What is Corruption? Corruption at its core is not the millions of dollars siphoned away in huge contracts, but its our society's ability to accept corruption as a part of daily life. We live in a continuous world, not discrete quantums that somehow each occurrence is independent of the grand reality. When you decide not to ask questions when you see corruption and if it doesn't perturb you, anger you and bite you like a rattle snake, thats the real corruption. Like the fact that you are willing to bribe a traffic officer than pay the speeding fine. By summing up all our lives' complacency and low expectations on the transparency of the procedures in our rather small areas of control, we add up to grand corruption of the system.
There is hope, in fact there is a lot of hope for our nation. One of the main reasons is that it's simply not possible to go on like this. When there is corruption in governance, the most affected sections are the poor of our society. In more crude terms a corrupt society eats away like cannibals on the poorest and more vulnerable sections of society. Jai Prakash Narayan of the Lok Satta Party who is one of the more respected and honest politicians of India once said "I am not surprised at the violence and killing by the Maoists, in fact what surprises me is that there is so less bloodshed in the society, the desparate and exploited cannot be coaxed by mere words". So the increase of unrest among the neglected will make change inevitable. Also, there is a growing awareness among the youth and conscientious people of our nation, among us! and when we make a that collective decision in our lives not to tolerate corruption anymore, we will have changed the very psyche of the "Indian". Do not underestimate the effectiveness of good convictions, good convictions like good ideas spread like wild fire. Repeat this in you head "INDIA IS NOT A CORRUPT SOCIETY BUT INDIAN SOCIETY HAS BECOME CORRUPT", believe me there are a lot of good people like you and me who are stuck in this quagmire of corruption and as much as they wish are limited by the society from bringing change. We have the potential to make something happen, and in the meanwhile you can play a meaningful role by:
1. using your right to vote (trust me, a lot of educated middle class families don't bother)
2. refrain from taking the easy way out by bribing government officials, try getting your driving license the correct way
3. when you are really enraged about certain practices communicate your ire on the particular government department by writing letters to the concerned department. For example, write letters when the roads in your area are damaged, when you have observed any government servant misbehaving etc.
4. complain to municipality about dumps on the road (if any)
5. assert your rights as a consumer
6. If you can, educate your maids or other uneducated people in your society about various benefits available from the government for economically backward people. They may not be aware of certain concessions or facilities.
Lastly, let me relate to you an incident in the city near Delhi, Noida. The roads of Noida are pretty good but there was a rather unexpected speed bump immediately after descending from a really huge flyover which connected Delhi to Noida. Most people like my dad were annoyed by it but learnt to tackle it after one or two uncomfortable experiences. But my friend Ajitesh's dad took the pains of writing a letter to the roads authority regarding the problem saying that it was too unexpected and sudden for people coming at high speeds from the flyover. And guess what the bump was removed withing two days and put further down the road!
But obviously, we cannot expect any immediate result all the time, but by asserting your rights, you indeed make a change, at least in the minds of the people who probably never been approached before. And when indeed your complaint is given due consideration, Democracy and India are the real victors.
Lastly, have hope for you nation. Jab Hindustan Jagega, poori Duniya Jagega!
No comments:
Post a Comment