Hi folks,
Yes, it’s official now. We are in the middle of the season of scams. The sums involved this time make your eyeballs gouge out, literally, and put even the biggest of past scams to shame. Right from the land we live in to the air that we breathe, there seems to graft everywhere. In this post, I don’t wish to zoom into specific cases, for the fear of sounding like a mundane news bulletin, but rather focus on how we have responded to scams that have been unearthed in recent times.
Our polity has a new found addiction, the ‘moral high ground’. Find anyone of your party members in a compromised position? No problem. The accused individual will step down upon the request from the party high command and that absolves the individual and the party of all guilt! The loss to the exchequer and the taxpayer is conveniently overlooked and negative sentiments generated by the scam and their consequent effects are not even debated. This kind of circus goes on only in India and goes to show the moral bankruptcy of our political class.
The reaction from the great Indian Middle Class [IMC] has been along expected lines. The latest scams notwithstanding, the IMC has always looked upon the political class with despair and contempt. We couldn’t care less as long as we got our daily dose of Saas Bahu serials and cricket matches. We didn’t see any mass scale upheaval that naturally would have occurred in any other country. But this doesn’t surprise me as IMC knows very well that there is much more to come and will certainly be bigger in magnitude than the scams that have been unearthed.
The only consolation in this whole tamasha has been the fourth estate, the media. This section of our society has toiled hard to ensure that corruption is exposed and that the culprits are brought to justice. The electronic media, in particular, has gone into a tizzy covering the various scams. Official government reports on various scams appear first on television channels before they are even tabled in parliament. The media’s role has been so crucial that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the government would not even bother acting on these scams if it were not for the relentless coverage and as such credit must be given to the media for precipitating change. [Of late, we have been hearing that some journos from the mainstream media were actually in touch with a dubious lobbyist. But we should be careful here not to paint the entire media with a single brush.]
Graft is a cancer that will certainly destroy us from within if we do not address it immediately with as much willpower as we can muster. As of now, I can safely say that we have not even initiated this difficult task.
P.S. While we are at it, why don’t we also turn the heat on petty corruption?
5 comments:
Legalize corruption....Thats the only way out..
@Total...wow what a name..anyways, legalize corruption...dude...????
I agree with you on the 3-points.
->politics: Where mere removal of politcians from the post is not a punishment in itself.
->The focus must be turned towards the mid-level babus, govt offcials and auditors who control over the day-to-day bribing in RTO,Passport Office,PDS,Banks etc who tend to escape.
->Our country where people are so used to corruptuion that it doesnt surprise any one if we bribe.we dont protest or take to streets. Its a bribing-by-default syndrome that we are going through.Its a pity we have accepted it as a part-and -parcel of our day to day life. Anyone who dares to open his mouth is either a fool or an inexperienced fellow with little exposue(as termed by adults) to indian bazaar.
I beg to differ a bit on the media point.
Let the entire episode come in to limelight. Why all the diffrent media houses(which compete for TRP's or whatever you call it) are shying away from bringing this particular news out? I have to search in and out of google to get a good(amount/content) of news on this issues. There is a sense of reluctance, and a bigger conspiracy which is waiting. I bet lots of things are yet to be unwrapped. Media are joined there hands in corruption. My only faith in e-media(NDTV) is clean bowled(will be with Padmashri Barkha Dutt's expose).
The world is a stage and everyone's an actor(Gurudev's words). No body is symbol of integrity, honesty and commitment. Money is the only language people speak. Tata came out way ahead when the 2G spectrum came out, only in fear and anticipation that his bribing would be exposed. Within a week a rehearsed "Walk a talk with Tata was showcased". Using some terms like Banana Republic balah blah to hide Corruption. Even media is CORRUPTED to the core. Only solace is it brought out news and died in itself. Its a sort of martyrdom in which u are bound to kill yourself. In short media is "suicide bomber".
@jagan..lets reserve our comments on Mr Tata...he is still one of the most respected business leaders out there...
Related article: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/02/201122182618654798.html - India is the world's second-fastest growing economy, but ranks 87th on graft watchdog Transparency International's list based on perceived corruption - a worse rating than its neighbour China.
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