Corruption & Butterfly Effect

Touted to root out all corruption from the current political system, LokPal Bill has finally been tabled in the parliament. One must laud the efforts of Anna Hazare and his team who fought for the bill and took the fight against corruption to the corrupt politicians.

LokPal Bill proposes numerous Lokayuktas which identify various corruption cases and aim to pronounce verdict within 2 years. These Lokayuktas will be independent of any body just like the Election Commission (EC). However, one wonders how many cases can these Lokayuktas handle each year, and will they be enough, given the extent of corruption right from the level of peon to the PMO. Also, one cant be sure of impartiality on part of the Lokayuktas. Another question which arises is,"Who will watch the watchdogs?".

Warren Buffet states that greed is essential human behavior. Government makes laws and rules to preempt acts of greed. People bend rules and supersede law out of pure greed. Law does slow down greediness, but doesn't eradicate it. LokPal Bill will only slow down the process of corruption, it wont eradicate it.

This is where the Butterfly Effect comes in the picture. This effect states that a flap of a butterfly has far-reaching effects. For example, in 1980's and 90's, crime rate in US was rapidly rising. Infact America was predicted to implode by 2010. None of that happened. Crime rate has dramatically declined since late 1990's. How did this happen? The law enforcements did not work. The answer lies in the Abortion Bill. Most of the delinquents and thugs comprised illegitimate or unwanted offsprings. Ever since abortion was legalized,such babies have drastically reduced, and crime rate followed suit.

The million dollar question is, what is the 'butterfly' for our corrupt system? This question has been answered by India's Chief Economic Advisor, Kaushik Basu. He asserts that bribing should be legalized. Currently under the Indian Penal Code, both the briber and the bribe receiver are treated as accomplices of crime. If Basu's suggestion is implemented, the briber no longer is termed criminal, however accepting bribe remains crime. If bribing is legalized, the people who bribe to 'grease the process' would be willing to testify against the corrupt. However, bribing to get illegal work done would still remain a crime under this suggestion.

I personally believe Basu's approach is the path Indian Government should adopted. It is not flashy like LokPal, and may not be understood by the masses, Infact it will not show instant results, but will surely lead to terminal decline of corruption. Illegal betting, prostitution, drugs all have same solutions, legalize them and bring them in the arbit of law.