How Corrupt is our Corrupt Society?

Born in 1940 before India attained independence from the British Raj and a former Indian Army soldier, Anna Hazare is known as a social activist who was instrumental in upgrading the ecology and economy of the village of Ralegan Siddhi located in the drought prone district of Ahmednagar in the state of Maharashtra. Now widely and wildly popular for having stirred the common man’s interest in his crusade against corruption and corrupt politicians, public figures occupying various government positions et al, Anna has become a household name.

Riding on this crest is 1965 born Baba Ramdev (nee Swami Ramdev) who has earlier gained popularity through his practice and teaching of yoga and pranayama not just in India but abroad as well. Associated with the 2011 anti-corruption movement and involved in the Jan Lokpal agitation, Baba Ramdev is going on an indefinite fast from today June 4th, 2011 to force the government to take effective steps to curb corruption.

Both these gentlemen have a large following from all walks of life. While their intentions are noble, one needs to understand how much the common man understands the implications of being clean and above board. It’s like an ‘I am Okay, you are not okay’ syndrome, but how much truth is there in it? It remains to be seen and felt. Thousands of mini scams go unnoticed every day involving officials and common persons. This country can call itself corruption free only when a customer does not ingratiate with the system to get a positive response to his requirements. One example that comes to mind where the common man ends up paying additional money is at the RTO when he or she goes through the rigmarole of obtaining a driving license. Even the most clean with all the data and documents in place have to pay up this convenience fee to sail through at the counter.

A point to dwell upon is the age at which we get an exposure to such dubious double standards! Parents now-a-days are willing to shell down huge sums of money to get their children into a private institution, all because the government run public schools perennially are in short supply of good educators, instructors and teachers besides the woefully pathetic infrastructure. During the late 50’s and early 60’s the difference between a government run school or college was not much when compared to a privately run institution, but not anymore.

This may sound comical: take a step back and look at the profit and loss arithmetic sum we all must have done in our early childhood: How much profit does a milkman make if a liter of pure milk costs Rs. 10 and he adds a liter of free water from the tap to every 9 liters of pure milk before selling to his unsuspecting customers? If there is a gain from being corrupt and this gets taught in the schools at a tender formative age, whom are we blaming? Rest is just an extension and the degree and decimal point varies.

With no resources at its disposal, the young government at the time of independence faced an ever yawning gap between demand and supply. Creating a socialist democratic republic by removing healthy competition (Nationalization of privately owned Industries and Establishments) and by controlling the daily needs of the common person, the then government thought they had everything under wraps and in control. It took the government a good 35 years to realize the harm their excessive control had brought in. By opening the market through free market economy the floodgates did eventually open up for investments and so did the income. Unfortunately the economy further polarized the population between the haves and the have nots. With the pay scales of the government employees being directly proportional to the tax collection, one can imagine the pressure on the government with just 35 million miniscule tax payers in a country of a billion. The law enforcers came under the less privileged class and thus for them to make two ends meet, they accepted convenience money. The section of people who earn sufficiently to make two ends meet comfortably, were also the persons who were evading taxes but quick to blame the government for corruption. It was like the pot calling the kettle black!

We have refused to stand in the ‘Q’ for a popular movie just released on a Friday and instead buy the tickets in black. We prefer to bribe the linesman to declare the energy consumption meter faulty and pay lesser amount to the Electricity Board. We tap raw power from transmission poles during festivals and deny income to the state run utility companies. Our hospitals demand extra money for providing sub-standard services to inpatients! Office of the registrar of births and deaths demand a huge ransom to issue an appropriate certificate, in spite of the documents being in order. It is as if they are doing us a favor by issuing a certificate!! The list is endless and this parasite called ‘corruption’ has spread its tentacles far too widely for it to be reined in. Where will these two gentlemen Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev commence? While the rich and the famous besides the politicians and the Government officers and offices are rightfully to be blamed, who will bring in the necessary controls amongst the larger public who are equally to be blamed, if not more?

It was a shock when we visited a temple in a famous south Indian city near Chennai where, we were first invited by the temple priest into the sanctum sanctorum and later forced to pay a tidy sum in order to exit. The creators of the idols are long dead and gone, their names not even carved on stone as a recognition of the years of efforts they put in to erect such ageless magnificent structures – the fruit of their labor is being enjoyed by a set of unscrupulous temple priests who in the name of God extort money from gullible public like you and me and we, willingly pay thinking that the Gods will be immensely pleased and bless us with gay abandon.

While it is nice and easy to point a finger at the others, it is time to realize that by doing so, three fingers point back at us. Are we listening to our inner conscience? It knows what is right from the wrong, one just needs the courage to travel on the right path. As Gandhiji said: Speak the truth! It is an immensely easy thing to do yet, it is a very tough task!

Anna and Baba: I hope you are listening…please ask each of your ardent followers to practice in their personal capacity to make India corruption free as well…only then will this campaign bear fruit and not otherwise!!