A king, A Juror, and a Launderer

Once upon a time, there lived a king known for his judicious, courageous, compassionate and wise nature. He expanded the kingdom over a period. It extended 3000 km from east to west and 4000 km from north to south.

Since he couldn't be everywhere, he started to administer the whole kingdom in bits and pieces by appointing governors, justices, administrators, tax collectors, and other supporting administration staff for each territory.

Though the king was pious and honest, the people surrounding him were not so honest. Some used to do favours to their friends, family and relatives as and when possible. Some used to create new opportunities, jobs, and were favoured in establishing businesses, showing partiality for people of their community. Some others used to show partiality for the people who bribed them. Some others used to show partiality based on regionality, and so forth and so on.

Though the king knew that some of his administration was corrupt and dishonest, the king didn't try to stop it due to various political reasons. 

Over time, the corruption in the system rotted the system to the extent that not a single paper moved in any government office without a bribe or influence. Initially, people used to be happy as the king often used to condemn the corruption during his public speeches and used to quote idealistic, patriotic, and populist ideas aligning with the sentiments of the common public.

Over time, people got vexed with corruption as there were no serious measures from the king or his ministers to control the corruption. 

Like any other kingdom, this king also has an intelligence wing which updates him and his ministers about the public sentiments. 

One day, one of the ministers came running to the king, saying that he had some serious intelligence about a potential uproar about corruption. On hearing this, the king summoned all the ministers and asked them to advise him on what to do. 

One minister came up with an idea. The idea was to introduce a new policy and enforcement agency to curb corruption. A few ministers opposed this move. After a few consultations, all ministers agreed, and the king approved the policy. 

The policy was introduced. However, the minister who was in charge of posting the enforcement officers was also corrupt. So, he omitted the names of people who are favourable to him and gave the list of people who are termed as corrupt and not abiding by the rules. In the initial days, the enforcement agency worked hard to nab a few corrupt officials.

However, the enforcement agency was not given any power to punish the culprits. So, the agency handed over the culprits to the judiciary and never bothered about what happened to them.

Since the judiciary was not working in isolation, the rot of corruption seeped into the judiciary also. The corrupt officials, contractors, and other businessmen who were caught on the charges of taking or giving bribes found the loopholes in the judiciary and started corrupting that system also.

Some used to directly give bribes, and some used to do favours for the judges and other judicial staff by using their influence in society.

When the general public learned about this, they got angry. Again, the king received a report about the dissatisfaction of the general public, and again, the king and the ministers met.

This time, another minister came up with an idea. All the ministers and the king accepted the idea unanimously. 

A few days after that meeting, there was a major industrial accident leading to the deaths of several people. Initially, the state authorities reported the accident was due to negligence of the plant management. 

But, people started looking at the incident critically and started questioning the state. They asked some tough questions like why there was no proper approach road for the unit, why there were no proper fire exits and fire fighting equipment in the building, when was the last risk audit done by the fire department, what were suggestions made during the audit, and why they were no timelines for implementing those suggestions.

While the public was outraged about the negligence of the regulatory authorities, there was another fire accident. This time, it's in the judge's house who was handling the same case. Stacks of cash were found in the judge's house, and it became a talk of the town in no time. Everyone in the general public demanded prosecution and sever punishment for the judge and the corrupt officials.

The state authorities panicked as the issue snowballed. Meanwhile, one minister called one of his friends working in a popular media house. He suggested that his friend go to a popular artist and take his interview. Another minister called the artist and instructed him on what to do.

The interview was made public the next day. In the interview, the artist made some derogatory comments on another minister. The derogatory remarks were repeatedly broadcast on television, drawing initial reactions from some other celebrities and the general public.

The followers of the minister, on whom the derogatory remarks started protesting against the artist at various locations. The artist received another call from the same minister who had called him earlier. He suggested him to remain stubborn for 2-3 days. The artist followed his instruction. 

But some sections of the general public were still discussing the fire accident. This irked the ministers, and they decided to double up the game. This time, they instructed one of their followers to file a criminal case against the artist and instructed the police to take "necessary action" (kept in inverted commas for the readers to understand the inner meaning).

The follower filed a case, and the artist was arrested. The whole media followed him from his home to the police station and the court. 

As the media stopped showing news about the fire accident, it started fading away from the attention of the general public. In 2-3 days, the discussion about the fire accident almost faded away from the minds of the general public. The judge, the industrialist, the corrupt officials, the ministers and finally the king were saved from a serious outrage from the society. The ministers and the king took a deep breath as they successfully diverted criticism. 

But the king and the ministers were not happy with the turn of events and thought that people should be engaged continuously with trivial things to divert their minds from getting provoked and asking tough questions.

With this agenda, the king summoned all the ministers and top officials of the state and asked for their suggestions. A learned minister suggested that people must be given an option to vent out their frustration daily so that the outbursts of frustration on governance can be reduced. The king and other ministers were surprised at the suggestion and asked how to achieve it.

The minister started explaining. Introduce a platform to vent out the frustration with a limited scope of engagement, like limiting the characters in which they can express their frustration, limiting the visibility of such posts, and allowing some of their party cadre to bully the people who come up with reasonable discussions and practical solutions. The king and other ministers felt it was an amicable solution for their problem, but went into a dilemma about who to manage that platform.

One officer came up with a solution for that. He suggested that one of his friends live in a different country and run a technology company. The king, ministers, and the officers agreed principally for that person to manage the platform. The instructions were communicated, and the setup was done.

One fine morning, the platform was introduced. It was marketed to the public, saying that they got a new platform to engage and discuss their public, private, and personal problems, tagging the respective authorities. 

The public was overwhelmed with the opportunity and started tagging officials even for trivial matters, which are within the expected social norms. This went well for a few months. 

But people were not happy as the platform, media, and their regular chores made them think that they were in a continuous state of distress and dissatisfaction. This mood was spreading, and it was identified by the people running the platform. So, the platform decided to sprinkle some pleasant and motivational quotes in the middle of the dissenting posts.

One psychologist was hired to manage this "sprinkling" of posts. This worked well, and so the platform kept it going. 

Meanwhile, there was another mishap and another outrage. Then another cover up. This repeated to the extent that people forgot to be outraged about anything beyond 1-2 days. 

Over time, people became too habituated to the mishaps to the extent that they got stressed if there was no news of any mishap.

Being happy with the outcome, the king, ministers, and the officials rinsed the same formula and used it whenever there were signs of social frustration. Whenever there was a frustration in the society, they used a movie, an artist, an athlete, an NGO or a foreign friend who disguised himself as a foe to the society. They created a network of launderers who are ready to work for them covertly to avoid outrage from the public.

Thus, the kingdom prospered forever. 😊