Diogenes' Quest

A poll, published in The Hindu,  determined that young Indians perceive the main threat against India's future to be corruption.  The corruption, at all levels of government, is pretty bad.  The only person who seems to be on the up-and-up is Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister, and people say that's the reason he can't get anything done.


While we were in India, an activist planned to organize protests against corruption.  The activist, Anna Hazare, demanded a government agency to investigate and prosecute corruption.  These protests were to be held around the country and tens of thousands,would rally against corruption.  To show how serious they were about ending corruption, the government threw him in jail.

We had one experience with corruption, bribery to be specific.  It was odd to us, but customary to those who live in India.  Apparently in Bengaluru, vans and large vehicles need a special permit to enter the Central Business District.  We were stopped by a traffic policeman, who opened the passenger door of the van and sat next to Suresh (our driver) with impunity.  He declared that the permit cost 300 rupees, but he would let us through for R200.  As he explained it, the discounted fee does not come with a receipt.  So we paid the R200 and drove into the city.  We realized that we were a fairly easy target because the van bore a Tamil Nadu license plate rather than a local Karnataka plate.  A few blocks later we were stopped by another traffic cop.  He also told us that we needed a permit.  This honest cop, however, charged us R100 and gave us a receipt. So we were out R300 for a R100 permit.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the first policeman, I did manage to get photos of the others.

Buying the permit

Pulled over again to check the permit