There has been much jubilation about the official notification issued by the central govt. constituting the joint committee for the drafting of the Lok Pal Bill. Broadly speaking, the Bill seeks to create a Lok Pal authority which will act to curb corruption in the legislature, executive and the judiciary.
Anna Hazare, who was the public face of the movement for an effective Lok Pal as opposed to the toothless Lok Pal proposed by the government, has said that the govt. has time till the 25th of August to pass this bill. Further, his diktat also requires Parliament to pass the Bill unanimously, failing which he will sit in protest again, this time inside Parliament. 🙂
The media has afforded pretty much non-stop coverage to Anna Hazare’s ‘satyagraha’, many news channels having adopted the campaign themselves. At this stage, I really have to question middle class India’s penchant for instant solutions. I wouldn’t be wrong in characterising this movement as being a middle class phenomenon because, as a group of people, we are the ones most vocal about corruption and also the most apathetic when it comes to acting on our complaints. Ample proof can be found for this in the innumerable candle light vigils held for the victims of 26/11. There were so many of these vigils that people probably started stocking up on candles lest they disappear from the market. 😛
Levity aside, the voter turnout in the 2009 elections in Mumbai and sorrounding areas was a disgusting 40%. No other country in the world declares election day to be a holiday. Yet, people in many of these countries consider it their duty to vote, even if they have to devote an hour before or after work to go to the polling booth and cast their vote. In India’s urban areas, even after being given a holiday, middle class citizens, with all their desires of superpower status for India, scarcely care about making their vote count. I won’t say that middle class votes can change the results of elections, but this group of citizens is more empowered than the poor citizen, he is more informed (if he cares to read the newspaper on a daily basis) and has the benefit of a decent education which allows him to analyse issues better than those without the gift of education. In such a situation, nobody is better placed than the middle class to raise awareness. Sadly, a majority of the middle class simply doesnt care. We are content to grumble in our well appointed living rooms that our leaders are ruining the country.
In the light of such apathy, it is interesting to note how quickly the movement spread across urban India when Anna Hazare started his fast for a meaningful Lok Pal Bill. For once, the middle class youth were given an opportunity to actually do something which wouldn’t pinch their pockets or take up too much of their time. At best, Anna’s fast would have gone on for a day more, not beyond, simply because the IPL matches would grab more eyeballs. On that note, the timing of the fast is even more impressive. It started at the right time after the World Cup victory, gave enough time for the euphoria to die down and ended just before the IPL fever really picked up.
So, is the Lok Pal Bill really the best way to go about tackling corruption in our country? We Indians have a weakness for top-down solutions. We would like to believe that our leaders should be scrupulously honest and that this would result in an completely honest society, much like the Chinese who believed that if their Emperor was just and moral, all his citizens would become paragons of virtue. History has shown us that the passage of time has turned the samskrita saying ‘यथा राजा तथा प्रजा’ on its head.
To make sure that anti-corruption measures have a lasting impact, a two-pronged solution has to be attempted – action has to be taken at the grassroots and people must be exhorted to vote without fail. Its a valid argument that voting doesn’t make a difference, because all the candidates are equally corrupt. So what? Vote the corrupt ones out. Vote them out each time, till the politicians get the message that their consituents will not tolerate corruption. Politicians are smart people. Their goal is to attain and stay in power. To this end, they will do anything. Well, pretty much anything. If they can be made to realise that good and clean governance is what it takes for the people of India to keep voting them back to power, they will latch on it in no time. I just have one question to all those who were demonstrating in Jantar Mantar – How many of them know the name of their corporator/ Municipal council member ? The second prong of the solution is to get them when they are young. Tell the kids that corruption is morally reprehensible and that breaking laws is absolutely unacceptable. Inculcation of such values has to begin right from primary school. Let me illustrate my point with an anecdote :
The famous Kannada writer Shri. S.L.Bhyrappa was in Japan once, on a visit. He was winding up his visit and had gone shopping to buy some toys for his granddaughter. After much thought, he decided to buy a toy bird, which could flap its wings and rise in the air for a bit, and then descend slowly. The saleswoman even demonstrated how to make the bird fly before Bhyrappa made the purchase. Having paid for the toy, he couldn’t resist the urge to try it out and proceeded to do so outside the shop. He probably didn’t do it right, because it shot out of his hands and hit a little girl, who was walking down the street with her parents.
Immediately, Shri. Bhyrappa started panicking. He had caused hurt to a little girl and on top of that he was a foreigner. True to his Indian self, he thought that the parents would create a big hooha and that the crowd in the shopping street would probably beat him up. Running towards the parents. he apologised profusely, over and over again. Luckily, the girl was not much hurt and the father told him that everything was fine. He even invited Bhyrappa to tea the following day. Shocked at this display of forgiveness, Bhyrappa wouldn’t accept the invitation. Finally, the Japanese couple asked their daughter to tell him that she was allright. Bhyrappa then accepted the invitation to tea.
Later, Shri. Bhyrappa when was relating this incident to his host in Japan, he expressed his surprise at how the parents of the girl reacted. The host asked him, “How old do you think the parents were?” Bhyrappa replied that he thought them to be in their late thirties. On hearing this the host replied,”That’s the reason they acted the way they did”.
Intrigued, Bhyrappa asked for an explanation. The host explained that, after their defeat in World War II, the Japanese people thought long and deep about what caused them to become so militaristic and aggressive. They had attacked America (Pearl Harbour) without any provocation. On top of that, they had brutalised much of Korea and Manchuria in an imperialistic fervour. And so, they came to the conclusion that as a society, they had become very arrogant and hawkish, taking offense at every small affront, perceived or real. The post-war leadership of Japan decided that such an attitude needed to fundamentally changed.
They decided to start at the school. Children were encouraged to find a compromise solution to their disputes instead of fighting it out. In this fashion, the outlook of the generation that came after the harrowing spectacle of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was very much different from that of the preceding which lead the country to unthinkable disaster.
This incident shows us the power of ideas when implanted in young minds. So far, I have never heard of any school teach its students that giving or taking a bribe is wrong, or that breaking the law is wrong. It is assumed as something for the parents to tell their kids. But, we forget the immense influence teachers wield over kids. Children would rather disregard the word of their parents than that of their teachers.
To minimise corruption, lets start with teaching the children in our society that corruption is just plain wrong. At the same time, let us go vote, regularly, at every opportunity. Vote against the corrupt rats and vote them out till they get the message. Only then, can we say that we have taken some real measures towards creating a corruption-free society.
Mixed up Tenses 