Harassment Bribes: Kaushik Basu's new idea

The 2G scam and the Anna Hazare movement has galvanised the media and large sections of the population to lash out at the powers that be against corruption.However, all I could hear was criticism (even at the jan lok pal bill) and no constructive argument on how to curb corruption. Until of course, Kaushik Basu's trenchant working paper titled "Why for a class of bribes, the Act of Giving a bribe should be treated as legal" came out on the finance ministry's website
Its a very well written paper. He argues that bribe givers who are forced to give bribes to receive legal entitlements should not be treated as criminals. Currently the law does not distinguish between bribe giver and bribe taker. Basu says that incidence of such bribes (he calls them "harassment bribes") will go down once the bribe giver is given legal immunity. Under this scenario, since the interests of the bribe giver and the bribe taker are orthogonal, the bribe giver will want to report such instances of harassment bribes because he will no longer be considered as abetting the act of bribery and also he will receive the amount he gave to the bribe taker. In other words, the comfort zone that currently exists between the two parties will not exist under the proposed change.
Of course, he states that in case of non-harassment bribes, the bribe giver should not have legal immunity but the punishment meted out to the bribe taker should be substantially higher.
Of course, there are caveats in place. Basu says that giving such immunity will not lead to complete disappearance of bribes in our society.Other important steps like use of e-technology to minimise the interface between the public servant and the citizen would be helpful in curbing corruption. Also, it is only when we build up values of honesty and integrity in society will be there a great reduction in corruption. Of course, Basu does contend that economics as a subject considers human beings as endlessly self-seeking.But he does provide evidence that we are not always endlessly self-seeking and that market economies (which we are trying to build) will not be efficient unless human beings are endowed with a minimal amount of integrity and pro-sociality.

(For those interested in reading the full working paper, here is the link)

My People!!!

How did I survive the two month fieldwork of IRMA? As Prof. Shylendra told us before the trip "Village life is tough but village people are nice." I could not agree more. So here are some people who made my two month stay as comfortable as it could get.

The kid's name is Ajith. Not a tribal name at all.He was named by the Primary Health Centre Nurse when he was born. An entertainer in the real sense of the term, playing cricket and football with him was something that I enjoyed a lot. He came across as very inquisitive as every kid does, and was particularly fond of my digital camera and mobile phone. I only hope he recognises me when I visit Toranmal next time.



Sakar Singh Chaudhary aka Gotiya dada was our immediate neighbour. A karmyogi who believes that his job in this life is to till his land, grow crops, drink alcohol, occassionally beat his wife and graze cows. For two months, he used to entertain us with his stories in the night and managed to call me "nithun" by the end of my two months stay. The village is made up of his family members and he knows everyone in the village. I only hope he is alive when I visit Toranmal next time.



Manisha and Ravindra Thakur. My hosts and caretakers for the two months. If it was not Manisha tai, my stay not have been as memorable and comfortable as it turned out to be. I owe an enormous sense of debt to this lady who is an embodiment of strength, will power and all the virtues of feminity which we associate our mothers with. From making her husband give up alcohol, earning an income by undertaking various livelihood activities, she was a person who I admire and look up to. I hope that she has been able to undertake all the livelihood activities which she was planning to and undertake them successfully.
These are some of the many who live in our villages, the ones who make news if they join the Maoists or commit suicide. It is a sad commentary on India, that after more than sixty years of Independence, we the educated class have managed to build cities feigning ignorance of the seventy crore people who toil and grow food for us.
Belated Happy Republic Day