The word "bribe" is no longer viewed with kind of negativity that was some common some thirty or forty years back. Some people jokingly called it "speed money" which you have to pay to impart some extra speed in getting your work done. In our materialistic world today the need for accepting bribe is absolutely as it proponents would argue! Now looking at the larger picture and coming to the central question:Have we ever thought of its baneful consequences on the society and the role of our governments? Pandit Jawhar Lal Nehru our first once threatened to hang the balck markeeters by lamp posts but turned out to be all fire and brimstone. Today corruption in its innumberable forms have spread its tentacles in every walk of our life. And we are wittingly or unwittingly promoting it to our destruction. The hydra-headed monster is making its presence felt in every moment of our life. Be it admission to a hospital or school, getting your building sanctioned unless you are ready to bribe the concerned officials you are stuck for ever.
The phenomenon of corruption is not new down the ages. In fact existence and acceptance of certain level of corrupt willy nilly have got to be accepted. But a society which allows itself to be dominated by corrupt culture is doomed to be backward. It works to the benefit of a selfish minority to the detriment of a vast section of our populace. Sadly the agencies which are entrusted with job ridding the system of this scourge have become a part of it. The government of any hue, left, right or centre has chosen to connive at it. Although we hear occasional solemn declarations of intent to erdicate this menace there is hardly any determined and sincere action on the ground.
The funds sanctioned and deployed for development projects hardly reach the target groups thanks to the existence of a rent-seeking racket consisting of stinkingly corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and their henchmen. The question we should be asking ourselves is whether we can afford to have corruption-ridden society like ours?