Have more government inspectors to remove corruption

When Rabindranath Tagore was about 12 years old, his father Debendranath took him on a tour of North India. On their way, they stayed in a cottage near Bolpur in Birbhum district where eventually Tagore would establish The Vishva-bharati University. Debendranath would tell his son few stories and anecdotes. In his autobiography, Jiban Smriti, Tagore alludes a few. One of them told by Debendranath is as relevant today as it was then.

In a Zaminder's house, the milkman would sell milk diluted with water. In order to stop the corruption, a person was appointed to look after the milkman. Unfortunately, it was found that the quantity of water in milk went up. Then the Zaminder appointed another person to inspect the first inspector. But milk became more watery. As more and more inspectors were appointed, the milk soon took the color of blue sky.

Does it sound similar to what we have in Indian government today? The industrialist L.M.Thapar (if my memory serves right) said few years ago that the government somehow assumes that all businessmen are thugs and all the government inspectors are as honest as saints. I think that a little more trust toward businessmen could go a long way in removing corruption.

My sense is that it may have to do with our ancient caste system where businessmen and traders , the Vaishyas, came third in the hierarchy of caste after the Brahmins and Kshatriyas. Probably they were looked down upon and not trusted then and the process has continued.

As I said in my previous blog, it will be a much better system where businessmen and others interacting with the government are provided the rules and regulations but they are trusted to follow the rules. One can make sure that he is following the rules by having his facility inspected by a private inspector for a small fee. The government can perform random checks on a few facilities to ensure that rules are being followed. This will reduce the need for most government inspectors and hence reduce graft.

This will reduce employee count in the government and will save the taxpayers plenty of money. However, it will upset those whose only dream is of landing in a government job and those who believe that the government must create useless posts at taxpayers' expense in order to create job.