ulta pulta
Rank honesty
Jaspal Bhatti

Sharmaji, a senior government official, seemed terribly upset. He paced up and down restlessly with a frown on his forehead. "Sir, is everything okay?" asked his personal assistant.

"Get me the information as to who in our office has given up corruption or has partially decreased its level", he shouted. "But sir, what makes you think so," the PA said.

Sharmaji said the annual ranking of Transparency International showed that India had improved her rank in corruption.

Sharmaji, a staunch crusader of corruption, maintains that one honest man in the whole smooth corrupt network can spoil the entire game.

I am with Sharmaji. A staunch non-vegetarian may, at some point, turn to vegetarianism. Similarly, a habitual drunkard can also keep off drinks on medical grounds. But a corrupt man cannot turn into an honest man.

Anthropologists think that corrupt tendencies are influenced by culture and ethos. A bribe in one country may be considered as a harmless gift in another. The more expensive the gifts, the smoother the government machinery.

I would advise the Transparency International to recheck their metering system of the integrity level. Probably they might have taken samples last month when most of the government officials were down with viral.

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