Being a Bombayite originally, I was not at all surprised when my bro, who just moved to Pune from US, told me about him bribing the traffic cop. My bro was on his way from Pune to Bombay and was stopped by a traffic policeman for no reason at all (which again is not surprising). He was demanded Rs. 100 as fine, which he paid. Then the cop told him that his license will be withheld and he needs to collect it from the local RTO after 4 days. My bro was confused about this "new" rule. So he asked the cop about what the rules were... yes, please don't laugh :). The reason he asked this was, because, in our days which is about 10-15 years back, these traffic cops were pretty shameless. They would directly ask us "Rs. 50 lagega chai-paani ke liye" (Will require Rs. 50 for snacks, in short as bribe). Anyways, in a while the cop hinted my bro about giving him Rs. 50. After my bro handed it to him, the cop laughed and said "Pehle dene ka na, kitna time waste kiye" (You should have given it earlier, you have wasted my time).
The exact same thing happened on his way back from Bombay to Pune, except for this time my bro didn't bother asking him about the rules. The cops know that nobody would want their license to be withheld for 4 days. And for exactly what reason is it being withheld? My bro was on his way to Bombay, how can he drive without his license? Is this 'withholding license' thingy really a rule? How do we know?
I have bribed the traffic cops n number of times during my college days. Not very proud about it. I started riding my (ahem..my bro's) kinetic honda since I was 15 years old. Meaning, I didn't have a license and still rode it all over town. I had enough money to bribe these cops, the going rate was Rs. 20 at that time. Again, not very proud about this. But in my defense, I rode it better than most rickshaw-wallahs do. As a teenager I was tempted. And in a country where anything can be achieved with a little bribe, I went for it.
What I am trying to say in this post is not something that isn't on everybody's mind already. But which I want to type in anyways:
We definitely need rules to be enforced by these traffic cops AND more importantly, we need transperency to these rules.
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5 comments:
I tried bribing a cop once and he gave me so much raag about being educated and doing all this.I mumbled an apology,meekly paid the fine and ran away from there!
Hi, Came here through PS's blog. Really like it...so I'm blogrolling you... Keep up the good work!
Oh wow Avanti,Its so good to hear that there are a few good cops around. I wish there were more, but oh well, if wishes were horses...
Thanks rajk!
Heh heh heh true thing about cops in India I guess. I have shelled out a couple of hundred bucks for this very just cause. Bright side - I still have my bike and license.
To the point of sounding idealistic let me say that I think if 50 people say no to cops when they ask for bribe and say OK keep the license, they most probably will stop using it as a tactic. Cops only use it as a scaring tactic and are not interested in going empty handed. If you know you are not wrong then dont even hand out the license in the first place. Carry a photo copy and only give that first.
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