Getting Organized Against Corruption: A Good Start

None of the MPs and the govt. would've bothered If Anna was fasting alone at Ramlila maidan. Nobody would've given a shit if all us people hadn't come together against this social peril-corruption. It never has been because of one person. Change in a nation comes when people of that nation come together against a common enemy/problem. Change in world comes when people of world come together against a common problem. It's people who are responsible for an economic, social and political reform, never one person alone, and this has been invariably true, right from the days of the French revolution up till today. Anna has become a medium of the people in this fight against corruption and a fellow fighter too. Corruption is amoral and evil. Because of corruption, there is so much misery and grievance in the lives of so many. It’s in the nature of the corrupt to be corrupt, also, it’s in the nature of the righteous to be righteous. There is a war going on between the two from a very long time. I am asking you to become a warrior of the good side, put up your best fight and help us win this war. Win essentially, if you are fighting against wrong. Corruption is wrong. Needless to say that, without corruption life will be fair and just.

Life is meant to be good happy and safe for all. To ensure this we gave ourselves a system and for its functioning we pay annual taxes. But, this system is repetitively failing at obtaining its objective. The system was supposed to sustain a state of good happy and safe life for all, but it hasn't even achieved that goal, and by looking at the direction it’s running towards, anyone with half a brain can say, it never will. The democratic system we gave ourselves in 1949 needs a lot of improvement to address the issues of current times. Issues of corruption, crime and terrorism are threatening the nation today more than ever.

Corruption is like an infectious disease and it has spread to every arm of today’s democratic system. There is rampant corruption in law making body of states and center, in judiciary, in bureaucracy, in police, in media and where not. The Vohra committee report says it all. Corruption hits middle classes and poor in the worst way and since together they form the majority of Indian population, growth of the nation hampers. Real problem is that some legislators, bureaucrats, police people, justices and media people are forming teams together to rob public money. This is why it’s difficult to bring those corrupt people down. How is this becoming possible? Because of currently present loopholes in the constitution.

If we are to get rid of corruption, crime and terrorism, we need to make sure that honest and able people are appointed to every constitutional post, and to do this we need to improve our selection criteria. To identify honest, able, good people, we need to be smart. Don’t vote for the wrong candidate and don’t buy products of unethical business man. We must become smarter to know who’s right and who’s wrong and to know which one is in our best interest. We must come out in full support of good people doing good work, because that’s in everybody’s interest. It makes me hit my head with stone when I see people voting for the same guy who has been robbing them for decades and because of whom their miseries never saw an end. To become smarter we should learn, compare our standard of living with that of other nations. If you lack in sense you must learn from the sense of others. We must not let anyone fool us, rob us or grind us down.

Why do we have law making and law enforcing bodies? Why we have bureaucracy and judiciary and why do we pay taxes? All so, we can live a safe, good and happy, fair and just life. Now let’s give it a reality check. Because of corruption, so many of us are getting denied of services, jobs, equal opportunity, justice and fair treatment. Where crime should have been vanquished a long time ago, it’s still increasing steadily. People are getting robbed, murdered, harassed, stalked and so many of us are living in a constant state of fear. Terrorists today are able to kill us at will. If I go out in a city like Delhi, Mumbai or any other major city in world, there is no guarantee, I will return home alive or at least in one piece. 

Now whose job it is to get us rid of such problems? It’s the job of our elected representatives along with the bureaucracy, police, security agencies and the judiciary. They offer to take the job. They promise to solve all problems & ensure a sweet happy life for all. They fight for their candidature with such vigor. But once we give them our mandate for the job what do we receive? We receive inaction, apathy, declarations like it is so difficult, incapability, corruption, continuing crime and terrorism etcetera. The MPs and MLAs claim to represent their constituencies but, how many of them have bought and muscled their way to a win in the elections? My guess is a big number of them. There should be a way to stop this trend & make the system work. It’s hidden from nobody that so many of our current politicians including the elected ones are hand in glove with the corrupt. Some of them are amoral criminals too, while most of them are robbing public money from behind the scene and are involved in abuse of tools given to them by constitution to carry out their duties efficiently. Nothing says the story of political corruption in India better than a chronology of scams, one overshadowing the other. Apparently the current provisions in constitution have proven inadequate in preventing political corruption and criminalization of politics.

The police, security agents and the people in judiciary, unjustifiably give favors to particular people over others at the behest of their superiors, or for the sake of their personal interests or that of their near and dear ones. They use their position to generate wealth illegally, muscle their way around and harass the general public. This is nothing but serious abuse of constitutionally allotted power termed as corruption. The law enforcement agencies and intelligence units are also used by the corrupt with power and money to harass good citizens who dare cross them and these agencies do it even after having taken an oath to protect the very same citizen. They all take an oath to serve and protect the citizens. Some honor and enact it but most dishonor that oath by their amoral behavior in and outside the office. It has occurred to me that our law enforcement agencies consider crime a more profitable business than crime fighting. But, they are forgetting one thing that for a human, morals value more than any amount of money at any given time.

Here are a few links related to corruption in the judiciary-

·http://indialawyers.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/corruption-in-judiciary-time-for-action/
·http://www.newageweekly.com/2011/05/corruption-in-judiciary.html

Here are a few links related to corruption in bureaucracy- 
·http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne061208babudom_stirred.asp
·http://www.newageweekly.com/2010/12/bureaucrats-top-corruption-list.html

Here are a few links related to corruption in security forces and investigation units-
·http://www.indianexpress.com/news/over-260-corruption-sexual-harassment-cases/779299/
·http://www.rtiindia.org/forum/11657-31-cbi-officials-booked-corruption-charges-since-1998-a.html

Today corruption has crept into media as well. Media people too are seen working in tandem with the corrupt for petty gains. The government is talking the good talk, like always. I really like some of what the law minister is talking about like - Judicial standards and accountability bill, public procurement bill, amendments to the money laundering act, whistleblower protection bill, public services delivery and public grievances redressal bill, UID authority bill, electronic services delivery bill, Foreign companies prevention of bribery bill, electoral reforms amendment bill to decriminalize politics, , and some points the home minister is talking about like electronic equipments for intelligence gathering, central body for information sharing, regional offices of NIA, more recruitments in security force and the police force etcetera. But, alas! Real life problems do not get solved by just talking and so we continue to lose lives to corruption, crime and terrorism, continue to live in misery.

Most of the problems of general public are there because of dishonest and incapable representatives who abuse their constitutional tools for their personal interests. This abuse of power and money directly or indirectly feeds corruption, crime and terrorism in the country, thus starting a vicious cycle and at the end of day what we have is filthy rich politicians and their happy near and dear ones and the miserable robbed public dying at the hands of criminals, terrorists, disasters and the police. But this trend will die out because of availability of better and better technologies which will help spread awareness and educate people about their rights and what’s in their best interest and will also help in keeping a watch over people at positions of influencing matters of public interest. The work done by CAG in exposing scams and judicial activism of Supreme Court are finally starting to do some good to this country. They need to continue like this forever. After all this is what they are for. The process has already begun and it will be not long before we finally get the lives we deserve.

In order to ensure that only right people get elected to the assemblies and parliament we need to define an eligibility criterion for filing nomination papers. We need to make sure that only well learned, good, honest, smart and able people are allowed to file nomination for assembly seats and other constitutional posts that concerns matters of public interest. We must see to it that the Janlokpal bill gets passed in its original form. Lokpal will be helpful in curbing corruption. Right to recall will be a step further towards bringing true democracy. We must get the right to recall our representatives if we don’t like their work. We must also get the right to service from people appointed to public posts. These along with right to information will help bring true democracy which means the rule of people. We must also push for a working anti terror law and anti stalking law which we are lacking today. Our forefathers found out, arguably the single best course humanity should take. They took that course and passed their legacy to us. All we have to do is to continue building the road ahead on the same line. Now, how difficult is that?

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(Foot Note: The images shown here are for spreading awareness only, in hope of bringing a positive change and were found in image search on Internet. I don't own them.)