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Home » Politics » Air of entitlement: How Vinod Rai justified misuse of taxpayers' money
 

Air of entitlement: How Vinod Rai justified misuse of taxpayers' money

Aleesha Matharu | Updated on: 11 February 2017, 6:43 IST
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Vinod Rai's defence of private trips using public many reflects babus' sense of entitlement
Disappointing! Former CAG Vinod Rai defends misuse of tax-payers' money by babus

The man who unearthed one of the greatest scams India has recently seen - the 2G spectrum scam - has now reportedly said that he sees no problem with officials going on private trips on at the tax payers' expense.

These, Banks Board Bureau chief and former CAG Vinod Rai says, are the perks of being in the civil service. "So what! I mean, really so what... What other facility or perk does a government give me?" said Rai to the Hindustan Times.

"I mean a colleague's daughter was getting married and I can't afford to buy an airline ticket... certainly not when I was in the job... I created a duty and went there, attended the wedding also incidentally and came back and you are wasting your time looking at my travel allowance bill," the author of The Diary of the Nation's Conscience Keeper - Not Just an Accountant said, defending the practice to cite an official visit to go to a city for a personal travel.

'Small perks'

Political entitlement afflicts governments around the world, so what Rai says isn't anything new to the ears of the public. But it's rare for public servants to admit to this, more so for a former Comptroller and Auditor General. The malaise is deep set and even though Rai is "making a broader point that vigilance officials should overlook smaller transgressions and invest its energies in major cases", it's frustrating to see such transgressions confirmed.

Bribes and babus have been synonymous in India for ages. Something ails our system, and everyone knows greasing the palm of an official is more likely to get your work done. That isn't to say that there aren't honest babus in the system, but their good work is tarnished by the 10 who're more than happy to be paid for their jobs doubly so - via salaries and other means.

Also read - Corruption uninterrupted: new report still ranks India among most corrupt countries

At the end of the day, it is age-old entitlements like this that serve as a tax on Indians. Comments like Rai's only serve to annoy us even further at a time when jokes are flying thick and fast about how you order taxes at a restaurant and get the food as an afterthought.

His statement has created a furore on Twitter, as is unavoidable these days. The Congress jumped into the fray as did many journalists.

There's no chorus defending the man, but one user wrote about how he should be given a chance to explain what Rai meant:

More in Catch - 80% Indian firms saw corporate fraud last year, 25% reported corruption

769 gold pots missing from Padmanabha Swamy temple: Vinod Rai tells Supreme Court

First published: 17 August 2016, 10:12 IST
Vinod Rai government servant former CAG Banks Board Bureau chief civil servant corruption 2G spectrum coal allocation
 
Aleesha Matharu @almatharu

Born in Bihar, raised in Delhi and schooled in Dehradun, Aleesha writes on a range of subjects and worked at The Indian Express before joining Catch as a sub-editor. When not at work you can find her glued to the TV, trying to clear a backlog of shows, or reading her Kindle. Raised on a diet of rock 'n' roll, she's hit occasionally by wanderlust. After an eight-year stint at Welham Girls' School, Delhi University turned out to be an exercise in youthful rebellion before she finally trudged her way to J-school and got the best all-round student award. Now she takes each day as it comes, but isn't an eternal optimist.
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