Sunday, April 10, 2011

Fight Against Corruption


What Shree Anna Hazare has done in the past one week should have been done by each one of us when we were first called upon to choose between the Right and the Wrong. He responded to the call and vowed to stand against the Wrong denoted by Corruption. He pioneered an uprising which was long overdue. The instant response that he got from the entire country, young and old alike, was phenomenal. The government has given in to the demand of creating a committee that will oversee the drafting of rules and regulations of the Jan Lokpal bill.

The question to be answered is whether Jan Lokpal and further such impartial and stringent bodies, working towards stopping corruption and penalizing the Corrupts, will be enough to tackle the daemon of corruption. To answer this question, we have to learn what corruption is. Any action which demands a breach of the laws of the land shall be deemed as corruption. Bribes, domestic violence, petty fights over property and inheritance, depriving people of their rightful dues, demeaning someone owing to their caste, creed, gender, opinion and tongue and many other such areas form the crux of corruption. We have to face it on a daily basis and its victory depends on the course of action we undertake. If we opt to put our concerns over the law, corruption is a marvelous supporter of that cause.

Why do we have to adopt and aid corruption? Those who are corrupt come from within our very own society and hence they are rooted in the same set of primary learning and upbringing that others in the society possess. There cannot be smoke without a fire. If corrupt acts have taken place, we have helped in some way or the other to let them occur. On most occasions, a corrupt individual derives the motivation for corruption from others. There can be several reasons which may lead to such an inspiration. A voluntary decision, a drive to fight impoverishment and the very nasty “Economy of Scarcity”, an urge to impose supremacy and domination, a sense of greediness and jealousy etc. All these are social evils which stem from the general lifestyle of a society.

How can we prevent corruption? A self-made act of corruption can be the toughest to prevent. Any individual can evolve and follow a course of action which may not have occurred to him earlier and which may not be seen anywhere else in the society. Such a case also has a history. Perception and seeding of ideas often take environment and precedence into consideration. Such a person cannot be denounced after one or two acts of corruption, he needs counseling and a channel to get out of that dark alley. The process may involve satisfying the rightful needs of that person, freeing him from violence and threats, making him aware of his Human responsibilities, proving to him that such acts can reap the benefits intended only a few times and on all other occasions they may lead him to ultimate ignominy and self-destruction. Proper and affectionate coaching shall be rewarding in such cases.

Public figures may be more difficult to tackle because their actions, however miniscule, have a direct bearing on the society as a whole. A. Raja, Suresh Kalmadi, Natwar Singh, Justice Dinkar and others in the past have not only inflicted financial and social damages but also charred the consciousness of the Democracy which rests on the framework of goodwill for all. The law should take its own course and punish the guilty. But the real culprit to address is the “Power Corrupts” syndrome. Why an elected or appointed public authority crosses the line of sanctity? He has the power of influence, of making or breaking someone’s day. And this power cannot be taken away overnight. How can we address this?

A public official is also an individual and the same set of methods of rehabilitation that applies to a commoner shall be effective. Yet, the results are seldom encouraging. It is the mechanism of wielding the power and collusion/circumvention of facts and procedures that we need to correct. Making most procedures go online will help to present the facts to wider audience and avoid the need to come in direct contact with an official and then depend on his whims and fancies. Once the decision is made and it is found to be suspicious, some channel of quick/exhaustive review shall be available to the victim. And if this review confirms the doubts, the accused should be reprimanded. If the same official is found guilty again, he should be handed out the strictest conviction. RTI helps a lot in pushing for these reviews and I believe that Jan Lokpal bill will provide more teeth to the victims’ resurrection.

The fight against corruption influences us and starts with us. So, resolve and act. Next time around, we should not depend on a stalwart like Anna to stir our souls.

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