Opacity in Employment, Employment in Opacity

Now the question is: do you want to place yourself among those thirty-five percent of job seekers? This depends on your financial and social position. More importantly, it depends on your willingness—or unwillingness—to use that position. If you have the strength of money and lobbying behind you, then use it. There’s no problem with that. If I were a minister’s son, coming first in the BCS examination would undoubtedly be nothing but a monumental act of foolishness on my part. Why shouldn’t the child of a powerful father use that power at will, if the father has no objection to his child’s unwillingness to develop his own abilities? Power has a certain beauty to it. That beauty can be enjoyed without abusing power. The ugly use of power makes the powerful ugly. The industrialist’s child is inherently a hundred times more qualified than you or me by birth. When I was studying in my first year of honors, I used to tutor the low-intelligence son of a wealthy gentleman at his home for a high fee. That boy would sometimes, out of compassion for his parents, study and pass his exams. Most parents of English medium school children are overjoyed if their kids just pass! Most English medium students keep their brains not in their heads but on the tips of their tongues. Whether their heads work or not on their father’s money, their mouths certainly do! If they pass, it’s a grand party! Even just passing a class test is celebrated so extravagantly that the cost of celebrating all my first positions throughout my entire academic life wouldn’t amount to even one-tenth of that expense. With that amount of money, five students could easily complete their honors degrees through government institutions. I was annoyed with myself about this situation. I often felt that I was only teaching him for the money and deceiving myself in the process. He would write “cow-man” instead of “driver.” His logic was: if someone who drives a rickshaw is called a rickshaw-wallah, then why can’t someone who drives a cow be called a cow-wallah? The real issue was that he simply couldn’t remember or write the spelling of “driver.” Despite all my efforts, I couldn’t get him to achieve good results. I would get angry with myself. Seeing my tireless failed efforts, one day he said to me, “Sir, if you promise not to hit me, I want to say something.” “Alright, I won’t hit you. Tell me.” “Sir, if I study very hard, will I become like you?” (I thought my foolish student was asking me this in simple innocence.) “What nonsense! If you study properly, you can become much greater.” “What do you mean by much greater, sir?” “I mean, you’ll be able to study at much better places.” “Better places—like, say, BUET!” “Something like that, or even better.” “Let’s say I study at BUET then. Alright sir, what happens if I study at BUET? Will I get a good job?” “Certainly! You’ll have a very good career.” “Well sir, a good career. You mean a good salary job, good lifestyle.” “Absolutely!” “Sir, after graduating from CUET’s CSE, you’ll also get a very high-paying job. Fifty to sixty thousand taka per month initially?” “If not that much, it’ll be close to it.” “Let’s assume you’ll get exactly that. And if I study at BUET, then I’ll get one lakh per month.” “You can do even better than that, I pray for you.” “Okay sir, with your prayers and my hard work, let’s say I earn another lakh more initially, meaning two lakhs per month. But sir, my father has kept six hundred crore taka in the bank in my name. Even if I achieve nothing else in life, I’ll still earn at least 6 crores a month just sitting at home from bank interest alone. All the students of a BUET batch combined couldn’t earn this kind of money in their initial stages. I have money, lifestyle, everything. Tell me sir, why should I study?” That question was one of the most difficult I’ve ever heard in my life. Hearing this simple truth about life’s arithmetic, I couldn’t say anything more to him that day. Deeply wounded by humiliation and hurt, I never went back to teach at his house after that day. It was the 27th of the month. Despite his aunt’s repeated requests, I refused to teach him anymore, and in my anger, I didn’t even take that month’s payment. Who was I angry with? My student? Or my own helplessness? I still don’t have that answer. Being born the child of wealthy parents is also a great ‘inheritance.’ And dying as a wealthy father is a great ‘achievement.’ To me, the calculation of financial inheritance and achievement goes something like this.

If you lack financial and social leverage, then prepare yourself for employment. As long as you remain outside a system, your venom toward that system will give you nothing but a kind of foolish self-satisfaction. Those who study political science know that at least ten percent corruption exists in every state apparatus. Without it, the entire system would collapse. This world is not a fair world, and it didn’t suddenly become unfair just for you and me. It was exactly as unfair before as it is now, and it will remain so in the future. The systems of this world are as unfair as the world itself. They were before, they are now, and they will be in the future. Who complains most about this unfair system? Those who want to enter it but cannot. Isn’t that so? Think for a moment—why do we consider ourselves the finest people on earth? Many more qualified individuals than us have accomplished far better work within this very unfair system. Haven’t they? The point is, if someone before me could become part of an unfair system in a fair way, and I cannot do the same thing, then that failure is entirely mine, not the system’s. The interesting thing is, once you become part of the system, you yourself will adapt to that unfair system; whether you become unfair or not, you will operate that unfair system, or whether openly or silently, you will assist in its operation. What does this mean? You have no objection to adapting to an unfair system. Then what is your objection now? Just as one can work according to one’s own principles within an unfair system while remaining fair, one can also become part of that unfair system while staying fair. Trust me, it’s possible. If you cannot, then that is your problem, not the system’s. Identify your own problem and try to solve it.

I remember a businessman friend on Facebook. He owns several steel mills. This gentleman had secured the second rank in the Indian Administrative Service examination. About a year ago, I once asked him, “Why did you choose business instead of joining the civil service?” He replied, “I don’t like taking bribes, but I don’t mind giving them—that’s why I went into business.” What does this mean? Businesspeople generally don’t favor honest officers. You can’t show me a single business magnate who has grown their enterprise without a trace of corruption. Why does he engage in corruption? I can speak from my own experience. No businessman wants to conduct business by paying proper taxes. There are three reasons for this: First, to maximize profits. Second, to avoid unfair competition with competitors (because someone or the other is conducting business with lower taxes, making their goods or services cheaper). Third, they’ve simply grown accustomed to paying less tax. This means that whether you personally engage in corruption or not, you’re compelled to either actively or passively support corruption, or at least not oppose it. In other words, whether you’re employed or in business, you yourself are part of a vast corrupted system. If you’re benefiting from a system, and that system contains corruption, then you’re enjoying the fruits of whatever ‘sin’ that corruption creates, aren’t you? Every human being is a corruption-susceptible creature. Suppose you’re a chartered accountant. You’ve opened an audit firm. What’s your job? To use your acquired knowledge and experience to legalize tax evasion for big companies, right? Alright, let’s assume you haven’t opened a firm but work for a company with a monthly salary of one lakh rupees. You’re given a tax evasion assignment. What kind? Somehow, cleverly, you must arrange for the company’s tax to be reduced by twenty lakh rupees in such a way that it won’t be caught even in future audits. If you complete this task properly, you’ll be given a financial bonus equivalent to double your salary. Now what will you do? You’ll organize and prepare all the paperwork, go to the tax office, and present the documents to the officer in charge in such a way that it appears the evasion amount is five lakh rupees. Usually, that officer’s financial knowledge is less than yours, so they mostly can’t detect the remaining fifteen lakh rupees. The question is, why would they let you evade that five lakh rupees? They refused. Then you offered various incentives. That didn’t work either. Then you managed some minister or their senior officer to call them and ask them to get the job done. After that, under pressure, they agreed, but in exchange for money. How much? You offered fifty thousand. They refused. Seventy-five; again ‘no.’ One lakh? No, that won’t do. Continuing this way, they finally agreed at one and a half lakh. You paid two lakh in taxes to the government, gave them one and a half, kept one and a half for yourself, so the tax evasion was three—according to their calculation; the actual evasion amount was eighteen lakh rupees! You’re happy, they’re happy, and your organization is absolutely delighted! A win-win situation. You are a very good officer! Bravo! This is what happens. Our stakeholders themselves don’t want us to work fairly. There has never been any fair business in this world, nor will there ever be. Officers who can’t be bought are not favored by respected taxpayers.

Of course, even if he can’t be bought with money, there’s no problem—he can surely be purchased at the command of someone in power. Here I have something to say. You are a chartered accountant, a highly educated, respectable, honest person. You earn a salary of one lakh rupees. You helped your company evade eighteen lakh rupees in government dues for twice your monthly salary. And that ‘corrupt’ tax officer earns fifteen thousand rupees a month. He helped your company evade three lakh rupees (by his calculation—though actually eighteen lakhs!) for ten times his monthly salary. You sold yourself for the greed of two months’ wages, while he sold himself for ten months’ wages—that too under compulsion and partly from ignorance. He is a poor man earning fifteen thousand, eighty-five thousand less than you. You’re not poor anymore! You got a car from the company, got a flat—he received nothing of the sort. Now tell me, whose integrity level is higher? Yours? Or his? I’ll speak plainly. Try doing business with complete honesty, keeping all documents proper. Let’s see who asks you for bribes! If you did that, you wouldn’t give anyone a single paisa in bribes or speed money. Your company’s owner himself doesn’t want everything done fairly. Study how your organization operates—you’ll understand. I get at least fifteen calls every month from friends and well-wishers, asking me to request so-and-so to help someone with tax evasion or some illegal work. Yet these same hypocritical gentlemen go around saying we’re very bad, we take bribes, we’re corrupt, this and that! Whether civil sector or corporate sector, the system itself is arranged in such a way that you help with corruption, you want corruption to happen, the system wants corruption to remain. Often our service recipients don’t know where, why, or for which service they need to go. This ignorance also breeds corruption. If you face harassment in any office, why don’t you go complain to the office head? Government employees are obligated to serve you, listen to you, and speak with you! They work for the people; their salaries come from your taxes. They are your servants. If you don’t receive proper service, you can file a complaint against them with evidence. Have you ever been to their office? I’ve advised many friends: “Don’t talk to anyone else—go directly to the office head and discuss your problem. I don’t even need to make a phone call; you go and talk. If they don’t cooperate, then give me a call.” I’ve seen two things happen. One: Going to the right person at the right time got their work done. Two: Most refused to go because they had problems of their own. So I ask, why don’t you go, sir? Or are you afraid that going to their office might let the cat out of the bag? I’ve seen that even when I do what falls within my responsibility, many assume I’ve done them a huge favor. Yet receiving that service is their right. Rights and favors are not the same thing. Receiving due service is your right, not someone’s favor. A nation that cannot grasp the boundary between rights and favors—there’s little reason to be optimistic about that nation’s common sense.

As I was saying. Not everyone who comes into jobs is willing to use the force of money and lobbying. Those who use or want to use these two methods may desperately need the job, but they cannot secure it through their own merit. I have also seen many who, lacking self-respect, sell themselves for money or extend their hands to others in supplication. It is not true that jobs are impossible to get without such methods. As I said before, at least 65 percent of jobs are still merit-based. The remaining 35 percent of candidates have it drilled into their heads that they won’t get the job unless they lower themselves. This diminishes both self-respect and self-confidence. The tendency to make excuses and complain all the time increases. Life passes by blaming one’s fate and the system. If I cannot get a job through my own merit, then that job is not for me—if one doesn’t accept this, dissatisfaction only grows, and nothing productive comes of it except increased mental turmoil. Why must you have that particular job? Can everyone do everything? Consider what jobs exist according to your qualifications before it’s too late. Once the thought of getting a particular job becomes ‘set’ in one’s mind, a person gradually becomes blind to other job opportunities and possibilities. This causes self-confidence and self-respect to decline, and true ‘well-being’ in life becomes impossible. Among those who live by complaints and excuses, I have observed two self-destructive tendencies: hollow arrogance and foolish self-satisfaction. What good do excuses do in life? If you can succeed, you won’t need to make any excuses. And if you fail, no one will listen to your excuses anyway! Left hand, right hand, and excuse-hand—people with these three hands forgive themselves very easily. Those who blame everything on others and take no blame upon themselves are accustomed to pardoning themselves. They don’t know how to accept any challenge and try to cover their incompetence with empty insolence. I have never seen such people go very far. I have seen shameless people who emerge from prestigious universities with certificates but fail even primary school teacher recruitment exams, yet what pride, what grand talk they have. Our society simply looks upon them with pity. The scholar who sits under the banyan tree washing away his scholarship is less honored than the unlettered cobbler who earns his livelihood by the strength of his arms.

One of our nation’s many burdens is the quota system in government jobs. There’s considerable discontent around this issue. Many complain that they can’t get jobs because of the quota system. But those who thumb their nose at the quota system and still land jobs never cross their minds. My father was a freedom fighter, but since he never obtained a certificate, I had no freedom fighter quota either. (Those interested can read my piece “I Am Not a Freedom Fighter.”) When I was taking the BCS exam, I knew very well that because of this quota system, I was entering an unequal competition. I felt discontented about it, but had no objection. Because the PSC wasn’t hiding anything from me—I had willingly agreed to take the exam knowing everything, for my own needs and by my own choice. At a training session for newly recruited employees at a prestigious multinational company, the CEO was conducting a class. The class had many brilliant young people who had graduated from India’s top institutions. “We should bring changes to such-and-such sectors, then we could provide better service.” “This old system won’t work anymore, some changes must be made.” “Working in this system is very difficult.” Various proposals kept coming from the new recruits. The CEO listened to everyone quietly. Then, with a cool voice and smiling face, he said, “I accept that all of you are right about everything. At the same time, it’s also true that you weren’t hired to stage a revolution. What is, is the rule; not what should be. We are indeed that bad. We’ve been working with this bad system for many years. If you object to working in this system, you can look for other jobs. We heartily welcome you to leave anytime! Thank you.” In government jobs too, there’s only one rule: Obey, or leave!

PSC Never has any great leader sent the RAB or police to anyone’s home to force them to buy job exam forms, nor will they in the near or distant future. I knew that the freedom fighter quota was 30%, of which only 6-7% gets filled, leaving the rest vacant. The indigenous quota is 5%, of which only 2.5% gets filled. Quota holders will get jobs even with 6% fewer marks than me. There are vacant posts in the priority quota, but perhaps because no qualified candidates were found, some dishonest individuals might engage in corruption and give jobs to many candidates less qualified than me. Yes, I knew all this. I also knew that I had no hand in this matter. I have no power to change this system. I desperately need the job, so I’m intensely busy preparing myself for it. The task of changing the quota system lies with parliamentarians; my futile bravado there would achieve nothing beyond creating harmless entertainment. This world has many problems, many of which trouble me mentally. Among those I cannot solve, I choose not to think about them. Even if I wanted to, I could never include myself in those vacant positions. And whatever anyone does with those vacant posts, it doesn’t affect my rightful share—the 44%—where those irregularities or malpractices have no impact! Rather than making pointless noise, wouldn’t it be better to study? I never worry about three types of things: One. Things I don’t like. Two. Things I don’t need. Three. Things beyond my control. I can say with confidence that corruption in BCS exams is still much less than in other government job exams. Even if corruption exists, it doesn’t harm general candidates (44%). Those with lobbying power, those who want to buy jobs with money, are certainly not general candidates. Among those angry about the quota system, 98% of candidates have no quota themselves. If they had quotas, one might wonder whether that anger would remain. So the question is: where does the anger lie? With the quota system? Or with why they don’t have quotas? I often hear people say, “Those who have quotas are less qualified than me.” Brother, I accept they’re less qualified than you. So instead of such empty chatter, why don’t you get the job without a quota and prove your merit!

The word ‘poroshrikatorota’ has no adequate English translation. Why not? Because this word belongs solely to Bengali—this wealth of the heart belongs only to Bengalis. Poroshrikatorota—it is not our property, it is our treasure!! Under the crushing weight of this accumulated treasure, we remain stuck exactly where we were, generation after generation. It’s high time the word ‘poroshtrikatorota’ also sneaked into the dictionary. Another man’s wife is more beautiful than my own—this grief keeps me awake at night, even my meals won’t digest properly. What’s the gain in this? Another man has a beautiful wife at home; just seeing her fills my heart with joy, yet thinking of her fills my heart with sorrow. But why? I must understand this—that the beauty in another’s home has stolen the happiness from mine, but she is not mine! Another’s quota will never be mine! Quota-obsession is thus largely poro-quota-katorota—just like poroshtrikatorota. I’ve seen many candidates who can’t even spell “quota” correctly in English, yet claim that the quota system is why they can’t get a job. Many don’t know how to spell “cadre,” yet want to become one. It’s both amusing and painful to watch. Tell me, why should these self-proclaimed scholars get jobs? I humbly say to them: Brother, study while there’s still time, otherwise neither you alone nor your entire family taking the exam together will land any respectable job.

The good news is that the current government has already decided to fill technical and professional cadre posts—which remain vacant in every BCS due to lack of qualified candidates—from the waiting list according to merit ranking. Let this process begin in general cadres too, let more qualified individuals be given the opportunity to serve the nation—this is what we desire.

You can’t get a government job without money. This statement is absolutely true. I too got my job by paying money. My expenses came to 700 taka. The form cost 200 taka and the examination fee was 500 taka. That’s all I remember. Beyond this, I didn’t spend a single penny anywhere except for transport fare. The PSC didn’t force me to spend that transport money. It was my own reluctance to walk that made me waste that fare.

You can’t get a government job without recommendations. This too is absolutely true. After qualifying in the 30th BCS preliminary exam, I was recommended for the written test, later after passing the written exam I was selected for the viva. Finally, I was ultimately recommended for employment in the 30th BCS. Just recommendations and more recommendations! The PSC conducted my job examination, and the PSC also made the recommendation for me.

The above two matters are true not just in my case, but for at least 90 percent of those I know who have gotten jobs.

Let me share something here. In the corporate sector in Bangladesh, the best employer is BAT (British American Tobacco). Getting a job there is a dream for many graduates. Go and investigate—even there, these days, high-profile ministers send recommendations for giving jobs! How many more such examples do you want, tell me? Is corruption in getting jobs limited only to the civil sector? In many cases, what kind of filth one has to go through to get corporate jobs—I’ll tell that story another day. With my honors result, I had no opportunity to even apply for jobs at many organizations. Because most organizations require at least a 3.00 to apply, and I had 2.74. Based on my honors academic result, I wasn’t qualified to do much more than join the civil service. Though this did have one advantage. When I was preparing for the BCS examination, many of my friends were saying, “What else will Sushanto do if not BCS? He can’t even go to corporate! With his result, he can’t apply anywhere else! BCS is a job for less qualified people. But he has no other option.” Hearing all this, I decided right then, “Fine, I’ll go to the best gateway in Bangladesh for entering the corporate sector, I’ll do my MBA from there, but I won’t use that degree to get a job. I’ll show everyone that I could have gone to corporate if I wanted, but deliberately chose not to.” Nothing else, my master’s from IBA was purely from that defiance.

Even now, sixty-five percent of government jobs are secured without money or recommendations or influence. The illegitimate culture surrounding the remaining thirty-five percent of positions isn’t unique to our country alone. It exists in our neighboring India as well—in fact, corruption there is somewhat worse. As you know, government service benefits and privileges in India far exceed our own. If you calculate the ratio between the examination system, the number of vacant posts, and the number of candidates, you’ll find that becoming an ICS officer is far more difficult than becoming a BCS officer. Yet it would be wrong to suggest that Indian candidates accomplish this difficult feat through entirely fair recruitment policies. Read T.N. Seshan’s book “The Decline of India.” Seshan sahib took two civil service examinations—securing first place in the Indian Police Service (IPS) in one and first place in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the other. Those unfamiliar with IPS and IAS examinations cannot even imagine how brilliant T.N. Seshan was. I believe such results are beyond the reach of ordinary thinking. Reading his book reveals that corruption in India is no less than ours—indeed, the picture of corruption in our minds exists in India in much the same form, or even more terrifyingly. So it’s absolutely wrong to think that we face unfair and uneven competition in job examinations while everything elsewhere, beyond Bangladesh, is completely transparent. We all prefer to believe we are the most suffering people on earth. Because the person beside me never wept before me, I never learned what immense anguish they carry in their heart while speaking with a smiling face! The words of Ayub Bachchu’s song ring true: in truth, no one is happy……..

Now the question is: do you want to place yourself among those thirty-five percent of job seekers? This depends on your financial and social position. More importantly, it depends on your willingness—or unwillingness—to use that position. If you have the strength of money and lobbying behind you, then use it. There’s no problem with that. If I were a minister’s son, coming first in the BCS examination would undoubtedly be nothing but a monumental act of foolishness on my part. Why shouldn’t the child of a powerful father use that power at will, if the father has no objection to his child’s unwillingness to develop his own abilities? Power has a certain beauty to it. That beauty can be enjoyed without abusing power. The ugly use of power makes the powerful ugly. The industrialist’s child is inherently a hundred times more qualified than you or me by birth. When I was studying in my first year of honors, I used to tutor the low-intelligence son of a wealthy gentleman at his home for a high fee. That boy would sometimes, out of compassion for his parents, study and pass his exams. Most parents of English medium school children are overjoyed if their kids just pass! Most English medium students keep their brains not in their heads but on the tips of their tongues. Whether their heads work or not on their father’s money, their mouths certainly do! If they pass, it’s a grand party! Even just passing a class test is celebrated so extravagantly that the cost of celebrating all my first positions throughout my entire academic life wouldn’t amount to even one-tenth of that expense. With that amount of money, five students could easily complete their honors degrees through government institutions. I was annoyed with myself about this situation. I often felt that I was only teaching him for the money and deceiving myself in the process. He would write “cow-man” instead of “driver.” His logic was: if someone who drives a rickshaw is called a rickshaw-wallah, then why can’t someone who drives a cow be called a cow-wallah? The real issue was that he simply couldn’t remember or write the spelling of “driver.” Despite all my efforts, I couldn’t get him to achieve good results. I would get angry with myself. Seeing my tireless failed efforts, one day he said to me, “Sir, if you promise not to hit me, I want to say something.” “Alright, I won’t hit you. Tell me.” “Sir, if I study very hard, will I become like you?” (I thought my foolish student was asking me this in simple innocence.) “What nonsense! If you study properly, you can become much greater.” “What do you mean by much greater, sir?” “I mean, you’ll be able to study at much better places.” “Better places—like, say, BUET!” “Something like that, or even better.” “Let’s say I study at BUET then. Alright sir, what happens if I study at BUET? Will I get a good job?” “Certainly! You’ll have a very good career.” “Well sir, a good career. You mean a good salary job, good lifestyle.” “Absolutely!” “Sir, after graduating from CUET’s CSE, you’ll also get a very high-paying job. Fifty to sixty thousand taka per month initially?” “If not that much, it’ll be close to it.” “Let’s assume you’ll get exactly that. And if I study at BUET, then I’ll get one lakh per month.” “You can do even better than that, I pray for you.” “Okay sir, with your prayers and my hard work, let’s say I earn another lakh more initially, meaning two lakhs per month. But sir, my father has kept six hundred crore taka in the bank in my name. Even if I achieve nothing else in life, I’ll still earn at least 6 crores a month just sitting at home from bank interest alone. All the students of a BUET batch combined couldn’t earn this kind of money in their initial stages. I have money, lifestyle, everything. Tell me sir, why should I study?” That question was one of the most difficult I’ve ever heard in my life. Hearing this simple truth about life’s arithmetic, I couldn’t say anything more to him that day. Deeply wounded by humiliation and hurt, I never went back to teach at his house after that day. It was the 27th of the month. Despite his aunt’s repeated requests, I refused to teach him anymore, and in my anger, I didn’t even take that month’s payment. Who was I angry with? My student? Or my own helplessness? I still don’t have that answer. Being born the child of wealthy parents is also a great ‘inheritance.’ And dying as a wealthy father is a great ‘achievement.’ To me, the calculation of financial inheritance and achievement goes something like this.

If you lack financial and social leverage, then prepare yourself for employment. As long as you remain outside a system, your venom toward that system will give you nothing but a kind of foolish self-satisfaction. Those who study political science know that at least ten percent corruption exists in every state apparatus. Without it, the entire system would collapse. This world is not a fair world, and it didn’t suddenly become unfair just for you and me. It was exactly as unfair before as it is now, and it will remain so in the future. The systems of this world are as unfair as the world itself. They were before, they are now, and they will be in the future. Who complains most about this unfair system? Those who want to enter it but cannot. Isn’t that so? Think for a moment—why do we consider ourselves the finest people on earth? Many more qualified individuals than us have accomplished far better work within this very unfair system. Haven’t they? The point is, if someone before me could become part of an unfair system in a fair way, and I cannot do the same thing, then that failure is entirely mine, not the system’s. The interesting thing is, once you become part of the system, you yourself will adapt to that unfair system; whether you become unfair or not, you will operate that unfair system, or whether openly or silently, you will assist in its operation. What does this mean? You have no objection to adapting to an unfair system. Then what is your objection now? Just as one can work according to one’s own principles within an unfair system while remaining fair, one can also become part of that unfair system while staying fair. Trust me, it’s possible. If you cannot, then that is your problem, not the system’s. Identify your own problem and try to solve it.

I remember a businessman friend on Facebook. He owns several steel mills. This gentleman had secured the second rank in the Indian Administrative Service examination. About a year ago, I once asked him, “Why did you choose business instead of joining the civil service?” He replied, “I don’t like taking bribes, but I don’t mind giving them—that’s why I went into business.” What does this mean? Businesspeople generally don’t favor honest officers. You can’t show me a single business magnate who has grown their enterprise without a trace of corruption. Why does he engage in corruption? I can speak from my own experience. No businessman wants to conduct business by paying proper taxes. There are three reasons for this: First, to maximize profits. Second, to avoid unfair competition with competitors (because someone or the other is conducting business with lower taxes, making their goods or services cheaper). Third, they’ve simply grown accustomed to paying less tax. This means that whether you personally engage in corruption or not, you’re compelled to either actively or passively support corruption, or at least not oppose it. In other words, whether you’re employed or in business, you yourself are part of a vast corrupted system. If you’re benefiting from a system, and that system contains corruption, then you’re enjoying the fruits of whatever ‘sin’ that corruption creates, aren’t you? Every human being is a corruption-susceptible creature. Suppose you’re a chartered accountant. You’ve opened an audit firm. What’s your job? To use your acquired knowledge and experience to legalize tax evasion for big companies, right? Alright, let’s assume you haven’t opened a firm but work for a company with a monthly salary of one lakh rupees. You’re given a tax evasion assignment. What kind? Somehow, cleverly, you must arrange for the company’s tax to be reduced by twenty lakh rupees in such a way that it won’t be caught even in future audits. If you complete this task properly, you’ll be given a financial bonus equivalent to double your salary. Now what will you do? You’ll organize and prepare all the paperwork, go to the tax office, and present the documents to the officer in charge in such a way that it appears the evasion amount is five lakh rupees. Usually, that officer’s financial knowledge is less than yours, so they mostly can’t detect the remaining fifteen lakh rupees. The question is, why would they let you evade that five lakh rupees? They refused. Then you offered various incentives. That didn’t work either. Then you managed some minister or their senior officer to call them and ask them to get the job done. After that, under pressure, they agreed, but in exchange for money. How much? You offered fifty thousand. They refused. Seventy-five; again ‘no.’ One lakh? No, that won’t do. Continuing this way, they finally agreed at one and a half lakh. You paid two lakh in taxes to the government, gave them one and a half, kept one and a half for yourself, so the tax evasion was three—according to their calculation; the actual evasion amount was eighteen lakh rupees! You’re happy, they’re happy, and your organization is absolutely delighted! A win-win situation. You are a very good officer! Bravo! This is what happens. Our stakeholders themselves don’t want us to work fairly. There has never been any fair business in this world, nor will there ever be. Officers who can’t be bought are not favored by respected taxpayers.

Of course, even if he can’t be bought with money, there’s no problem—he can surely be purchased at the command of someone in power. Here I have something to say. You are a chartered accountant, a highly educated, respectable, honest person. You earn a salary of one lakh rupees. You helped your company evade eighteen lakh rupees in government dues for twice your monthly salary. And that ‘corrupt’ tax officer earns fifteen thousand rupees a month. He helped your company evade three lakh rupees (by his calculation—though actually eighteen lakhs!) for ten times his monthly salary. You sold yourself for the greed of two months’ wages, while he sold himself for ten months’ wages—that too under compulsion and partly from ignorance. He is a poor man earning fifteen thousand, eighty-five thousand less than you. You’re not poor anymore! You got a car from the company, got a flat—he received nothing of the sort. Now tell me, whose integrity level is higher? Yours? Or his? I’ll speak plainly. Try doing business with complete honesty, keeping all documents proper. Let’s see who asks you for bribes! If you did that, you wouldn’t give anyone a single paisa in bribes or speed money. Your company’s owner himself doesn’t want everything done fairly. Study how your organization operates—you’ll understand. I get at least fifteen calls every month from friends and well-wishers, asking me to request so-and-so to help someone with tax evasion or some illegal work. Yet these same hypocritical gentlemen go around saying we’re very bad, we take bribes, we’re corrupt, this and that! Whether civil sector or corporate sector, the system itself is arranged in such a way that you help with corruption, you want corruption to happen, the system wants corruption to remain. Often our service recipients don’t know where, why, or for which service they need to go. This ignorance also breeds corruption. If you face harassment in any office, why don’t you go complain to the office head? Government employees are obligated to serve you, listen to you, and speak with you! They work for the people; their salaries come from your taxes. They are your servants. If you don’t receive proper service, you can file a complaint against them with evidence. Have you ever been to their office? I’ve advised many friends: “Don’t talk to anyone else—go directly to the office head and discuss your problem. I don’t even need to make a phone call; you go and talk. If they don’t cooperate, then give me a call.” I’ve seen two things happen. One: Going to the right person at the right time got their work done. Two: Most refused to go because they had problems of their own. So I ask, why don’t you go, sir? Or are you afraid that going to their office might let the cat out of the bag? I’ve seen that even when I do what falls within my responsibility, many assume I’ve done them a huge favor. Yet receiving that service is their right. Rights and favors are not the same thing. Receiving due service is your right, not someone’s favor. A nation that cannot grasp the boundary between rights and favors—there’s little reason to be optimistic about that nation’s common sense.

As I was saying. Not everyone who comes into jobs is willing to use the force of money and lobbying. Those who use or want to use these two methods may desperately need the job, but they cannot secure it through their own merit. I have also seen many who, lacking self-respect, sell themselves for money or extend their hands to others in supplication. It is not true that jobs are impossible to get without such methods. As I said before, at least 65 percent of jobs are still merit-based. The remaining 35 percent of candidates have it drilled into their heads that they won’t get the job unless they lower themselves. This diminishes both self-respect and self-confidence. The tendency to make excuses and complain all the time increases. Life passes by blaming one’s fate and the system. If I cannot get a job through my own merit, then that job is not for me—if one doesn’t accept this, dissatisfaction only grows, and nothing productive comes of it except increased mental turmoil. Why must you have that particular job? Can everyone do everything? Consider what jobs exist according to your qualifications before it’s too late. Once the thought of getting a particular job becomes ‘set’ in one’s mind, a person gradually becomes blind to other job opportunities and possibilities. This causes self-confidence and self-respect to decline, and true ‘well-being’ in life becomes impossible. Among those who live by complaints and excuses, I have observed two self-destructive tendencies: hollow arrogance and foolish self-satisfaction. What good do excuses do in life? If you can succeed, you won’t need to make any excuses. And if you fail, no one will listen to your excuses anyway! Left hand, right hand, and excuse-hand—people with these three hands forgive themselves very easily. Those who blame everything on others and take no blame upon themselves are accustomed to pardoning themselves. They don’t know how to accept any challenge and try to cover their incompetence with empty insolence. I have never seen such people go very far. I have seen shameless people who emerge from prestigious universities with certificates but fail even primary school teacher recruitment exams, yet what pride, what grand talk they have. Our society simply looks upon them with pity. The scholar who sits under the banyan tree washing away his scholarship is less honored than the unlettered cobbler who earns his livelihood by the strength of his arms.

One of our nation’s many burdens is the quota system in government jobs. There’s considerable discontent around this issue. Many complain that they can’t get jobs because of the quota system. But those who thumb their nose at the quota system and still land jobs never cross their minds. My father was a freedom fighter, but since he never obtained a certificate, I had no freedom fighter quota either. (Those interested can read my piece “I Am Not a Freedom Fighter.”) When I was taking the BCS exam, I knew very well that because of this quota system, I was entering an unequal competition. I felt discontented about it, but had no objection. Because the PSC wasn’t hiding anything from me—I had willingly agreed to take the exam knowing everything, for my own needs and by my own choice. At a training session for newly recruited employees at a prestigious multinational company, the CEO was conducting a class. The class had many brilliant young people who had graduated from India’s top institutions. “We should bring changes to such-and-such sectors, then we could provide better service.” “This old system won’t work anymore, some changes must be made.” “Working in this system is very difficult.” Various proposals kept coming from the new recruits. The CEO listened to everyone quietly. Then, with a cool voice and smiling face, he said, “I accept that all of you are right about everything. At the same time, it’s also true that you weren’t hired to stage a revolution. What is, is the rule; not what should be. We are indeed that bad. We’ve been working with this bad system for many years. If you object to working in this system, you can look for other jobs. We heartily welcome you to leave anytime! Thank you.” In government jobs too, there’s only one rule: Obey, or leave!

PSC Never has any great leader sent the RAB or police to anyone’s home to force them to buy job exam forms, nor will they in the near or distant future. I knew that the freedom fighter quota was 30%, of which only 6-7% gets filled, leaving the rest vacant. The indigenous quota is 5%, of which only 2.5% gets filled. Quota holders will get jobs even with 6% fewer marks than me. There are vacant posts in the priority quota, but perhaps because no qualified candidates were found, some dishonest individuals might engage in corruption and give jobs to many candidates less qualified than me. Yes, I knew all this. I also knew that I had no hand in this matter. I have no power to change this system. I desperately need the job, so I’m intensely busy preparing myself for it. The task of changing the quota system lies with parliamentarians; my futile bravado there would achieve nothing beyond creating harmless entertainment. This world has many problems, many of which trouble me mentally. Among those I cannot solve, I choose not to think about them. Even if I wanted to, I could never include myself in those vacant positions. And whatever anyone does with those vacant posts, it doesn’t affect my rightful share—the 44%—where those irregularities or malpractices have no impact! Rather than making pointless noise, wouldn’t it be better to study? I never worry about three types of things: One. Things I don’t like. Two. Things I don’t need. Three. Things beyond my control. I can say with confidence that corruption in BCS exams is still much less than in other government job exams. Even if corruption exists, it doesn’t harm general candidates (44%). Those with lobbying power, those who want to buy jobs with money, are certainly not general candidates. Among those angry about the quota system, 98% of candidates have no quota themselves. If they had quotas, one might wonder whether that anger would remain. So the question is: where does the anger lie? With the quota system? Or with why they don’t have quotas? I often hear people say, “Those who have quotas are less qualified than me.” Brother, I accept they’re less qualified than you. So instead of such empty chatter, why don’t you get the job without a quota and prove your merit!

The word ‘poroshrikatorota’ has no adequate English translation. Why not? Because this word belongs solely to Bengali—this wealth of the heart belongs only to Bengalis. Poroshrikatorota—it is not our property, it is our treasure!! Under the crushing weight of this accumulated treasure, we remain stuck exactly where we were, generation after generation. It’s high time the word ‘poroshtrikatorota’ also sneaked into the dictionary. Another man’s wife is more beautiful than my own—this grief keeps me awake at night, even my meals won’t digest properly. What’s the gain in this? Another man has a beautiful wife at home; just seeing her fills my heart with joy, yet thinking of her fills my heart with sorrow. But why? I must understand this—that the beauty in another’s home has stolen the happiness from mine, but she is not mine! Another’s quota will never be mine! Quota-obsession is thus largely poro-quota-katorota—just like poroshtrikatorota. I’ve seen many candidates who can’t even spell “quota” correctly in English, yet claim that the quota system is why they can’t get a job. Many don’t know how to spell “cadre,” yet want to become one. It’s both amusing and painful to watch. Tell me, why should these self-proclaimed scholars get jobs? I humbly say to them: Brother, study while there’s still time, otherwise neither you alone nor your entire family taking the exam together will land any respectable job.

The good news is that the current government has already decided to fill technical and professional cadre posts—which remain vacant in every BCS due to lack of qualified candidates—from the waiting list according to merit ranking. Let this process begin in general cadres too, let more qualified individuals be given the opportunity to serve the nation—this is what we desire.