OF BLATANT CORRUPTION SHOULD BE PUBLICLY PUNISHED. THIS SYSTEM WORKS IN THE MIDDLE EAST QUITE EFFECTIVELY.
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 23:20:43 -0800 Very bad and not well analysed. Perhaps should think thoroughly first before writing something...
Date sent: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:15:29 -0600 (CST) The most irritating thing about this column is the use of the word 'we'. Speak for yourself Mr Nandy. I don't pay extra to a taxi driver if it rains, I don't pay capitation fees, I don't pay telephone guys extra to get a line sooner.
Date sent: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 11:52:30 -0600 Very eloquently Pritish Nandy has expressed the concept of the Tatkal scheme and its dubious meaning. The article made very interesting reading. Keep up the good job. Sanjay Gattani Wichita, Ks, USA
Date sent: Thu, 18 Dec 1997 13:06:53 -0500 This column exactly expresses the very same concerns and thought processes of not one but several other Indian citizens. How and where should the correcting process of this ill in the society should start remains a mystery. How do you start a force to tackle this? You have to kill the idea at the root itself. Even a child understands the concept of bribery, the parents go through this every day, the time a child has to be admitted into a school, they have to pay a donation in order to get their son into a school, to many other things. It is now a fact and part of life in India. The steps have to be taken by the bureaucrats, the leaders of the nation, but the present ones are the problems themselves. In fact I say they should be put under more scrutiny then anybody else before they even qualify for the position. There is one more other thing that can be looked at to improve the system, the government officials be bound by a time boundary for every action which should be a mark of their performance and put on scrutiny. This will not only increase the efficiency of the system but also reduce the unemployment rate in a very short while. A team of professional management group should be made to analyse each department and suggest ways of improving the standards of service and make some ground rules. (A basic performance scale such as the number of assignments versus the time he completes). A model figure would suffice. Hope this reaches the right people who can analyse and put it into implementation. Prashant Boorugu
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 17:13:40 -0500 Wonderful article about the way things are going on in India now and perhaps in the future. Well, more or less reminds me of the American system in the making. The tragedy is by the time (if it comes) this kind of system reaches its peak, America may change its system. Raja S Gangavarapu
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 16:22:51 -0500 Pritish has written an article so true. Its hard and hitting. Hats of to you Pritish. Keep it up Achyuta
Date sent: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 13:45:09 -0500 Excellent! Hope this serves as an eye-opener to Indians. Sarat
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