Keeping the palm free of grease

The other day, the prime minister attacked the psyche of corruption and resolved to eradicate the malady in the next five years.

The other day, the prime minister attacked the psyche of corruption and resolved to eradicate the malady in the next five years. It requires creation of lasting cultural and behavioural changes in a nation which is accustomed to tipping for any service rendered or not rendered. An onerous task indeed. ‘Greasing the palm’ has been in use in the English language for almost 500 years. It evolved from the expression to grease the wheels since wheels required grease in order to turn smoothly without squeaking and getting stuck. Eventually greasing moved to someone’s hand and metaphorically changed to money.

‘Muh mitha karo’ (put sweet in my mouth) is a popular euphemism employed by some babus for seeking bribes from people in need of a favour from them. We attempt to bribe gods also. Students or their parents vow to break 108 coconuts in front of Ganesh temples if they are blessed with good results in exams.  Rich men are known to drop gold and cash in hundis of temples for gods to bless them with more wealth.

Selfishness and desire for quick fixes lead to dishonesty and corruption. Unfortunately, it all starts from our childhood.  Some mothers often dangle inducements to their children for desisting from bad behaviour. Mothers often tell their children “If you finish your homework before you go to play, I will give you a toffee” or “if you arrange your books and notebooks now, I will take you to a park in the evening.” I saw a child at a shop asking for a high-end pen. The shopkeeper asked, “Why are you buying such a costly pen?” The child replied, “Today is Teachers’ Day. I want to gift it to my class teacher so that she will be pleased with me.”

If their wards do not score well in school final examinations, some parents pay big money to college managements to secure admissions in engineering and medical colleges without receipts and thus help in creating black money. I observed that my wife was tipping the municipal corporation employees who collected garbage bags from our house every month. I told her, “The government is paying them salary for doing the work.

Why are you bribing them?” The wife said, “I am afraid that they will not remove the trash lying in front of our house or may forget to collect garbage from our house. Everybody in the street are tipping them and  I cannot be the odd woman out.” The mindset of givers and takers has to change for us to succeed in eradicating entrenched corruption. Citizens should be bold enough to say, ‘no’ to bribe seekers. A tall order, indeed.

P Subramanian

Email: mailpsubramanian@gmail.com

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