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Friday, September 23, 2011

India Against Corruption Movement - Victory





When Anna Hazare broke his fast after 12 long days by accepting juice from a Dalit and a Muslim girl, there was a sigh of relief for all, though it did not carry the reasons alike.  The PM was relieved that he would not have to make another speech in the Parliament to prove that he existed, the council of ministers were relieved that they will not be forced to eat their own words further on an hourly basis, the MPs were relieved that they escaped further humiliations from the dais of Ramlila ground, people concerned about Anna’s health were relieved for the right reason, people who had lost hope on the right consciousness of the Govt. were relieved that the consciousness finally prevailed, the first timer middle class revolutionary was relieved because they couldn’t have continued to overlook their busy day to day life any further.


But the vital question that arises is, what has the country achieved from all this? Did the bill become a law, the original demand of Anna Hazare? A mere resolution to consider the points that Anna wanted to be included in the Lokpal Bill is what we have achieved?

Anna rightly said that this is just the beginning and it’s a long journey before we can feel the change. Everybody had their own reasons to join in this crusade and they found a way to vent their anger and celebrated like a victory after the resolution.


But I did not feel victorious.

Why? Ask yourself the questions that I asked myself.

Do we always need to shout at the top of our lungs without food in our stomach to be heard by the Government?

Why we had to do this? It was not a movement for reservation by any specific community or a movement for a separate statehood, where certain groups have vested interest. It was a movement to eradicate a nationwide disease i.e. corruption. The Govt. representatives and some intellects were concerned about the undue pressure that was being imposed on the Govt. by putting them at ransom. They were concerned about the weakening of the parliamentary democracy. But I would like to commend the whole movement for its conduct and this showed the true spirit of democracy, where a country with state of law and order seriously ill and the softest of target for terrorist organisations of external and internal origin alike protested at this scale without any incidence of violence.

But such movements are the norm and necessity against monarchical Governments and not democratic Governments. The stubbornness of the Govt. and amateur handling of the whole movement is what creates a concern for our democratic system.


I would like to question the Govt. representatives and the so called intellects that raised concern over the blackmailing of the democratic Govt. that why the people had to come out against the Govt. which is for the people, by the people and of the people? Was the Govt. not acting monarchical?

We need to understand the real meaning of democracy for which we also need to differentiate it with monarchy. The first signs of democracy in India can be seen way back to our mythological times when Emperor Bharat, the son of Dushyant and Shakuntala, could not find any of his seven sons capable of ruling his kingdom, he appointed a simple farmer’s son as his successor. One of our greatest emperors in the history of India, Chandragupt Maurya was also common people’s choice and led India to the Golden Age. Even Ashoka the Great had also taken refuge to the democratic system in order to find his successor.

Hence, we can see that there can be Monarchy in Democracy and even Democracy in Monarchy.

The Govt. was acting as if to sooth their hurt egos and where even acting against the basic rules of politics.

Does the way Govt. has acted and agreed to the clauses and the bill in first place suggest that they are honest to the issue?

I am yet to meet any person who pursues or acts upon any subject or issue with required honesty which has been forced upon him against his will. It is falsehood to consider a Government body, a Company, a Board etc. as entity because ultimately people only constitute them who are thoroughly governed by their vested interests, their egos, their limitations etc.

Hence, this is no victory in terms of the Lokpal becoming a law in near future.

Will Lokpal Bill work?

There are laws like Prevention of Corruption Act and bodies like CVC which have been working in this direction of controlling corruption but corruption is such a menace that it engulfs even its preventers. The basic definition of corruption that I understand is that any unsystematic approach to reach our desired result is corruption. Now if we test all our actions till date on this scale, we will find that we are all a part of this corruption. Corruption comes with power. People who have some power can be corrupt be it administrative power or monetary power. We are talking about only one type of corrupts i.e. Govt. officials and politicians who are taking bribes in return of any favour under their jurisdiction. What about the people who are offering bribes to these corrupts? Will the Lokpal Bill cover them?

There are two types of corruption basically –

  1. One where a person is forced to pay bribe for a legal course of action and
  2. the other where one offers bribe to gain some advantage through some illegal process.


Will the second type of corruption ever come to light where both the bribe receiver and the bribe giver are at undue advantage? Will Lokpal Bill be able to curb such types of corruptions?

The second type of corruption is what eating away our economy and the system. It is the real form of corruption and also gives birth to the first type of corruption where the people are forced to give bribe against their will.

For e.g. whenever we are caught violating any traffic rules we try to bribe away to avoid the traffic challan. Would any one of us ever complain about such corruption? NO. And would not the traffic police start taking bribes even from people who have not violated any serious law after gaining confidence in such acts.

Which Govt. official would ask for a bribe on his first day of working?

We judge the level of corruption by its monetary value involved.

Can we forgive a peon or a police constable for taking 100 bucks as bribe to let one enter into some Govt. department, forge with one’s passport, and let one drive without licence or valid papers against a high level politician who takes several crores of rupees to benefit some business entity?

What if the person who entered an important Govt. building or premises plants a bomb, or the passport that is being forged is of some notorious terrorist?

Who is going to complain about that corruption involving merely 100 bucks but damaging invaluable lives?

Are Gods going to take avatar to head and run the Lokpal?

This is not a joke. What is the guarantee that the Governing members or the investigating authorities would become untouchables and corruption would not touch them? They are bound to be enticed with the highest level of greed and corruption because their power will also be of the highest level.

The biggest example of this is the resignation of the newly appointed Lokayukta of Karnataka, Mr. Shivraj Patil due to his involvement in a land allotment scam.

Has our Indian culture become corrupt?

This is very a serious question that each citizen of India needs to ponder upon.

What do we understand by our culture?

The Folklore, folk music, dance and art, our ancient customs and rites. We have always been portrayed this as our culture. Is this our culture? NO. It is tradition. Culture is how we think, how we behave, how does our attitude develops, how we act.

Hence, we are rich in tradition but very backward in our culture. Our culture has become corrupt where we have turned the tradition of gifting newlyweds to dowry, the tradition of wilful donations to educational institutes to compulsory building funds for backdoor admission.

We expect and even encourage our relatives who are Govt. employees to earn and benefit us illegally, citing the reason that everybody is doing the same. Then why are we shouting slogans against corruption and corrupts and participating in candle light marches. Can we all ensure that we will not misuse our power to gain benefit if given one? Then only we can raise our voice against any kind of corruption. We need to understand that we are directly affected by the ground level corruption and that needs a movement that will enlighten us against the corruption within us.

It is not that I did not follow or support this movement but I am not supportive of this bill because it works on the theory of penalizing after the act has been done. It has been projected as a deterrent for corruption. No matter how many strict laws are made, the corrupt will find out a way to escape.

The greatest achievement of this movement is the togetherness that we have shown for our country and the beginning of interest and participation of the people, who really matter, in the politics and Governess. But one more question arises here which this movement wrongly projects.

What message is Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejeriwal or Kiran Bedi giving by saying that they will never contest election or join politics?

  • They are portraying that the movement that they started does not involve politics.
  • Good people like them who are only concerned about the welfare of the people should not join politics because politics and Governess is for people who have vested interest.
  • All the politicians and political parties are corrupt and untouchables.
  • They will keep on putting the Govt. at ransom whenever they will think they are heading in the right direction but they will not support any good or good people in politics.


A Food for thought

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