Bribe in India - An Overview

Is this all the difference between Theft & Bribe?



Bribe is a universal remedy to many personal needs. The public are almost accustomed to it. In most of the cases people are ready to bribe for their work without even knowing whether the person in charge asks for it. This is what we mean by bribe in India.

Generally people in other countries bribe for violating the rules. But in India people bribe for their work done even to implement the rights/rules. Why the situation is worse in India?

Well, when we turn back to our History, we find that traditionally Indian people have been more ruled by Zamindars, the so called land owners and Indian businessmen rather than by the British. At one stage, the people were cheated to the extent that they were ruled by very few wealthy persons.

It was at that moment that the British entered our country
for cheap labour and resources
made this fragmented country of India into one,
framed Labour laws,
reallocated the wealth from few rich people towards the Government,
allocated for forests,
built roads,
built railway networks,
developed ports,
took a census of all the people in the erstwhile India and Pakistan in 1921,
and after all these, the Indian Democratic Setup was established
by framing a Constitution,
which is an Indian Edition of the Well-Crafted British Bureaucracy.

The British Constitution, I mean, the Indian setup, had all the things in it to check corruption and malpractices in the day-to-day functioning of the Government. But still, the sharp Indian men found many loopholes and went on digging to form a pit where people have to pour in money to exercise even their fundamental rights.

Actually nobody wants to complain against the bureaucrat who demands bribe but they come to complain if they are pressed to concede the demand over and above their expectations.

However the public who intend to bribe the for the sake of work done within the rules or by violating rules or escape from their duty or to escape from paying/evading tax, etc, are to be punished.

How the people are evading tax without knowing?
While purchasing some groceries, articles nobody ask about the bill. Especially while purchasing gold, silver ornaments nobody bother about the bill. Because they feel that they will be bound to pay tax.

While purchasing a property, the public used to by stamp paper for the guideline value only. But, actually they pay the market value for the property which is definitely more than that of the guideline value.

Sometimes, the people bribe to escape from the clutches of law. For example, the people who drive vehicle without valid licence bribe the traffic police, to escape from the legal action to be imposed on them.