Three months ago, Nitin Mekhiya decided to return to India for good. In this short time he already has an unpleasant story relating to government officers seeking bribes.
In the seven years that Nitin Mekhiya spent in the United States working for a California-based software company, he never paid a bribe. Then three months ago, he decided to return to India for good. In this short time he already has an unpleasant story relating to government officers seeking bribes.
The partnership deed that he had drawn up for a software firm that he was planning to set up should have taken one day to register; but since he refused to pay a bribe, it took three weeks before the document was registered.
On August 16, when the group India Against Corruption started its campaign for the anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill, Mekhiya was there at Azad Maidan to join the group on an ‘indefinite hunger strike’ to gather support for the bill. On Saturday, as the fast entered its fifth day, Mekhiya said, “Everyone is fed up of giving a bribe.”
When he was working in the United States, Mekhiya was already making plans to come back to India and set up his own software firm. “When I read about this movement, I knew it was the call to return to India,” he said.
Unlike Mekhiya, Prem Shah, a 72-year old retired businessman from Vile Parle does not have to fight off corrupt government officials. But he has been fasting since Tuesday, subsisting only on water cooled in earthen jars. Why? So that young Indians get to live in a less corrupt country. “We had our chance to live and work. But this fast is for the young. We want to hand over a better India to the younger generations of Indians,” said Shah.
“This country has resources, tax revenues and manpower to take us to the top. So what is holding us back? It is the corrupt politicians. If the Jan Lokpal Bill is implemented, life will definitely become better for the common man,” Shah added.
Ramji Solanki from Sant Rohidas Nagar in Jogeshwari runs a housekeeping agency. Solanki who has been fasting since Tuesday said, “Once, members of my community were treated as untouchables till Gandhiji and other leaders liberated us. The culture of corruption has created another class system where no government service is available unless you pay a bribe. In these corrupt times, we are fortunate to have a Gandhi-like leader like Anna Hazare."
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