Sitting far away from India I have been trying to keep connected to different activities happening back in India against corruption.I am in favor of Jan lokpal Bill and I am trying my bit to support it by all ways I can. That includes supporting the times campaign in raising voice for strong lokpal bill to forwarding different related emails to watching and supporting (read 'clicking on like button in facebook') different related videos uploaded on facebook.
Frankly speaking, I am not a follower of Anna Hazare, but I am following Mr. Kejariwal and I like the methodical and perfect way of Dr. Subramanyam Swami. The way they talk, way they put their points supported with proof is something I appreciate. But since I follow them and they are following Anna Hazare, I am also following Anna Hazare.
There was an one video on youtube where Mr. Karan Thapar was interviewing Mr. Kejariwal and he pointed out that going on hunger strike is nothing less than a black mail.
Mr. Kejriwal was not successful in rubbishing out this thought. But there could few reasons for that.
1) The time given to him to answer any particular question.
2) Mr. Thapar sound very aggresive host whose sole reason behind interview seems to point out flaws in Mr. Kejriwal's total idea of lok pal bill and his method of protest. Apparently, that is his way of taking interviews, that I realised after checking his interviews with other people like Ad. Ram Jeth Malani. But they did not succumed to his aggresiveness and that brings us to the the third reason.
3) Mr. Kejriwal appears a soft spoken person who makes his point quietly. He puts it correct and methodically provided the listener is patient.So, people like Mr. Kejariwal won't suceed if they come across some aggresive personality like Mr. Karan Thapar or for that reason Kapil Sibbal. At such places Dr. Subramanyam Swami is the right person to speak.
Inspite of the fact that Mr. Kejariwal did not succeed in making his point,it made me realize Hunger strike is not a black mail. And as Mr. Kejariwal explained its a way to make somebody realize he is wrong and guilty.Besides,our constitution does not give many other possibilities to make government realize they are wrong. All the provided possibilities go through the system of government which gets stopped somewhere enroute.So, if you do not want violent protests, hunger strike is the only way.
While I am following all this stuff, I came across this note that appeared in "The Hindu". You may read it here:
http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/society/article2343100.ece
titled: "Aren't we the real problem?"
It speaks about how even we are involved in day to day corruption and how this lokpal bill won't be able to overcome such petty issues of corruption.
I am not sure how lokpal bill addresses such issues. But this note brought a thought in ly mind about "What I expect as a success of Jan Lokpal Bill".
I am a person who won't be involved in corruption knowingly. But I am a careless guy and try least to make use of brain in day to day activities. I rely a lot on belief in people and that sometimes get me involved in corruption.How?
I will give two of my experiences:
I was travelling in Bus in Pune. The ticket cost me Rs. 12. But I don't had change. I had a note of Rs 10 and then directly Rs. 100. I offered Rs. 100 note. Conductor asked me for Rs. 10. I gave him Rs. 10 and in return he gave me a ticket of Rs. 12. I asked him about it and he just said "Its ok" and moved on to give tickets to others in the crowded bus. I didn't get the answer at that time. When my stop arrived and I was about to get down, he rushed to me and asked for the ticket. It was such a short time to think with all crowd around ready to get down that I did not give the second thought and gave him the ticket and got down. Once on earth I realized that I just bribed him with Rs. 10 and saved myself Rs.2 with this act. Possibly he was aware that there won't be any ticket checker waiting at the stop to cross check and made some money for himself.
Another incident is one while I was travelling from Pune to Kolhapur in a rented vehicle. At one of check post, the ticket cost 52 Rs. We gave Rs. 100 and he asked if we need a receipt. Since it was a one way ticket and receipt was not a compulsion. We thought "Let's save some paper" and said "no" to the reciept. He returned Rs 50 back instead of Rs. 48 and our vehicle moved on. The transaction was bit odd and by the time we realised that by not taking the reciept we actually bribed that guy with Rs 50 and saved ourself Rs 2, we came quite ahead of the check post.
That is courruption under ignorance according to me. I never wanted to save 2 Rs for myself. But I believed the system and the person involved blindly and thus fall prey to the corruption. After these incidences, I started believing the movies in which some government officer is shown to accept some money not as a bribe but later on raided by the IT officers to prove him guilty of taking bribe.
How do we come out of these kind of corruption practices?
One way is to become more alert in day to day activities.I will try to be alert for some time but my true nature will overcome soon. It is slightly difficult for people like me who prefer to believe people rather being critical. And this belief increases manyfolds when you have spent some big time outside India.
I think we need to have this belief in Indian community and I expect that Anna Hazare's Jan Lok pal bill should be strong enough to install this belief in Indian society also. For this reason, I
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