Commentary / Mani Shankar Aiyar

The courts now say Theek hai; aap ka kaam ho jayega
can end up with your being summoned as a co-accused
for a bribe you did not take!

At every turn, countries like ours find themselves up against the cruel logic of shortages, rationing and, therefore, arbitrary discretionary quotas. And it is not long before the logic of the marketplace enters the ambit of the exercise of discretion. There is somebody with a need out there; there is also somebody out there with a fistful of cash to back his need.

Authority is tempted because there is the tempter knocking loudly at the door. Authority then starts turning a deaf ear to all other sounds.

In this atmosphere of shortages, rationing and discretion, the politician on the ground finds himself caught on the horns of a diurnal dilemma. It at first seems easy to mount the ethical high horse. Very soon, however, the problem mainfests itself. While you sit in Delhi banqueting at Hyderabad House because our sweat here made you an MP, says a party worker, my wife needs a gas connection; I am ready to pay for it; but the gas agency says I'll have to wait till my grand-daughter is born before a connection can be released. What are you, the MP I helped get elected, going to do about my petty little problem?

Another says, there are more kids trying to get admission to the local school than there is place for them; there is no test to screen out all who cannot be admitted; one little letter from you to the headmaster will make my kid's career; are you going to mar the child's prospects because I devoted myself to making yours?

A third pipes up: my son has taken a B Com degree; he cannot get a job commensurate with his qualifications; he is so desperate he is ready to forget his education and take up even a Class-IV appointment as a chaprasi; are you going to deny me a letter of recommendation? After all, I am not asking you to get my son a job; I am only asking you to recommend him for one.

Faced with these real and humanitarian problems, what does a politician do? Tell the petitioners to go jump off a cliff? Give them a lecture on selfless social service? Ignore their insistent pleas? or say, Theek hai; aap ka kaam ho jayega?The courts now say such a remark can end up with your being summoned as a co-accused for a bribe you did not take!

There is, of course, a whale of difference between asking the regional passport officer to render a consular service quicker than his native lethargy permits and stashing millions of rupees in gunny bags in your pooja room. But when the same syndrome of shortages, rationing and discretion start operating at ethereal levels of public money, the request for an IRDP loan of a few thousands gets translated into contracts worth thousands of millions. After all, the Mahajan's wife also has a stomach to be filled.