Corruption in India is everywhere, I have heard a number of stories:
- My drivers brother had to pay a years salary to get a job as a bus driver – a state job.
- I saw police stopping people without crash helmets at the intersection of a busy road. I am told you are given the choice of 100rp official fine, or 50rp to the policeman and he will let you go.
- Supposedly a new restaurant which doesn’t have an alcohol license not only pays the police so it can serve alcohol – but employs someone who gets arrested every month. (I am not sure this one is true but i like to believe it is)
Now, when I heard these stories, I couldn’t believe that’s how Indian society worked, I wondered if it would ever be possible to stop and I thought how much better the UK was.
And then I realised, as MP’s expenses claims have proven, the UK is probably just as corrupt – at least in India it is much more in the open