The Shimla Law Courts and Questions of Corruption

To travel to the Spiti Valley, you have to get a permit. According to the guide books, Joey at Sars Lodge and the tourist office in Shimla, this is not a difficult process. You have to go to the Government office in Manali, Rekong Peo, or Shimla, take copies of your passport and a photo and it is just a matter of filling in a form and getting it stamped.

The process today was really interesting though and sparked of a conversation which I am still mulling over.

First of all we had to find the right place, the Office of the District Commissioner. This took a little while, and we had to ask in a few places, but it was one of the offices just off the mall.

Like many of the Government Buildings in Shimla, it is a relic of the Raj - an impressive building in its day, and it still has a fading grandeur. But it is over a hundred and twenty years old, and not just faded, but verging on the decrepit. Paint peeling, wood rotting, grimy beyond belief and rubbish in the communal areas.

We went in one entrance, where there were not too many people. The man in uniform said down a nearby corridor. At the end was an office tucked in the eaves, an old photocopier taking up most of the room. A man popped out of what looked like a cupboard and said it was in the office next door. We went through a couple of doors, higher up into the attic, and there was a room with a counter and a few people standing by.

We explained what we wanted and they said 'wrong room, wrong room. This man will take you'. We followed an elderly looking porter with a turban, back down a couple of corridors to a set of stairs. This was a lot more populated - lots of young men in suit jackets looking like clerks chatting, and a few members of the public. We were then led into a room with benches and dozens if Indians of all types and castes sitting waiting to be called. It really didn't feel as if we were in the right place. These people looked like they were petitioning the Government for something. There were other rooms full of people too, looking in various stated of resignation, frustration and patience.

Dan looked out of the window and saw a sign for the Deputy Commissioner in a crowded courtyard. 'Lets try there' he said.

So we went back to the staircase, past all the clerks, down into the courtyards, and through the crush in the courtyards. We got to the sign, it was for a parking place.

There were many signs around - 'Office for the District Judge', 'Notary to the Public Works', 'Deputy Commissioner of Courts', all with queues or crowds of people outside mobbing them. We decided to try one of the clerks sitting with a portable desk on his lap, looking official. 'That way, that way' he waved.

We tried down the alley he indicated (it smelled of urine and there was rubbish everywhere). More rooms; 'Magistrates Meeting Rooms', 'Office for the bafflement of the public', 'Department of Red Tape and bureaucracy'.

There were some stairs leading up to another counter. Most of the windows were closed and there were a family at the door, banging on the counter.

Everywhere there were people - some of them looking like they were as baffled as us, some of them looking like they had some official capacity and revelling in the chaos, some of them knowing what they were doing, some getting sent round the houses like us.

It reminded me of descriptions I have read of the law courts of Lincolns Inn Fields in the Middle Ages. Clerks, Solicitors, Judges, Plaintiffs, Porters, Secretaries, Victims, Police all meeting in a melee seeking resolution, a commission, a bribe, a simple piece of paper such as a form, a permit or an affidavit or even justice. Some people in the know, in the gang or establishment and some people outside, lost and confused.

We decided to take a break and to see if there was an easier way to do this.

Joey had given us a business card of a travel agency. "if you are having problems, try these people. They may be able to get the permits for you'.

So we went up to the Mall, found the travel agency, sat down, had a drink bought to us, photocopied our passports, and filled in a form. The agent said no problem, it costs 300rps, and we take 200 commission.

He then led us back to the Government building, through some corridors, to a different equally crowded courtyard, down some steps to a nice verandah, round the corner, up some steps to another office with a counter. We waited awhile for someone to fill in a Gun Application form, and then presented our documents to a young clerk in casual clothes. He took our picture with a web cam, entered our information onto a database and then took some printouts to the Magistrate to sign. 'He's in a meeting now, but come back at 2, and I will have it all ready for you'.

So we came back at 2 after some lunch and wander and there were our documents.

Just outside the Government building there was a speaker from the National Society against Corruption (pic below). A couple of dozen people were sat at his feet listening to him I presume rail against the iniquity, inequality, depotism, nepotism and the inherent corruption in the system. He was there when we went for lunch and there when we came back, his audience rapt.

Dan works in aid in Afghanistan. His job is basically to help Afghanis apply for grants from an American Funded Company to grow and expand small to medium size businesses. 'There is', he said, 'so much money wasted, mainly through corruption. People take a cut of everything, from the fuel, to the bribes to the security, to the procurement to the travel. And it all ends up in the hands of a few wealthy people, mostly who wend the money overseas to educate their children in Europe. We would be better giving out 20 dollar bills in the street corner or building every family a home'.

This led onto a question of how you could really help. Would it be to just concentrate on the infrastructure, roads, school, hospitals? Or would it be to help develop business's?

Or would it be try something more adventurous? In India at the moment they are just about a $44 tablet, discounted to $20 for students, which will put access to the Internet and technology into the homes of a billion people?

Or what about if you could do something really subtle like help establish a system without corruption, like the man was arguing for outside the ministry.

'You realise,' Dan said, 'that what we have just done could be called corruption. We have just paid someone to hurry things along. This is what corruption is all about. 'I am just helping things along' or 'I am just helping out a friend'. What is the difference between commission and bribe?' he asked me. Had we just engaged in corruption? What exactly was corruption anyway? It was difficult to answer.

This led on later to many areas of international politics, aid and development. It is an area I am glad that I do not work in, there are no easy answers, and no easy solutions.

Thinking about it now, corruption can only exist in a system that lets it happen. In a badly designed, inefficient, complicated, beaurocratic system. But these systems are designed to stop worse abuses of power and money.

Riko was saying that if you ever tried anything like what goes on here in Germany, 'You would go to prison for sure'.

So what is the answer?

Well I can't answer that. Being only a humble ex school teacher, I don't have to, and nor do I want to. All I can say is, we got our permits. Job down. Bring on the adventure and leave these kinds of questions and these insoluble issues in a cloud of dust as we roar off into the wild.