We, the corrupt, must root out corruption

Amid the widespread euphoria over anti-graft crusader Anna Hazare’s victory over the government of India, we may fail to realise a few crucial things that can eradicate corruption in our country.

Hazare broke his fast after being assured that a joint panel to draft the much-sought Jan Lokpal Bill would be set up. The Bill may well see the light of day in the form of an Act. Corrupt politicians and government officials may be more wary about carrying on their nefarious wheeling-and-dealing. This, in turn, may help significantly to bring down corruption in India.

But to try and completely eliminate corrupt practices across our land, the initiative has to come from the hearts of the citizens. Evidently, we fail to realise that it is us, the citizens, who are equal partners in encouraging corruption. The hypocrisy connected with the Hazare-initiated mass movement against corruption in India is that almost each and everyone who supported the Gandhian’s crusade, sometime or the other, has encouraged corruption.

Be it a motorist paying off a traffic inspector who has stopped him/her for drunk driving; getting a water connection for a new house; a builder paying the civic agency a hefty bribe to get a no-objection or occupation certificate for his building faster — you name it, and we have all indulged merrily till this spirited man named Anna Hazare stood up to march against corruption. And all, including the corrupt citizen, followed.

Unfortunately, what appears now is that Hazare has been turned into a brand that everyone in India — and Indians abroad — wants to connect with to present their respective clean images.

And that is where the concerns lie over this mass movement fizzling out gradually. There is every chance that we could be back to square one, because the grey shade of corruption will never fade into a complete white unless we are determined to altogether remove the black from the system.

That will happen only if we, the citizens, are brave enough to withstand the consequences of not paying a single bribe despite all the temptations of getting services faster or that of escaping punishment for the offence we have committed.

We have to remember that the Lokpal Bill, if made into a law, will bring the high and mighty into focus to prevent corruption, but it will largely leave you and me — who are equal partners in this menace — free to promote corruption to get our own way quicker.

How can then blame be placed only on the ministers, politicians and government officials for corrupt practices in India when this cancer has gripped our entire country due to us?

Corruption has seeped in so deep into our system that in many areas we bribe officials (or even promise favoured services in return) assuming that there is nothing wrong in doing so. It’s the chalta-hai-bhai, sab-kuch-chalta-hai attitude that has fuelled this hydra-headed monster called corruption.

A 73-year-old ex-serviceman, who fought for the country in the 1965 war, has ignited the nation to stomp out corruption. Now it is up to us, especially the youth, to carry this forward. The best way to support Hazare would be to take a pledge never to indulge in bribing, nepotism or exchanging favours that could bypass the law of our land.

Do we have it in us?