LCCS - Do you have it in you?

I have been tinkering with this hypothesis off late that the reason corruption and disorder is so rampant in our society is primarily because

• There's no fear factor. Anyone who's sinning knows the system is too busy to punish him, and the keepers of justice too preoccupied in clearing roads for our ministers to travel that they don't have the time to actually push the system
• There's a clear distinction between THEM - those who maintain justice and US - those who complain about it. Apart from our personal zones of influence where we can abstain from doing anything wrong, there're no immediate ways in which we can make a difference
• The options we have usually are EITHER-OR. As in, if I wanted to do something to curb corruption I have options that involve forsaking my present way of life (politics, public service commission) or get involved with a dreary, choking justice system.

So, I came up with this idea of LCCS - Layman corruption control squad. Now, anyone in any profession or walk of life can enrol himself in this squad and he will be given a general introduction about our jurisdiction, what constitutes a crime and some sleuth tricks (for collecting relevant evidence - on paper, audio and video) and they are back into our society. Whenever, in their daily life, they are encountered with situations where they are asked for bribe or something, they can collect enough evidence and submit it to anticorruption courts (which run very similar to customer courts) which can then take immediate action. A few enthusiastic fellows can go out of their way, scheme and implicate those who are involved in serious corruption.The advantages that I see in this approach are the following

• There's always a fear factor (something, the south indian director, shankar, plays with in every alternate movie of his - someone-is-out-there factor!). You never know who's in the LCCS and hence there's always an impending risk of getting caught.
• People can now involve themselves in such activities without getting out of their usual routines.
• Once something like this is up, you would know very clearly the line of difference between those who complain and do nothing and those who actually want to do something about the present situation.

Of course, one can do this without LCCS you may say. but the advantages are firstly, the concept of anti-corruption courts which make sure our judicial system is not burdened more and secondly, there are so many who want to do something but don't know where to start. This will give them a place to start.

Of course, this will not solve all problems. There are so many issues in the top level (right till the top most chair). Our LCCS cannot solve those problems. While I was at INSEAD, I had the chance to listen to AK Singh who was then the chairman of Planning commission. He elucidated it beautifully, "A guy who comes to your house can ask you for some bribe before setting up your phone line. Why because he has the discretion to give you or not give you the phone line coz he is the only one who can give it to you. Bring in 5 more providers and he loses this discretion. The only way to reduce corruption is to downsize the government, introduce privatization and encourage free market." - Totally agree with him. Even if that means, throwing off those CPI fellows out of the coalition and start the disinvestment ministry functioning again.

Just as I am writing this, my room mate and I have started discussing a lot of related issues. More on that later! It's 1:30 in the night and I have to sleep now.