Corruption pervades our lives completely.
There are very few
individuals who are completely non-corrupt or immune from its ill-effect. Like a
poison that when given in smaller doses which make your body slowly accept it,
we have allowed corruption in slower doses over the past sixty years into our
system and are no longer appalled by it as much as we ought to be.
We see scams
that undermine our infrastructure (Spectrum), scams that undermine the prestige
of our country (CWG), scams that undermine the credibility of our business
houses (Satyam). The corrupt have no Lakshman-Rekha. Even touching the almost
sacred and never to be touched institution, ARMY. Can we stoop any lower? The corrupt have constantly challenged our imagination by plumbing newer depths of depravity.
There is no doubt in any right thinking persons’ mind that it
is time we culled out the evil from our society.
It has to start with all of us. The onus for putting an end
to this menace lies with us. But as individuals can we all remove this menace?
Can we expect that “Yatha praja thatha raja (how goes the citizen, thus goes the
ruler)” formula to work here? Definitely it will work. But considering the
spread of corruption in all sections of our society and all the miniscule
sections of our lives, can we expect that the person at the grassroots level,
the persons who form overwhelming majority of our country’s populace, fight
against this? Will he or she be concerned about his or her next meal or will he
worry about the fate of the country? Will we be able to convince these people to
rise with us?
We cannot and should not expect people’s participation
without addressing the systemic failures.
These systemic failures:
- A guestimate figure of more than 90% of the corruption in this country doesn’t come out (those that have come out these days are thanks to the implementation of RTI Act which was possibly enacted as an aberration by the politicians without realizing its potential of the law. It is another point that the same politicians are now trying to "correct" their mistake by making exceptions to RTI)
- Of the less than 10% of the misdeeds a much smaller percentile of the cases see prosecution or conviction.
- Those that are convicted get away quite easily and do not suffer the ignominy of long sentence or confiscation of their ill-gotten wealth. They come out of the prison quite soon enough (enjoying first-class benefit) to enjoy this ill-gotten wealth
It is easy to conclude that without any kind of serious
threat to carrying out corruption, a vast majority of people are easily swayed
to become corrupt. Worse still there are those with enormous money clout who
consider it as a perfect business model to multiply their money. No wonder you
see enormous money power in play during corruption. After all, a candidate who
spends about Rs. 10 crores or more when elected can easily make more than 50
crores of rupees within the 5 years, usually it is much larger sum he or she
makes. Which other business can boast of such Return on “Investment”, and that
too with so little risk.
If we are to bring back sanity into this system, then we need
to shatter the feeling of “Guaranteed return”. We need to make the people who
“invest” feel insecure. We need to make the wannabe corrupt pause to think
seeing the possible consequences of getting caught.
Jan Lokpal aims at doing that. Give a credible, strong deterrent punishment to the corrupt when they get caught; increase the chances of them getting caught; penalize them such a way that others should pause to think twice nay thrice before getting tempted to be on the sly.
Jan Lokpal will bring
dichotomy between legislature, administration and investigation/enforcement agencies. This will take away the comfort feeling of I scratch your back; you scratch mine that is prevalent today.
The short term: We should see the undiluted Jan LOKPAL
bill implemented and demonstrate that the people of India are not sleeping and
will not take things lying down.
The medium term: We would see a decrease in the election
expenditures. There will not be a guaranteed return from investing in Politics
and therefore lesser number of people whose sole objective is profit will want
to be part of politics. This should level the playing field to a great extent
allowing honest people to contest in elections and come to power.
The long term: By the principle of honesty breed honesty,
we should be able to see honesty becoming a more acceptable way of living for us
Indians. The corruption as a lifestyle will no longer be acceptable.
This fight is within you and without you. Remember that
without the participation of every right minded individual, we cannot convince
the people at the grassroots level. If we show them the way, they will be coming
on the streets with you. If we reach them they will be more than happy to come
forward. They have as much at stake as every one of us. Your participation is a
key and critical factor to the success of our movement to get the genuine
freedom.
Sounds like a nice dream. I think it is possible. Very probable. But the effort that we need to put in is enormous. We need to internalize the concept of being against corruption. If we don't internalize it, there is very little chance you will be on the streets when we go and demand for Jan Lokpal. If you are not on the streets, in all likelihood, we may just get some other pal.
Friend, it is time for you to renew your vow against corruption. It is time that you, me and everyone stands against corruption. It is time for INDIA to be AGAINST CORRUPTION.
