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Sunday, May 15, 2011

Should bribery be Legalized?

On the website of the Finance Ministry, the chief Economic Advisor to the Indian Government Mr. Kaushik Basu has recommended to legalize paying bribery (in case of Harassment Bribery*) in India in order to fight corruption. At the first go it may seem absurd to even think of legalizing an immoral act to tackle corruption. But, a deeper thought must have gone through in Mr. Basu's mind before putting up the recommendation.

One of the explanations may be that people easily tend to pay bribe in order to get their work done. It happens to even those who don't want to pay bribe but have to. If they complaint about the bribery before getting their work done then their work won't get done. And they can't complaint about it after paying as it is illegal in India to pay or accept bribe. So, the solution provided by Mr. Basu is that if someone doesn't wish to pay bribe, they first get their work done by paying bribe. After that they can complaint against the person who accepted bribe for the work. This legal construct would dissuade government officials to accept bribe as they would think twice before accepting it.

In India, rules are such that a boy who attempts suicide, a father who pays dowry and a journalist who carries out a sting operation is also liable to be punished. I think these rules are an arm for those who asks for bribe or dowry, as they know the bribe or dowry giver won't complaint against them as they too are criminals in the eyes of law. Hence, such a law would be very helpful in combating corruption.

Looking at it from a different angle, won't it make easy for big corporate houses who most often bribe government officials to get their work done? Even for a common man, bribing would be easy as they would have a panacea in their hand. So, before implementing the rule certain Ifs and Buts must be taken into consideration. Then only it would help fighting corruption otherwise we only would have to suffer.

*(Harassment Bribery is defined as those cases of bribery in which people don't intend to pay bribe, but they have to, in order to get what they are legally entitled to. For example- If an income tax refund is held back from the taxpayer and he has to bribe the officials in order to get it.)

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