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Law is a guideline in India, unlike in the west where citizens are by and large civil and lawful. This is not to say that in the west, crimes do not happen, or scams are inconceivable, or corruption is unimaginable. This is to say that in India, lawlessness is in your face; it is in your everyday life; it seeps into every part of your body and in every aspect of your daily life including travel, water supply, healthcare, government services, real estate, banking, or what have you.
The lawlessness in India is rising day by day. Let me cite some examples from various facets of our daily life:
Have you ever stood at a traffic light and observed how somebody, or the other is continuously breaking the law? They are going in the wrong direction, or changing lanes without any indication, or running the light, or one or more of these. Roads are unsafe for pedestrians as they are not designed for walking. Pedestrians cannot cross the streets without fear of being run over by a vehicle or falling or stumbling because of a pothole or uneven surfaces/sidewalks. The vehicles around them will not stop whatever be the color of the light or the disability of the pedestrian. Drinking and driving is rampant and is something to boast about.
Parking or stopping awkwardly anywhere inconveniencing pedestrians and drivers alike is the norm. If you say something, the drivers will yell at you for correcting them with choicest expletives. The drivers have never leant to be civil, polite, considerate, and the civil society doesn’t require them to be. If you get caught speeding, rash driving, side swiping, killing another human being or an animal, the police and the law is for sale. You can bribe your way out.
Redevelopment of existing buildings by developers is happening across Maharashtra (I am not as well versed on this situation in other states). In redevelopment, the developer acquires rights to develop a new building or many buildings (towers) in place of the existing one(s) and provide alternate accommodation to the existing flat owners in the new development along with payment of rent to facilitate these residents to rent while the new project is being built. For the last 20 or more years, the developers have been taking the existing flat owners and the buyers of new apartments for a ride. The projects would take anything from 5 to 10+ years; the developer will create agreements with individual buyers on varying terms and conditions wherein many people will pay upfront all the money for some discount; others will be stuck paying EMIs and rent; and the original owners’ group will not get rent on time and some of them will die without ever seeing their house. There was very little one could do.
Maharashtra government created RERA (Real Estate Regulatory Authority) but developers are not really concerned with this change. The police are in their pocket, municipal authorities are on their payroll, and RERA is for sale.
The people have no option but to approach the courts, but then Indian court system is difficult to navigate, is expensive, takes several years, and takes decades to get a decision. The real estate in India is one big mafia and everyone from politicians, developers, businessmen, and police are involved in land capture, cornering land parcels with insider knowledge, changing the law to accommodate the project, money laundering through benami holdings, etc. But the plight of the common man who invested his/her hard-earned money in a project is not seen or heard by anyone.
Have you ever been to a Road Transport Authority Office or a Land Registration Office or a Marriage Registrar’s Office or any other government office from where you have a document or certificate to acquire. There will be brokers (touts) lined up outside facilitating these services. If you retain the broker and give the requested bribe, you may get your work done, or else you can keep coming and going, one day several weeks/ months later you may succeed. You think an Indian common man deserves this for electing a government that appoints the bureaucrat and the government staff that expect a bribe for doing their job?
In summary, corruption and lawlessness are an inherent part of an Indian’s psyche. If you ask a grade four kid about corruption in police or government offices, don’t be surprised if he/she knows more about it than you as a senior citizen.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint