This is a true story of an ingenious politician who was head of a government company which was to buy 40 buses for its transport fleet. After getting his palm duly greased, he asked his procurement in-charge to put up a note recommending that the buses be bought from a particular firm. The note was duly put up. The politician wrote ‘approved’ below the note and signed.

Meanwhile, another firm had got wind of the deal, so they approached the politician with a better kick-back offer. The politician recalled the file and added ‘Not’ in front of Approved.

The original supplier then landed up and offered the politician a further cut. The politician calmly recalled the file a second time and added an ‘e’ after ‘Not’, so that now it read ‘Note Approved’.
(Contributed by Rajeshwari Singh, New Delhi)

This true story was referred to by eminent journalist Khushwant Singh in an interesting article. I am afraid this is not the complete story. Corruption does not work that simply in India. My detective friend Alphonso had a peek at the file and he tells me that the matter did not end there.

The story goes on as follows;

On receiving information that the original supplier had got the contract by offering a bigger bribe the competitor offered a higher sum. The politician recalled the file and altered his earlier remark from ‘NOTE APPROVED To NO NOTE APPROVED.

The original supplier got wind of this and upped the amount of bribe, The politician again recalled the file and wrote: ‘NO NOTE DISAPPROVED’ ‘THIS NOTE APPROVED’.

The competitor offered an even bigger amount, at which point the politician wrote on the file ‘NO NOTE DISAPPROVED’ but ‘THIS NOTE DISAPPROVED.

The original supplier got frustrated. He bribed the competitor a huge sum to withdraw his bid and they jointly decided to supply defective buses to recoup their ‘investment’ in bribery. The politician wrote on the file: ‘NO NOTE DISAPPROVED’ but ‘THIS NOTE NOT DISAPPROVED’. NOTE APPROVED.

Now tenders for repairs are being floated... The file has just reached the minister.

Watch this space for more information Alphonso tells me that Khushwant Singh deliberately concealed the fact that the politician did not sign the note at all.

I was stunned at this revelation. ‘He is not in the habit of signing notes’ said Alphonso. ‘But how did the politician convey his consent on this or any other note”, I asked.

‘Simple...He affixes his left thumb impression’ clarified my detective friend as he signed off!
Jai ho.
K.R.RAVI