Gandhigiri and Chamchagiri

You know the Lage Raho... Munnabhai! craze has been sweeping the nation when you read stuff like this and this. And while even hearing about these real-life incidents is really heartening, I think many of us fear attempting to utilise something that so revolutionary, so different in its thinking. I think we'd be scared of the relevance to the solution to the problem, and also be nervous about its implementation and our own persistence. Gandhigiri is all about the human will, and many of us dont have enough strength of mind.

In fact, I was thinking about big businesses, now that it is Diwali, and the bribes and gifts that are given to important government officials - you know - Income tax, Customs, Border Regulators, the Development Corporations, Trade Unions Public Works Departments, basically any government official/civil servant a firm/corporation is in contact with. Its not like you can simply get away with a box of mithai and Rs. 500 or whatever baksheesh/bonus you give your staff and peons for Diwali.

So how would we use Gandhigiri in such a situation to resolve this problem of bribing and corruption? Im afraid I severely lack imagination - all I can think of is for all the people who are hassled by these officials to get together and gift our companies/factories/etc to them for a month, and wait for them to make a mess of it (backup measures in place of course). And its bound to happen. Officials, thinking in their petty way only of themselves and short-term gain, will unhealthily eat up all the profits. Their inability to work with people will get them into big messes with their employees. Will the Trade Unions beat up their own employees (oh, but they do that to their members and in attempting to get people to join already). Yes, I think that's a good plan, except that all the Gujju's and Marwaris' Chhaati besi jase (their chest will deflate) at the thought. Yes actually - even if the committees of all exporters and businessmen make this decision in their meetings, it will never succeed because of the lack of unity among Indians. Some smart-alecks will not join this protest movement and continue to bribe them and this exercise will be a total failure.

But how come all these businesspeople LOVE the movie and talk about it and it has still not changed their thinking? Why in their heart of hearts do they have no faith in officialdom? Why are they so cynical?

Maybe Indians only come together when there is a crisis of national importance. Unfortunately we are so petty that corruption is not seen as something that important. Maybe that's in the Arthashastra and thats under-the-table work is ingrained in our culture. Sigh. Any other ideas?