"We should declare the giving of a bribe as a legitimate activity and the giver of a harassment bribe should have full immunity from any punitive action by the state."

This is Kaushik Basu's answer to the problem of harassment bribes where a citizen is forced to pay a bribe to get what he or she is entitled to.

Dr Basu is the Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Ministry and in his earlier avatar as a professor of economics, he has done extensive research on corruption, economic efficiency and market distortions from the viewpoint of law and economics.

The problem with the current law, says Dr Basu, is that ?the giver and the taker become partners in crime.? The bribe taker should be fined double the amount of the bribe he has received.

But if only the bribe taker is to be punished, their interests will be opposite and this will make the bribe taker hesitate before demanding it.

"The upshot of this is not that the bribe taker will get caught but he will not take the bribe in the first place," says Dr Basu.

Dr Basu says that the trick is to create mistrust between the bribe-giver and bribe-taker. This will reduce ?the comfort zone within which bribery occurs there will be a decline in the incidence of bribery.?

He is emphatic that the new law should apply only to harassment bribes. Citing the Arthashastra , he writes ?If we want to really get at corruption, what we need to build up are values of honesty and integrity in society. In the language of the Arthashastra , we have to wean fish off water.?

On non-harassment bribes, Dr Basu says more analysis is needed, adding that ?even in such bribery cases there ought to be an asymmetric treatment of the bribe taker and the giver.?

Dr Basu may have overlooked one problem, though: evidence of a bribe having been given and the amount. His solution could leave public officials open to blackmail just as has happened in the anti-dowry laws.

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