Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Corruption and Me


Hi friends. Hope you are the prime of ur health and Happiness.
Well. with a lot of interest I have been watching the recent developments all over India, people are getting aware and coming out to protest against corruption. Corruption is eating us up. and the levels of mis -appropriation of Public money are unbelievable. 1000 crores in NC hills of Assam, 2G scam(cannot write the figure.cannot imagine that people manage to have that amount of money) ,CWG scams, ISRO scams..Big Dam lobby..
And for us commoners we have one answer Anna Hazare!!...and for that matter our very own "Akhil Gogoi".I very much appreciate the efforts they have made..mobilised the people ..educated them against  corrupt people, used up to date electronic and other mass media effectively ( including my fav Facebook) ..and finally showing us some good hopes. They have been outstanding people and I am sure they don't have any  other intentions but to free us from the corrupted administration . I may sound little sarcastic in saying that but honestly, I stopped believing in mass movements. Being from this part of the world, I did saw quite a few movements, and have been a part of a few,( one of them is a strike to remove our principal at AEC,  and other one "The illustrated Axomiyar Astwitwa Rokhyar Xongram".) And I have seen what these movements has given us. I will have to wait for sometime to see if  Movements  Hazares & Gogois against corruption 


- Are not motivated by politics or some other vested interest 
- don’t go hay-wire because of failure of leadership  and honesty /dedication of the people involved
- Brings out the desired result and live upto people’s expectations.
Till then I have decided to stay calm and watch the proceedings. 
             Corruption has to be stopped at any cost, there is no doubt about it. But how? I  have my own ways of  tackling things..and sometimes they are little off beat. But thanx to Anna Hazare and Akhil Gogoi, I tried to take it seriously.. I would  be honest in saying  that , before Hazare these a high profiles scams was a just a breaking news for me. I was little late in picking up things because I don't watch TV , even the news, As I came to know about Anna Hazare in the News Papers & mostly though Facebook, I checked out who is that fellow.Thanks to Google it led me to www.annahazare.org. and hollaaaaaa...what a person he is. His previous works kept me guessing how a non-professional can think of that. Here I am talking about the villages he adopted, watershed development schemes, teaching self sufficiency to people. I do believe he deserves a Nobel for this. I salute him, and he is the one we need, if we talk about sustainable and green development.

      ok, as usual getting out of track. His movement in support of Jan-Lokpal Bill was a huge success as he said its a Janta ki Jai. But I am still not very optimistic about the Act as yet, and I do have my reasons. In my  idea these things can't be stopped with a mere act, I mean by enforcement, can only be done through self realization. 
      One fine day, thinking deeply about corruption (lol..), my alter ego (its my  fashion to project my alter ego) asked me a Question." What about me ?? Am I  corrupt?? " That's great..charity begins at home. Well the answer is obviously NOOO!! how can it be? By luck and by Gods grace I am in such a job which pays me well and in last 15 years of PSU service I have never been offered a single Peisa, neither I was asked / forced to do anything illegal, and I am always proud to say that. So the ideal cleanest person is here. Meet Mr. Abhijit. 

   Well, is that true? unfortunately not. I know myself very well. I never did any corruption because 
- I don't have the requisite guts 
-  I never had an opportunity 
- The place I work is clean as far as I know.
- I am paid well to support my family even in this "Mahangaee ka jamana"

            But all these doesn't make me an honest guy. And Honesty is what we lack , as a human being, as a social being, as a citizen of the largest democracy in the world.
" Honesty and Simplicity, if practiced in group, are the greatest tools for development."    ( well this is mine, but I have quoted it several time in the name of  Russel, August Comte, Karl Marx etc, just to give it some weight) . But that is not happening right now. My definition of Corruption is simple " misuse of Public Money, property  and Power". and have a look around you, and  by the above definition EVERYBODY IS CORRUPT. including me. All of us have and attitude for corruption, its in our blood ( should I say gene). Put one Suresh Kalmadi / A Raja in jail..thousands of people are waiting behind them to fill up the gap,and they are so dedicated they will break the previous record, I am sure. Do you think Lokpal Act will be enough to stop it?? I have doubt.
            In my perspective, spoiling a public toilet is also a corruption because it is made of public money and meant for public service. About 99% of public toilets I have visited are in pathetic condition, and who does that? you and me. Even low level public servants, Sabjiwalas, the gatekeeper, the security guard, everyone will try to cheat you, and given a chance they will do better than Kalmadi Sahab. 
          This gene need to be taken out of our blood, if we want to stop corruption completely. The core of  the issue lies in the whole social system, the society itself trains people  to get corrupted and we have been groomed to have a mindset like this. This is a much bigger issue than we realize. Hazare says “ Janta Mere Saath Hain” but what he would say when the whole population is corrupt. To eradicate corruption we need a total socio-psychological renovation .
 Sounds like perfect solution ?? huh..I know a totally hypothetical and the most  impractical solution ever offered. 

 But what is wrong in trying. I figured out a  modus operandi-
1.      Lets commit ourselves against corruption sincerely ( I will spare them from this who are already neck deep in the mud)- and realize that “it is a bad thing, and effects me personally”. Think alone and think deep, are we just shouting because from inside  we jealous of the people who became rich by corruption, don’t spoil yourself – interrogate yourself- give yourself a lie – detector test, scan yourself neutrally. Self realization should a the first part of any positive change.
2.       In fact we grownups  are gone case, it will be very hard to change out attitude at this time. At the most we can restrict  ourselves by Jan Lokpals & RTIs, Moreover we can try to stop ourselves  from day to day patty corruptions we do. Lemme tell you, it's not that boring as you think, in fact you start enjoying it. The bottom line is " Anything public is not yours, but you have a responsibility to protect it. Coz in long run it will make you life better.” 
3.      Finally we have to attack the Gen-Next. Something has to be in corporate in the basic education system, so that they start hating corruption , and develop the courage to live honestly. This is the biggest challenge- bcoz discrete efforts won’t help.  We have to cure each and every child, may be it will take 2/3 generations till we derive our desired result.  I don’t know how to do it,  the experts in education and child psychology  are the right people. But I know we have to do it. This won’t happen thro’ a Zindabad type revolution, rather we need a well planned and executed evolution. Here I want share a very personal realization about the present education system, particularly in the basic level.Whatever we are teaching to our children in schools and outside,  are  is indirectly encouraging to be hardcore materialistic and in turn to become corrupted. We don’t teach them basic human qualities. Ok that will be another issue.  If we can achieve this , might be in next 50 years, we are done. Till then lets have Jan Lokpal.

Taking to much of your online time is also a corruption. Bye for now- see you soon.

NB: - you won,t believe me , I have met people who are not corrupt.100 % clean , 100 % honest, the species still exists .. so its not too late.


With lots of  luv
Abhijit


7 comments:

  1. I have gone through both your blogs.Very well thoght and written, keep it up. Regarding your queary at the end of your first blog about the prpose of your very existance I have some comments to make but I will do so only when we meet personally.

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  2. Very well written indeed. As a commoner, I personally worry for our children ( though I have none ). How will they survive in this menacingly competitive corrupted world ? Will they degress or will they progress? Or will they also join the bandwagon and become corrupted?

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  3. thank you Udyam, I know you will always be my chief Whip. I wish you put your view on the purpose of our very existence here instead. @ Ruth, I do have the same Questions as you, what will happen next. But remember one dialogue from a Hindi Movie " AAb halat bahat hi buri hai, itna ki is se bura aur ho hi nehin sakta, isliye ab jo hoga achcha hi hoga" . lets think and work with a positive frame of mind.

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  4. I read your musings minutely. You became vocal and represent many more souls now muted, for the time being I believe. The change is inevitable and it would be good as you expected. But I hope, it would be good.

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  5. Wonderfully written. Strongly second you on the self-realisation part. Unless each human vows to be clean and honest corruption will continue to sneak in through some hole. And yes, corruption that has been happening over several decades will definitely require double those decades to remove it and for that aware amongst us will have to appropriately guide our next generations and imbibe value education which is fast deteriorating.

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  6. Thank you Mrinalda and Bidisha..your comments are inspiring.

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