One of the perks of being in a Government job is the Stability factor. Basically it means that you might be asked questions regarding your incompetence but you will never be held accountable for your inefficiency, laziness or the fact that you simply don't care about the coveted government job you fought tooth and nail for. The idea is to prevail a sense of security among the officers so that they don't tremble in fear in implementing the policies laid down by the government, however as most things do in India, the Cobra effect gets activated when any policy is laid down by the lawmakers for prevention of any mishaps.
But all is not that bad, there are anti-corruption laws and regulations which may exact severe penalties and punishments if found guilty. Although you might think that the judiciary itself gets walked by a snail in terms of pace, there is some truth to the fact that the Anti-Corruption departments do trap a lot of these bad apples which get media coverage as well, in order to set an example.
I am here to take you through one such case that took place in our department which actually tells a lot about the aftermath of asserting charges on a Government officer. This particular officer ,let him be X had a knack for being upfront in his dealings. X didn't care nor dreaded anyone despite not being that high in ranks.It was X's strong understanding that the job is permanent in nature hence the worst outcome of these "under the table" dealings, which were not that under the table, might get publicized at the most and X was right. There were hardly any people who ever got trapped in any corruption cases in the department got suspended at the most where you get almost 50% salary and if the Department finds nothing in order to charge you(which they don't) then you get reinstated after a few months;plus you get the backpay.
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| PC- hydnews.net |
So X had no reason to worry logically and his insubordination put into the mix made him virtually untouchable. This was not only known to the people within the department but also to the contractors who had to go through X for their pertinent work.
All this was going fine, X had new cars, land, flats and everything else which added more vitriol to his dealings with everyone whether it was personal or professional. Now the thing with getting caught in a corruption case is that everybody is fine as long as you take the tacitly agreed price of your conscience and even the Anti-Corruption people know that, the problem arises when you suddenly start asking for an astronomical figure and start moving the goal post further. The normal "rate" is fixed , depending on your stature and the historical rhythm set by the "has-beens", but if somebody, like in our case X,tries to disrupt the established order then its bound to turn some watchful eyes your way.
X got a bit greedy and had started asking for a larger sum than usual for a simple signature on a file. This triggered unrest among the people who then went to the superior officers of the department, but X didn't care, he thought that if even one person got their way with him at a lower price then nobody would care about his authority(as a corrupt officer) and he cared a lot about his nefarious reputation.
So one such guy who had some influence over the department and was a seasoned contractor came to X for a mere approval. X saw that as an opportunity to send out a message and upgrade his earnings now that even the big players are kneeling before him. So X asked for a lot and eventually got a lot, but then at the stipulated date of approving their file, X wanted even more. There was a heated debate after which X threw the file in the garbage. The contractor didn't even think twice and went straight to the Anti-Corruption department, where they always do the suspect a favor by informing the highest officials first but X was undeserving of any forecast for the upcoming storm.
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| PC(Indiatoday.in) |
So eventually the Anti-Corruption team laid out a trap where they sent the same contractor back to X , readily agreeing to all of X's demands. A quiet and desolated location is picked where both parties are scheduled to meet for exchanging the cash amount. However the cash is laid with a chemical (Phenolphthalein if I'm not wrong) and the serial number of the notes are already with the team. Then they install a small camera at an unsuspecting location where this entire scene could be captured and when the exchange is made then the teams simply come out of the dark to handcuff the perpetrator and is asked to wash hands with soap which turns red due to the chemical reaction,hence the term red-handed.
People react differently in these scenarios, some start crying incessantly whereas some try to settle matters then and there by offering some to the Anti-Corruption teams. Overall when you're caught, you're caught and there is hardly anything that can be done there, some media people come in and capture the moments to put everything in public record. At this point you might feel that story ends here, the deserving officer got what was imminent and now the course of law will decide the magnitude of the punishment. But trust me this is not even the interesting part of the story, the normal people believe that justice has been served that the country is devoid of one corrupt officer at least, however the story begins from here but this post is becoming too long and cumbersome.
Do comment and follow for more insights of being a Government officer and other rants. Here's a link to my other entries-
