As usual, I took a KSRTC bus to college today. As usual, I bought the ticket from the conductor and as usual he wrote the change that he owed me on the back of the ticket. After one stop from where I had boarded, the Ticket Checkers boarded the bus. These are people who do kind of surprise visit to the bus and check if the conductor has given tickets to all passengers and if there are passengers who are travelling without buying a ticket.
Generally, passengers and bus conductors have aversion towards each other. I used to think that this may be because the conductor doesnt give change properly, or may be rude in the way he/she talks to passengers. Conductor also doesnt sometime stop the buses on the stop. I had always thought that it was due to these daily friction that passengers dont like the conductor.
Today as usual, the Ticket Checkers checked all the tickets of the passengers. The conductor was very prompt and had given tickets to all the passengers. Hence the Ticket Checkers did not have any complain against him and hence he did not have to bear any penalty. Usually if any person is found travelling without tickets, the conductor has to pay the penalty of Rs. 300 from what I know.
After the Ticket Checkers left, conductor like a student who had just passed his exam, sighed. Some of the passengers started talking amongst themselves and with him, saying that Ticket Checkers were very disappointed, they did not get any reasons for penalty and during the discussion, I could see amazing solidarity of the passengers with the Conductor. He also was talking to them nicely and passengers were abusing the Ticket Checkers as people who always want to loot, etc.
This is when I realized that the reason why there is aversion between passengers and conductor is not because of bad behaviour or something. It is because for the passengers, he is the face of the oppressor called government. Everytime there is a hike in ticket prices, everytime they have to travel in fully packed buses, they blame the government and they see the conductor as the person representing government.
In that moment when Ticket Checkers came to check ticket, Conductor also became a part of the oppressed and hence they were easily able to show solidarity with him. This solidarity takes the form of corruption, when the government employee, to a large extent oppressed himself joins hands with the general public.
People blame the traffic police who catch them for violations as they see them as the face of the government. However the same police may becomes a friend when he gets the job done going against the rules as there is also on the side against the government.
Say politicians who earned crores of ruppee in Coal Scam may be corrupt but because they get the work done through the government for the local people, their corrupt acts are completely ignored because for people these are people just cheating the oppressor.
Tag: corruption
May 5, 2015
When government is the oppressor, corruption is the way of living
August 16, 2011
Why do I support Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption?
Who am I?
I am a citizen of India with no proof of identification except my Pan Card. I have no voter’s id card and hence have not voted yet even though I am 23 years old. Hence I am an irresponsible Indian citizen as I have not completed some of the duties of an Indian citizen.
How much does corruption effect me?
Well, to be honest, corruption is something that does not hurt me much at personal level. I mean, as a middle class man, I do not usually interact with government officials. I guess, the only time I have to interact with them is when I need these necessary documents like passport, ration card, driver’s license.
The only other time when I will have to interact with government officials is probably when I buy a vehicle or a house or land for myself. Even in such cases, there are many agents who will do the dirty job of interacting with the government officials and get my work done. Overall, in all such cases, I can easily get my work done by throwing some money on agents. As a middle class man, I can easily afford it and hence there is no real impact at my personal life.
Then why?
Fame: Yes, this is probably one of the reason. I mean, clearly there is a huge publicity of this issue and by taking part in such highly publicized issues, I am bound to get fame. Probably in my facebook profile or through my twitter profile. Who doesn’t like few likes from friends out of which hopefully some will be females. After all, most of the things people do nowadays are for facebook likes and comments.
I do have around 700+ friends in FB and hence a huge number of people as audience. You never know which female starts liking you just due to your status messages. Havnt there been love stories that happened over facebook.
Money: Na. I will not gain any money by supporting this issue and I guess nobody is actually making any money from it other than media.
Networking: Yes, this can be another reason why I am going there. Such events produce a great chance of meeting new people with similar interests and growing your professional network. Also since the people there are also probably for the same causes, it easily allows you to mingle with them.
Corruption: Is this a good enough reason to support Anna Hazare and his campaign?
The amount of corruption cases that have come forward in last 1-2 years is enormous and imagining the things the government could have done for the people, had that money been properly channelized really makes me angry. I mean, yes, this government has been elected by the people for the second time to the power and hence that means, the people had lots of faith in them. That doesn’t mean no voices should be raised against them when so many corruption cases are coming to light and so little is being done by the government to punish the guilty.
There has been never a sincere effort to punish the corrupt in India and none of the government which had come to power ever tried to implement laws which will punish the responsible. The lokpal bill itself has been in the parliament for around 42 years and none of the government has been willing to pass this bill for the obvious reasons.
Again, though we can have huge confidence over the elected members in the parliament, will they actually pass a law that curbs their power and put checks over themselves. Obviously only this type of movement will only force the parliament members to pass a strict lokpal bill.
