what will they do with the corruption money?

 

WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH THE CORRUPTION MONEY

Corruption in the government happens at many levels.

1.      Post man/lineman level

2.      Clerk/ peshkaar level

3.      J.E.  Level, superintendent level

4.      Policeman level

5.      Police inspector/ Assistant engineer/SDO level

6.      Magistrate level/ executive engineer level

7.      Junior judge/ Sup. Eng level

8.      District judge/ chief eng. / deputy secretary  level/head of independent bodies like nagar nigam

9.      Additional secy/ MLA level

10.  Secretary, junior minister level

11.  Principal secretary/ minister of state level

12.  Chief secretary/ state cabinet minister level/ central minister of state level

13.  Chief minister/ central minister level

14.  A Raja/ Mayawati level

The list is indicative and by no means comprehensive.

It’s wrong and immoral but the corruption of the first three levels is small.  It is in the region of 0.5 to 5 lakhs a year. Govt employees come from middle class /poor families and this much extra money doesn’t even get noticed for a few years, loans are repaid, shares in family land are bought, fresh land in the village is bought, gifts to parents and family, some jewellery, some fixed deposits in the names of family and self, a new motorcycle, sometimes a car or a house. A sisters marriage, a shop set up for a sibling or parent, A little increase in personal expenses for clothes, cosmetics, paan, gutka, booze etc. In later years this lot starts to buy small plots of land in the towns.

The next four levels make on kind of choices, the levels from 7 to 10 have another set of dreams depending on their upbringing. The next two (11 and 12) have big ambitions and uses for the money. The last lot is megalomaniacal and will not stop at anything. Even Murder.  Let us look at the holes in which the loot is filled.

Officers from levels 4 to 7 depending on the `plumness’ of their posting have an extra income of Rs 5- 50 lakhs a year.  Mind you these people have worked at level no. 1 to 3 for a long time before reaching this level.  The initial avenues for investing the money have been used up. Now these people have come to the stage that they try to hide this money from their own kin also. Who goes around gifting gold jewellery worth Rs 5 lakhs to one’s mother.  If she is educated she may just ask `where did you get so much money son’.  So this is the kind that buys` benami’ properties and invests with big builders who accept big black money contributions to carry out real estate deals. They invest in the share market under some false ID for which they are themselves signatories.  Since the black to white ratio in most property transactions of high value is 50-50. This crowd goes for big posh properties in other cities. They also buy upcoming commercial properties in other states where nobody is looking. The cash component is no problem, the white money has to be arranged as no interest loans from relatives and friends and from banks (often the guarantee for the loan is an FD made some years ago, or a benami made in the name of Fakir Singh, Tamatar Singh. Bure Singh etc.).  This lot also tends to increase their personal daily expense. They don’t mind buying a bottle of liquor for Rs 1000/- every day for self and friends, they buy expensive shoes, overpriced clothes, golden watches; they put their children in expensive schools and colleges and give them huge pocket money. (how do you thing nearly 150 stores selling overpriced clothing and shoes are surviving in Every small town ?). The really scared ones hide currency under the ground in mattresses and inside puja houses.

All this while they have a lifestyle which appears to be commensurate with their real salary, well maybe it appears that they have 1.5 times their actual salary but not more.

LEVELS 7 TO 10 are different because they are suave and English speaking, have been groomed in fancy government institutes to act like kings. Their loot could be between Rs. 10- 100 lakhs a year. They also travel abroad. This is where the real spending happens. Once they reach a destination abroad , they buy everything with illegally bought dollars and cannot be caught. These guys do everything with a little more care because they are under the media scrutiny. Of course they have done everything described in the levels described above. These people plan, sanction and acquire at subsidized rate `officers colonies, only to sell their rights at a later date. They are also inducted just after retirement/early retirement  as advisors, patrons, directors or consultants in companies which are owned by sons, daughters, friends and relatives. These companies are often built with the corruption money supplied by them.

Level 11 and 12 could make up to 5-6 crores a year. They have a pretty good chance of making real savings because their jobs have plenty of perks like a house, Car, expense accounts, free telephone, entertainment allowances sometimes, travelling allowances . They have a comfortable and respectable life only if they would be satisfied. No they want to be like the czars of the private sector, they wish to fly in chartered planes and to have accounts in Mauritius and other tax havens. Their single minded agenda is to export money abroad. Fortunately for them, frequent deals with representatives of foreign companies makes their task easy. Postings where such transactions take place are very very `expensive’.

We will come to the megalomaniacs later, first let’s look at the uses for the loot up to a level 12 

The million dollar question is ` what will these guys do with the money?

In the prime of their life, guys don’t have  a good time, they are scared to let this money show. They cannot use much of the corruption money in their youth as they are busy making it.  They can only use so much and a mattress full of bank notes is surely damn uncomfortable.  They are unlikely to use in their middle age as they are almost at the top of their careers (of making black money)  and they don’t want a disproportionate assets case against themselves). The only age left to use it is your old age where you can see it being plundered by your thankless kids who are thankless because they know where the money came from and how. . I have a feeling that this ill gotten money will be used for

1.      Cultivating useless, bad habits such as booze, cigars ,imported food etc

2.      Buying useless possessions which can be hidden such as gold, watches

3.      Getting knee replacements, also hip, kidney and liver etc.

4.      Getting false hair, breasts, nose, pacemakers

5.      getting expensive and sometimes useless foreign  education for children and grand children

6.      buying fancy cars for children

7.      keeping mistresses

8.      buying farm houses with swimming pools  in which they can neither, farm, nor live, nor swim

9.      Going on foreign guided tours specially designed for senior citizens.

There are plenty of honest people too. Please don’t get the impression that there are no honest people working in the govt. There are a lot more than you think and they are happy to be honest. They work hard, get their salary, get respect from everybody they work with and retire. They are the ones who get toughest tasks, most amount of work, maximum no. of transfers, least no. of junkets and only pension to support them.  They sleep easy. They run this country. May their breed grow.

THE MEGALOMANIAC LEVEL (LEVELS 13 AND 14)A BJP MLA did not get something he wanted from the party, became a rebel and joined mayawati’s party. Mayawati had no chance of winning   that election but she gave him a helicopter to campaign. Everybody saw a blue helicopter going the length and breadth of the constituency without purpose or hope of winning the seat.  A million questions that I had had about the use of ill gotten money were answered in a minute. Of course we also know that Mayawati makes trips to Switzerland to get some direct foreign investment sometimes.

The collective knowledge about the uses of such large volumes of corruption money is somewhat new.  We don’t even know what a cache of a 1000 crores look like, we definitely don’t know what or Rs 1700000000000/- looks like (1, 70,000 crores) and what is the likely use of it by a family in a single life time.

 Perhaps they can light a bon fire with bundles of Rs 1000/- bills, which will also be 17000000/-  in number. Perhaps they can get a gold throne, and a secret coronation, x no. of wives; maybe they can eat gold foil on toast every morning. Maybe you can keep six mistresses or gigolos; you could get a get a 22 carat gold bed. Mattress will have to be of a soft material say mink fur. Maybe they can buy a BMW for each day of the week (no no that will attract attention).

 Maybe they can put it in the bank and say that all the people of this country gifted it to me (it has been tried). They can say that my son is now working in America and he sends me a million dollars a month (helluva son  of ........ the soil)

India’s financial planners have used much of their creativity in finding uses for black money (such as voluntary disclosure schemes). I am not going to comment on that, its time the government made a systematic analysis of corruption, maybe close down some atom bomb department but get a bloody system to secretly monitor the global assets of every government employee before joining and every year in order to catch them young before they become the A Rajas of this world.

Param Jigyasu

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