Anti-corruption wave: The solution lies within us

Anti-corruption wave: The solution lies within us



The anti-corruption mood has indeed engulfed India for now. Every nook and corner that I go I see people of my age going to various road shows and marches across the city in various avatars. The common man's angst has transformed itself into this movement with Anna as the pillar for it. While the entire hysteria around this huge movement is electric, I, for one feel that corruption needs to have an inclusive systemic reform and the people need to introspect as well as much as the institutions.

Anna's spirit is scintillating. His humble demeanour coupled with his child like enthusiasm in tackling this issue is a testimony to this. To see a 74 year old man running at Raghat after a day's fast was phenomenal. Anna's spirit has transferred to the entire Indian middle class irrespective of their age or religion. While this spirit has been at the front, the key to this entire Anti-corruption campaign is to translate this spirit to a long term systemic reform among the people.

Systemic reform comes in two ways. One it comes by laws and the other is by the implementation of the system. We have had laws all our 64 years of independence. We are also privy to the state of affairs in the country with regard to these laws. The issue that we are facing is with implementation and for that we, the Indian middle class is also at fault. Take this example. A friend of mine was stopped by a cop for flouting the traffic light, my friend who bribed the cop, he paid the bribe and the deal was settled there. This is one of the most fundamental acts of bribery in the system and it's at the mundane implementation level. Here the bribe giver and the bribe taker is the Indian middle class. Essentially what you see is the greed of the Indian middle class coming out (despite their circumstances or reasons for doing so). The same Indian middle class is on the streets today rallying behind the desire to eradicate corruption. The paradox that you see here reflects the inherent issue with corruption in our country. One of the ways that this issue can be resolved is to approach this entire issue in a multi-layered manner.

The entire gamut of intellectual discussion has been focused on a top down approach to the given issue. The issue is to have a competent authority at the top and hope he runs the show. While the top end of the spectrum is required, what one needs to realize is that the focus should be equally on the bottoms up approach. The focus should be equally on how we can break open the issues at the bottom end of the entire chain, at the fundamental and mundane level. People need to be empowered with education and the audacity to confront the bribe giver head on. At the bottom end of the chain, the systems need to be refined at the point of delivery. Why should a cop bribe? Because he is not paid enough and he is not punished for violating his code of conduct. Why is my friend forced to give a bribe to the cop? That is because we neither have the patience to not break the law nor do we have the means to go through the trouble. This is where the system needs to be equally more refined so as to address the weaknesses in the system in terms of parity of pay for the cop and introspection within us not to bribe the cop. Once this approach of addressing the bottom end equally as much as the top is adopted, this would ensure that on a pragmatic level, the society as a whole refines itself to move forward.

People need to be provided the education and knowledge to confront corruption at the mundane level. People need to be made socially "aware" all through and not just join the bandwagon for the sake of it. People need to realize that the fast is a means to prove a point but it does have a shell life beyond which it can have the dangerous potential to subvert the democracy in the country.

Most of all, people need to realize that this astounding spirit that has been triggered needs to transform into an attitudinal shift within the Indian Middle class in their day to day life. This attitudinal shift over a sustained period of time would help in the implementation of the mechanisms given by the constitutional authorities and it would address the root cause of the fundamentals of corruption.

The Lokpal is important. The laws of the nation are important. More than all this the sustenance of the rejuvenated positive spirit of the Indian middle class (for a prolonged period) in confronting corruption at the mundane level is the most important.

After all, as much as we yearn for reforms, the fact is we constitute the system and the long term solution

lies within us.