I am quite certain a vast majority of the Hazare fans have little idea of what exactly the Lok Pal bill is all about. And no, they don’t even care. Basically, the citizens were waiting for an opportunity to vent their frustrations out on the corrupt netas, and Hazare sahib provided that platform. In fact, I think the real turning point of the movement was when a group of feisty volunteers kicked some politicians out of Jantar Mantar. That gesture made many fence sitters jump to the side of Hazare. We are all Annas now. And we want the dirty, slimy, creepy chor netas punished. Big time.
Fair enough. I think the angst is more than justified. The politicians of India have been sucking the nation dry since independence, and it was high time the usually apathetic nation revolted. So far so good. And surely the Lok Pal bill will be passed under Anna’s watchful eye, and corrupt practices amongst the political class will get a little controlled.
However, simply fixing the dirty netas isn’t the solution. Because corruption runs in our arteries, we have all contributed to it, we are all corrupt, we are all chors. Because in our raging anger, we seem to have overlooked one key factor in the equation: It’s just not possible for our leaders to be corrupt unless we, the people, are corrupting them. So the source of bhrashtachaar is actually us. Not the netas. We give them votes in exchange for television sets. Industrialists ‘donate’ them funds in exchange for licenses, permits and other favours. We fall at their feet when they ‘grace’ our lives with their whirlwind visits (thus acknowledging them to be our monarchs and mai baaps). We are happy to bribe them to get our kids into good schools, secure government jobs, get plum transfers, get water connections, get jhopadpattis legalized, get out of legal troubles… the list is endless. And worse, we also ensure the babus, the police force, the custom officers, the municipality clerks, the lower court judges, the RTO dudes, the IT officers, etc, etc, also get bribed so we can benefit out of turn in every walk of life.
In short, we have made the nation corrupt. We are the real chors out here.
So yes, by all means support Anna. More power to him! By all means stand up for the nation. By all means diss the greedy netas. By all means wear the ribbons and the topis and the badges.
But do also take a moment off and stare at the mirror. Long and hard. The root of the problem is staring you in the face.
6 comments:
so true,"ghoos khilayenge nahi"shld be the mantra.
Another prblm is who will head the commissin?its nt tht only honesty is the virtue reqd bcas otherwise Manmohan singh wldnt get all the flak.the whole machinery to weed out the corruption will again depend on the beauracracy so again another viscious cycle?
Bribes can be paid out of compulsion too.
Who would have thought Dr.Singh's govt would turn out to be the most corrupt in the history of the nation? Kapil Sibal, the man who did not recognize the full extent of the 2G scam is out there quoting technicalities and offering informal solutions. Are they too daft to see that this is an exceptional matter? Who is so impotant to protect that they're willing to take massive hits to their credibility every single day by playing down such a critical issue? They have a ready list of people who stole from the country and they keep it from the people?? W-T-F!!!
We want to see the stolen money recovered and the thugs who thought it was OK to do so spend their lives behind bars. The bigger the fish, the greater the satisfaction. We want BLOOD! :D
Absolutely spot on, Anil! I just wish people didn't get blindly carried away with thoughts of a revolution. I find a lot of people on my Twitter/Facebook timeline with grand delusions of overnight change.
We forget that it has to begin in our own backyard first. The system and us are inseparable.
This is just the reason why i didnt watch Annas extensive media coverage even for a minute on TV,,,,,,i was sure its all a waste of time
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