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 –
- One where a person is forced to pay bribe for a legal course of action and
- 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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