Corruption&Price Rise - Are we the Cause and its Effect?

Rampant corruption, price rise, an inept government and power hungry opposition is making common man more and more cynical. The most common reaction that you can hear among the common man is, “Nothing is going to change, so why waste time shouting over what is never going to change?” Speaking against price rise is one of the greatest pastimes among the middle class. You can hear them speaking copiously about it in buses, shops, canteens, trains and houses. They will switch channels between NDTV, Times Now, Headlines TV, Star News, Aaj Tak, India TV beamed through Tata Sky or Dish TV on LCDs and rave and rant about it. If you look at the news, it will appear as if the Supreme Court is ruling this country while the Government is bound by it. The reality is that the corridors of even the Supreme Court are inaccessible to the common man. A person will become mad if he does not know the way to get his case handled in the courts. Lots of committees like the Public Accounts Committee, Joint Parliamentary Committee, National Human Rights Commission or the CVC, CBI, one man judicial commission, fast track courts, Spl. Courts and what not exist in this country. One wonders whether all these institutions are formed for stopping corruption or for stopping the corrupt from being framed in a corruption case. Civil service is politicized and there is no separation of the executive from the legislature. Ministers and Ministries are the country’s executive themselves.

Corruption is no longer a sin. When I was young, I remember my parents and neighbors talking very ill of the corrupt. In those times, also corruption was there but the person who was caught in a corruption case would lose the backing of the society. His wife and children used to bear the brunt of his misdeeds. I was brought up in such a society. Now, the scenario has taken a complete U-turn. In this materialistic world, an honest and upright person is considered as a good for nothing. (Pizhaikka teriyaada van). You can be tolerated in the civil service if you are honest but inefficient. But not if you are honest and also active. Just being an honest man is itself not enough. If a man is blind to the rampant corruption around which he works, his honesty is of no use. Corruption has become the number one national security threat by eating into the vitals of the state, enfeebling internal security and crimping foreign policy. I would also like to add that Corruption gives way to rampant smuggling, extortion and terrorism. One corrupt person gives birth to hundreds of Kasabs. Wealth is generated at one end and violence at the other by the same liberal economic regime.


Doesn’t it sound ironical that this is the land where honesty and integrity in public and private life has been glorified and upheld in ancient epics such as the Vedas, Upanishads and in the scriptures and beliefs of every religion practiced here! But then, who cares? For that matter, even woman are glorified as Devis, but the reality is totally different. A minor girl raped by a politician in a state ruled by a Dalit Woman as Chief Minister is put in jail for a petty theft case, while the politician concerned dares the system itself. This is the state of affairs of our country today.

The Right to Information Act is of no use. All the underhand dealings are done orally while the documents are maintained legally. The RTI Act gives you access only to the legal documents and puts the onus on the applicant to decide what to do next.
What the opposition parties need to do is to pressurize the Government to table meaningful bills rather than holding the House to ransom and costing the nation, hard-earned money of the tax paying public.

The Anti-Corruption, Grievance Redressal and Whistleblower Protection Bill, 2010 needs to be passed. The Bill aimed at constituting the Lokpal has been pending since 1968.

While the middle class complained about the spiraling onion prices, the poor seems to have become immune to it. What difference does it make to families living in utter poverty (less than Rs.500/- per month) if the onions sell at Rs.75/ per kg or Rs.30/- per kg. Both are unaffordable to them. These are the public sought by the political parties for election rallies and offered biryani and essential food for serving their cause. Instability in government means more elections which are actually a boon for such poor people. As far as the farmers who grow onions and other, they never get the price. It is always the middlemen who share the loot. The future of India lies in such middlemen and the service sector while the productive sector will always lag behind.

As far as those who encroach in urban lands and live in slums claiming to be poor, but have all the modern amenities inside their multi- storied huts, it is a golden period for them.

Time and again, the Government feels burdened by the subsidized petrol, diesel and LPG prices and feels the need to raise it, but the middle class equipped with new cars bought out of tainted money feels the pinch and raises a hue and cry against the justified reduction in subsidies. Their oft repeated excuse is that such reduction in subsidies will lead to a cascading effect on prices of every item used by the common man. In reality, the burden of subsidies on every government is contributing to this all round inflation. Raise the prices where it is due. I have been traveling in Mumbai local trains at a quarterly pass of Rs.510/- since 1994. By God, I say that not a single paisa has been raised in the prices of local train tickets. Yet lot of public avoid buying tickets and run whenever they spot a poor Ticket collector.

It is quite natural that the police who tackle this problem at the ground level are both the victims as well as the culprits of this menace. For those who speak about the incompetence of the Police, I would advise them to do duty as a Police Constable for one day and then speak about it. It is easy to argue, after all Indians are argumentative and nothing beyond that.

To end this blog, I would share with you the excerpts from an interview of Justice Santosh Hegde, Karnataka’s Lokayukta where he said
“The elders have failed to fight corruption in society. We, the elders have allowed this corruption to grow. All, including the rulers, administrators, journalists and even the judiciary, have failed. The society suffers from “greed over need”. It is for the children and their children after them to set things right. Encouraging corruption is accepting corruption. Society should boycott the corrupt. This change is public perception is possible only by the children. Satisfaction by illegitimate wealth is temporary. Earning legitimately is contentment, which is permanent.

 

thanks for your comments

warm regards
suresh