Incentives for working hard

Shiban Khaibri
There are various incentives and enticements provided by employers to employees of all ranks to work hard, produce better results, provide better and prompt services, achieve set targets and increase productivity. Better performance on account of hard work is duly recognized, respected and rewarded almost everywhere — in public sector, private sector, corporate world, government departments and other institutions. In fact, an employee is otherwise expected to work and work sincerely and efficiently as he or she is paid the wages, salaries and other perks as price for the labour expended. Hard work is rewarded usually as an incentive in the form of issuing appreciation letters, making a laudable noting in service files, cash rewards, a promotion to the next grade, a better posting where the good performer could show still better results and above all earning recognition in one’s department/ field.
An entirely different type of incentive for working hard was made known by Shivpal Yadav, the uncle of the UP Chief Minister and brother of Mulayam Singh Yadav,  who is the Minister of PWD in UP and a prominent leader of Samajwadi Party. Recently  while addressing employees, bureaucrats in a district planning committee meeting in Ettah on 9th instant, he gave official sanction to the bureaucrats of the state to indulge in “a bit of corruption.” Said he quite authoritatively,”thodi bhaut choori kar sakte ho , dacoity nahi agar mehnat se kam karo gey” or “if you work hard , you may indulge in a bit of stealing but remember– no dacoity, don’t behave like dacoits.” He hastened to add, however, that  “it was not meant for news papers, otherwise they would publish …..”. While giving lessons on theft, he meticulously mentioned the names of the departments one by one where he would like to implement the decision but only “if you work hard to solve problems of the public”.
Now the technical point is that the word of a Minister and that too from the UP CM’s family is construed to be the policy of the Government, as such many wondered whether they  had fallen on such bad days of the quality of the governance that stealing and corruption were making inroads in the realms of legitimacy and general acceptability. Consequently, it led to spate of criticism which made the Minister realize that the said incentive advice was tantamount to putting foot in the mouth and handy came the damage control by blaming the oft used scapegoats of media persons who were charged with “distorting ” his remarks and not writing the issue “in totality” and that he had made these remarks in respect of the previous government. On the insistence of the press reporters, he had finally to say,” I have taken back these words.” Now he did not stop at this but wondered that he had always “cooperated” with the press , “I do not know why the media is “forgetting” this, so why are you raking it up ?”  The assertion of his cooperating and then the media not “reciprocating” has connotations beyond the scope of these lines but the fact goes that the media is doing a hilarious task in bringing out the facts and issues in the real form before the Aam Aadmi  as a result of which many wrongs and wrong doers get exposed and semblance  of the systems and procedures , checks and balances gets the cover of creditability. Analysing ipso facto the unwritten convention of “no problem – a bit” of corruption and stealing in the system as an established reality, endeavours are perhaps made to compartmentalizing the dishonesty. For example, a bit of stealing is better than robbery or burglary or even obsolete larceny. A theft can be defined in ordinary parlance as taking what belongs to some one else without the owner’s consent.  Stealing is a bit crude, in that, it is not only a theft but implies something taken secretly not only without owner’s permission but without his or her knowledge.  Robbery has a bit of “valour” ingrained in it as it is a theft committed with employing violence and intimidation to force the owner to give up whatever he can or whatever he has. Then comes the turn of burglary wherein the prospective beneficiary breaks in the owner’s premises or property with intention to steal . Lastly larceny is a scheme of things where somebody’s property is removed from the place where it belongs in order to be appropriated by the beneficiary thief. Admittedly the scourge of corruption is very difficult to be removed , movements of Anna or Baba or some one like them notwithstanding, let us pray for the time being that this malaise remains in the least troublesome one from amongst the five types mentioned here.
An anecdote is worth sharing. In a neighbouring state during the posting of this writer, a retired police official in whom could be found a bit of humour once told that corruption should not be demeaned by calling it as “goos”, “rishwat”, “chai pani” etc; but should be understood in its form or its particular stage. Making it comprehensible, he said it could be called as “Nazrana” or  “Mehantana”  or  “shukrana” meaning  a gift, the remuneration and thanks giving respectively. For getting the work done, the payment made could be treated as just a motivational gift in its first stage and thus Nazrana. When the work was in process, the money demanded could be as the babu’s or Mantri’s remuneration and therefore Mehantana.  When the work was finally done, then the money coughed up was as a reward or as thanks giving or Shukrana.  Shivpal Yadav has shown courage in admitting what was going on , he perhaps wanted to dilute its intensity and to play it down as well.
Noble laureate and a noted economist had said that “bribes were a source of inefficiency. It was inducing the bureaucracy to create artificial bottlenecks and was eventually going to sand the wheels.” Corruption, in the eyes of the World Bank and  the IMF  was the main barrier of economic growth and social and political stability. Corruption generates income disparities. Corruption was to a large extent responsible for price rise and was an extra tax imposed on commodities and services. Can we free our system from this scourge? Can rulers and politicians go in for zero tolerance against this affliction and not afford any immunity to anyone including themselves and not keep on testing the patience of an Aam Aadmi? Worth remembering are John Milton’s words, “King James at his coronation had coins and a sword with the inscription, “against me if I deserve.”

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