Corruption centerstage!

Anna Hazare has jolted the sarkar.

Anna Hazare has also woken up the nation.

Since the Tianaman incident in the early nineties, I always wondered whether a public uprising is indeed possible in our nation of over a billion. The recent show of public solidarity against corrupt regimes in many nations in the middle east also filled me with a deep sense of sorrow for our nation that though not governed by an autocratic regime has also not failed in setting an absolute high in corruption levels in the public domain.

Revolutions to succeed require a critical mass of incorruptible people. We are rather fortunate or maybe unfortunate that our nation of over a billion people has so far been unable to produce the critical mass.

The Anna movement is appreciable because of the purity of its purpose and also because of its ability in shunning the politicians so far. It however needs appreciation that the politician, of whatever hue and shade he may be, is a true representative of the society we live in and no purpose would therefore be served by merely castigating him, whether he belongs to the treasury or the back benches. The politician is the true face of the society and if the face is bad, so be it.

It is true that corruption has been so deeply ingrained in our society that for a common man, it is almost impossible to get anything repeat anything, done from the sarkari tantra, without the customary greasing of palms. Fortunate are the senior politicos and bureaucrats and also the super rich who are not affected by the malaise and this is a major contributory factor for corruption to flourish. People who can change the system remain unaffected by the system and therefore have no stake in changing it. The complexity of the sarkari tantra with its plethora of thumb impressions for even mundane matters is the real culprit.

We already have many checkposts in the form of CBI, CVC, Lokayukta, police and innumerable vigilance setups. How much will one more checkpoint in the form of a Lokpal help is therefore a matter of debate.

A holistic view on the entire issue of corruption is the need of the hour.

Great nation, not so great people!

Not everything is bad about India after all!

A country where elections see a change of power with amazing regularity, a country where the high and mighty are toppled even by new entrants into politics with amazing ease. A country that despite practising and displaying gross mismanagement cutting across sectors and state boundaries, is perhaps still the finest example of conducting free and fair elections from amongst the biggest conglomerate of electors in the world.

Yes, it is indeed gratifying that India is the finest and the largest example of a truly functional democracy in the world. A country where everyone is free to do whatever one pleases and this has also been our bane. A nation that acquired independence when almost eighty percent of its citizens were illiterate and the national infrastructure was in tatters, yet it made its constituents free and look where we are now.

Peaceful coexistence of contrasts is another feather in the cap of the nation. Here the dirty rich coexist with the abject poor, the powerful with the powerless and the gliteratti with the glitter less. A nation that offers the perfect platform for a revolution and yet nothing happens. The citizens happily accept whatever platter is offered to them.

Yes, India is indeed a great nation after all!