Incentive to cheat – Problem with Democracy

I read a book – Games Indians Play by Mr Raghunathan a Professor in IIM-A and CEO of GMR group. I have written on this book earlier too – Individually smart collectively dumb. The problems with Indian – supposedly sharp – minds is given below in story format.

This story is from a book – ‘The prayer of the Frog’ by Father Anthony de Mello, S.J. This book has very interesting stories on religion, spirituality and human relations etc. The story precisely explains how we – Indians – think and act.

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A great festival was to be held in a village and each villager was asked to contribute by pouring a bottle of wine into a giant barrel.

When the banquet began and the barrel was tapped what came out of it was water. One of the villagers had had this thought: “If I pour a bottle of water in that giant barrel, no one will notice the difference.” But it hadn’t occurred to him that everyone else in the village might have the same thought.

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This happens in Indian political system. Everyone thinks that yes there is corruption, but I am paid 100/- let me vote this corrupt politician. Others would not vote him… similar to the story above. Every poor person gets an incentive to cheat – that cheating is a responsibility of politician – development Vs one time benefit to voter – 100 rupee note or a quarter of alcohol etc.

The interesting part is we Indians more complex yet cheat always. We think in two fashion. 1. the way story suggests above and 2. why should I do it when everyone else is cheating?

Option two suggests that every Indian knows what others are going to do and thinks why should not I do the same?