A role for all in crusade against corruption

As far back as 1787, one of the founding fathers of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, recognised the superiority of the press over government. In a letter to a Congressional colleague, Edward Carrington, he said he would prefer ‘newspapers without a government’ rather than ‘a government without newspapers.’

It is this underlining principle that led to the First Amendment to the American Constitution which states explicitly that “the Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech or of the press…”

The role of the media as an “institutional limb of modern democracy” was yet again amply demonstrated during the recent phase of the Jan Lokpal movement that was unprecedented in many ways.

Would Anna Hazare have achieved the success that he did without the live, extensive coverage by various news channels which also captured the remarkable flip-flops of the government and the ambivalence of the opposition parties right till the day Hazare called off his fast?

For those 13 days, people across India were glued to their television sets and felt inspired to participate in their own way.

When Hazare gave the call to gherao MPs and demand to know their stand on the Jan Lokpal bill, action was seen not just in Delhi but in various parts of the country. People had almost become habituated to switching on their TV sets in the morning itself to get the latest update on Hazare’s fast.

Ironically, large sections of this very media has its imperfections, one of the most pre-dominant being the culture of paid news.

Such is the irony that a media group that has institutionalised the corrupt practice of paid news was found to be in the forefront of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement.

Notwithstanding this imperfection, it is the widely dispersed Indian media that created a strong anti-corruption mood in the country with its relentless coverage and expose of various scams.

The media needs to introspect and address its own corruption issues, even as it has a powerful role to play in the nation’s anti-corruption movement by exposing scams and demanding greater transparency and accountability from the government.

Projecting the anti-corruption Jan Lokpal movement as a second freedom struggle was nothing short of a masterstroke by Team Anna.

The movement has seen all the elements of the freedom struggle — an insensitive government disconnected with the pulse of the people, a Gandhian non-violent protest with an indefinite fast, the waving of the tricolour, slogans of Jail Bharo, Inquilab Zindabad, Jai Hind and Vande Mataram and the overwhelming participation of the youth.

Such was the impact that even the Indian Diaspora was inspired. Many genuinely felt that since they were not there during Mahatma Gandhi’s freedom struggle, let’s now be a part of this movement for freedom from corruption.

While Team Anna will now go back to the drawing boards to prepare future strategies on the Jan Lokpal movement, civil society has the larger responsibility of consolidating its gains.

In some creative way, the same collective might that brought the parliament to its knees must be deployed to deal with the day-to-day bribe seekers. Can a civil society group, without Anna’s help, focus on corruption in the RTO? Can another group deal with the bribe-taking departments in the municipal corporations? What about the talathis and the mess in the revenue department?
There’s a role for everyone — from the politicians to the people — in India’s crusade against corruption.

Fundamentally, it starts by refusing to give bribe. Easier said than done.