Originally Posted by
d3vski
Hserus,
Well, the general consensus in this thread is that India is corrupt.
If your an average person in India, not some upcoming middle class but plainly average then corruption is alive and kicking in India.
I dont live in India but i have family who are still proudly average, not upcoming rich or pretentious and not wannabes but people who mind their own business and get on with things. They travel by train and they rent in modest but nice accomadations.
Ill give you a few examples:
My cousin had to bribe the BMC person who came to approve a permission to add extra bathrooms in the house.
My fiance/wife had to wait all day in the police station in Thane district to get her passport application approved by the police station.
My cousin paid off a policeman in when he got stopped on a motorcycle and he did not have a licence and helmet.
My mum had to get a copy of her birth certificate and it was all produced without anything being checked and was fast tracked when i paid money.
My cousin got his name added to his wife's passport as a spouse despite not having a marriage that is registered.
When i got i married in Thane district registry office, my photocopies of my documents were miraculously stamped/signed off as a certified copy by a magistrate despite my orignals being in london for about 200Rs.
I even managed to jump queue and get married without giving the statutory 30 day notice.
Ive been on trains where the Travelling ticket checker miracously finds a sleeping berth when money exchanges hands.
Ive even bribed the airport staff to allow excess baggage through.
There is no denying that there are corrupt officials in India. If you believe "but corruption is good -- as long as you or on the right side of it!" you don't get it. There is no right side of corruption. It's all wrong. You haven't got a leg to stand on when you complain about corruption.
Driving without a license on person and your cousin expects to be let go? Many of your examples show how people bribe LEOs so that the latter will overlook their offense. That's blatant corruption on the part of your relatives. My father got my birth certificate from the city of birth, 37 years after my birth without paying a s ingle rupee in bribe. It was not mandatory to register births when I was born. There is a legal procedure, you have to follow. It required proper evidence, documentary and circumstantial. Upon producing required evidence before a judge, the court issued an order to have my birth data recorded in the city records. This was in a city we had not lived in for 36 years.
You might be very proud of bribing the TTE to get a berth, but have you stopped to thunk that you deprived someone who should, legitimately, have been given that berth? The deprived person might have been an elderly person travelling for treatment, a pregnant woman travelling to be with her family, or a husband travelling home for the birth of his child. I travelled all over India by trains with my wife for two weeks. I never had to bribe anyone to secure a berth.
You have indulged in corrupt practices and you have the gall to complain?
Corruption is alive in India because people like you support it. Shame on you.