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One has to start it all at some point in the time space. And Anna Hazare has
taken the lead to do it. If India does not get rid of corruption and corrupts
then the country's sovereignty itself shall be threatened. It's time for us to
not only support ,whole heartedly, Anna's efforts for instituting Lokpal bill,
it's time for India to take a pledge to eradicate corruption completely, in
whatever form it is afflicting the social as well as the political life.
The pledge to remove corruption must not stop at lokpal bill , rather , as JP
told, way back in 1974 at Patna, it's Total revolution , Sampoorna Kranti, that
needs to be revived. We must find out the social roots of corruption and see to
it that these are uprooted every where. This may call for changing even our
perception of materialism. Today, money has become a tool for a social show off.
Extravagant expenditure in parties has become the sign of prosperity, ignoring
the fact that millions of our children sleep without proper food.
The politician-bureaucrat-corporate nexus is controlling the country.
Privatisation , coming in of big players , Indian as well as MNCs, is trying to
compete on the path smoothened by greasing the palms of those responsible for
checking it. Huge and illegal money transactions have bewildered us. The very
character is missing in the public life. The more you create anti corruption
agencies the more corruption takes place. It's surpassing record after record ,
creating new records, to be further broken, in the series !!
We Indians need character. Think of Japan. A country devastated by tsunami and
earthquakes is rebuilding itself by its own people. Corruption prevails there
also but every japanese loves the country and is willing to die for it. Those
repairing the nuclear reactors are working round the clock knowing that they
can't escape radiation. This is ,simply put, the love for the country.
No doubt that the moment of truth has come now for the nation with Anna showing
the path. But it's impact can be even bigger if each one of us takes a pledge
that he or she won't allow corruption to exist anymore. It's time we woke up and
saved the country from a certain disaster.
I'm afraid that I'm not all too happy and satisfied with what has happened in
the last 3 days. No doubt that Anna Hazare deserves kudos for the attack that he
has launched on corruption. He has become the focal point of hope for the
millions of our countrymen. But a bigger question is still left unanswered. And
this is the source of dissatisfaction for some of us. Let us have a look at the
unanswered questions:
1) Will the Jan Lokpal bill or later a law solve the problem of corruption of a
country which has ,covertly, accepted corruption as a way of life ? If yes then
why the institution of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) could not succeed? How
can one forget that the Chief Vigilance Commissioner of India himself has been
under the scanner and the apex court has found his selection for the post
illegal ?
2) The Jan Lokpal bill addresses itself only to the people who hold the public
office. Do we realise that the biggest source of corruption in India, in the
recent times, has been the greed of the upcoming private corporates? Is there a
way to check the corruption unleashed by them in India ?
3) It's a HARD TRUTH that materialism and rising aspirations are the main
driving force for corruption in any society, more so in developing countries
like India. This tendency gives impetus to achieve the end without bothering for
the means. For a country moving towards becoming the manufacturing hub of the
world , thereby , inviting billions of dollars investments , checking the
growing aspirations of the people will be a crime. So, how do you think Lokpal
bill will be able to curb corruption which is flowing alongwith the horizontally
growing aspirations of millions ?
There are many other points that limit the role and effectiveness of the
Lokpal's institution as an effective means to check corruption in India.
What I look at as a powerful way of checking corruption in India is
institutionalisation of spiritual values in all walks of our public and even
private lives with stringent punishment for those proved corrupt. Let us not
forget that involvement of money is not the only way of looking at corruption.
What will you say to charging of high capitation fee by the educational mafias
operating in many parts of the country specially in Pune and Bangalore? Is it
not corruption ? What about the government doctors ever willing to treat the
patients only in their private clinics and not in the government hospitals? Will
the office of Lokpal be able to check the grafts taken by the policemen right in
the police stations for freeing a criminal?
My purpose of writing all these here and elsewhere is to request Anna Hazare
saheb and all his close associates , Kiran Bedi , Kejriwal, swami Agnivesh, Baba
Ramdev etc. is to not to stop here as the govt has accepted their demand for the
Lokpal bill but to rise the crest of the present anti corruption wave in India
and develop a system from the grassroots that makes the national fabric strong
enough to quell the incident of corruption ,as and when it raises its ugly head.
Being a witness to and also a participant in the famous 1974 Bihar movement led
by JP, I can only appeal to all the fellow countrymen to think in terms of
bringing in Total revolution , Sampoorna Kranti, as propounded by JP for he saw
clearly that no institution can succeed in
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