The Hindu Business Line : The burden of innocence

YESTERDAY'S papers carried a news item that stated that the Government had announced new regulations for issuance of passports and renewal of existing ones with the objective of checking fraud. An official was quoted as saying: "The tighter norms are meant to check the issuance and even renewal of passports under fake identities. Earlier, we accepted passport applications from travel agents. But cases have come to our notice where passports are being renewed under fake identities. Now, all applicants will be required to personally deposit and collect their passports at respective regional passport offices."

Without doubt, given the increasing dangers of citizens of neighbouring countries illegally acquiring bona fide citizenship of this country, this is an administrative step in the right direction.

While the Government has done the right thing by tightening rules regarding the issue of passports, what steps has it taken to confront cases of genuine passports being treated as false documents for reasons known only to the officials rejecting them? The immediate official reaction will, of course, be to ask for specific instances of such happenings. This attitude springs from the first principle that officialdom can do no wrong. In fact, these things do happen on a regular basis, especially to citizens who are not in a position to fight back.

This is a practice that should be checked just as stringently by the government. The fight against corruption will have to be stepped up if the average law-abiding citizen is to be rewarded for spurning the ways of those who have chosen to break the law.

Some may argue that there is no need to focus public attention on a subject as hackneyed as this, especially given that nothing worthwhile has come of such efforts.

But, then, those who have good intentions should strengthen the campaign against corruption. This should include not merely trying to apprehend the culprits but also trying to understand why a large number of potentially law-abiding citizens have consciously chosen to burden themselves with a guilt conscience.

One example may suffice to illustrate this last thought, namely, of people being forced to indulge in corrupt behaviour when all they want is to live a normal life.

A police constable in Kolkata gets about Rs 5,000 a month, a sum too meagre to meet the requirements of a family of four, including children who have to go to school.

So what does he do when he sees his colleagues collecting cash and living more comfortably? Does he not give in to the temptation to follow them and, in the process, ensure, among other things, that his children go to a proper school? What this fundamentally means is that if his salary is raised, he will be able to lead a corruption-free life. Is this possible, from the Government's point of view?

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

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