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Why The Lokpal Act Alone Will Not Reduce Corruption In India

By Faisal Ahmed Khan

12 April, 2011
Countercurrents.org

There is huge sense of euphoria, hype and celebration as the UPA government has finally eaten the humble pie and has given in to the demand of Anna Hazare for a strong lokpal act. This moral victory for corruption free India has been hailed as a ‘watershed’, ‘revolutionary’ and ‘landmark’ by jubilant supporters of Hazare and some commentator compared it with Satyagrah movement of Gandhiji, anti -emergency movement of Jai Prakash Narayan (In the age of globalistion everything needs to be hyped up) without discrediting anna hazare and all those people who are fighting against corruption and wishing them all the best in their endeavours this celebration may very well be misplaced and means very little or practically nothing in India.

It is often said Corruption is like a cancer which once spread cannot be contained without damaging the parts of human body although painful it might be, merely treating it with medications will only lead to spread of the cancer instead of containing it. I might sound pessimistic, retrograde or even regressive but taking all these risks in my stride I dare say that there seems to be no way that corruption in India will decline let alone removed by the establishment of Lokpal or for that matter any other institution but there are strong reasons for sharing such a gloomy scenario.. Firstly, corruption in India has become such a common phenomenon that it is present in each and every state,region,city, village and every other unit, we Indians may be divided on the basis of caste,class, religion, language, state and political ideology but ironically enough there is a very strong bond of corruption uniting each of us. We will pay the policeman 100 rupee note for traffic rule violation to escape the 500 rupee fine which we will have to pay in case we get the challan issued, we will pay bribe(called commission ) to touts hovering around government offices so that we don’t have to take the pains of standing in a queue or visiting government offices to get our work done, we will never buy a product with registered cash slip even if it means having to forego the warranty because that will result in payment of sale tax/Vat/service tax. All this is done round the year by an overwhelming majority of the people who will lose no time in crying hoarse about the enormous corruption present in the country and reviling the family background of the government officials.

The most frightening thing is the fact that we have accepted corruption as a normal facet of life in India which is permissible as long as it is to our convenience and should be opposed only where it hurts our interests. In my interaction with many of my friends whose parents are government officials with ‘plump’ postings I have been shocked by the coolness(sometimes pride also) with which they declare how much their parents ‘earn’ in addition to their salary, before you could argue with them about the ills of this practice they are quick to remind you about some other colleague of their father/mother holding the same or even lower post who makes ten times the money made by their parents (morality come easy to us even when it comes to taking bribes). I personally know an official who proudly declares that he donates 50% of all his ‘additional’ earnings to the poor and needy and only keeps the rest for him and his family, most of the officials bribe the minister in charge of their concerned department to be transferred to places where they can make truckload of money, successful candidates in civil services etc. before joining their departments make a careful career plan about making money in 5, 10 and 15 year span(after all they have given all their lifes pleasure for this opportunity only) I can go on and on without exhausting the instances of corruption in India but that is not my purpose. I only want to underline the fact that no institution, no constitution, no authority or force can root out corruption until and unless the people themselves decide to shun corruption and the chances of that happening are as bright as Rakhi sawant winning an Oscar. Till then we should celebrate anna’s triumph.

Faisal ahmed khan is an advocate by training who has completed his graduation and post graduation in Law from Aligarh Muslim University. He can be contacted on [email protected]

 



 


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