Corruption, Anna and the Lokpal bill

Corruption, Anna and the Lokpal bill

by: Mohsin Atique Khan

When I was a teenager studying in the tenth standard, I got to watch the dark side of India, the rampant corruption very closely. My father, a reputed man in the village, used to run the government ration shop that sells ration on subsidised rates in the village. The shop used to open for a few days in a month, I saw villagers queue up every month for two days to purchase the sugar that too of a lower quality, then queue up in the same way to purchase the kerosene and then to purchase the rice and wheat. These things were distributed routinely every month but in between there used to be one or two months in a year when the distribution schedule was missing and the villager who come to enquire about the distribution schedule would be returned on ground of some lame excuses.
The village head who was aware of all this put his on demands and thus the amount obtained by selling the ration of the shop in black market would be shared between the village head and the ration shop owner. After some time taking notice of all this irregularities, the government put the responsibility of scrutinising the distribution on the Lekhpal of the village and issued notice to government ration shop owners asking them to submit the distribution register signed by Lekhpal every month. People thought that this will reduce the corruption, but of no use, I myself saw Lekhpal visiting my house every month and taking a note of 500 on every visit along with the 5kg sugar and kerosene as required. Instead of reducing the corruption, it increased it and I noticed that instead of one or two months there were three months in a year when there was no distribution.
Again after some time taking note of some complaints all over the state, the government decided to make the distribution more transparent and made the signature of all the ward members (10-20) mandatory on the distribution register every month, but we find to our shock that instead of reduction, the corruption became more rampant as these members also put their on demands and got involved in the ongoing corruption. I saw many of them taking sugar or kerosene in much more quantities that they deserved and many a times without payment and other than this many of them would recommend others.
With many months without distribution, unrest increased in the public and many of them who could dare to oppose my father and the village head, headed to SDM to complain about this but of no use as SDM after showing the complaints to my father asked for bribe to let him go and after a discussion this gentleman agreed for one thousand a month.
Seeing all this, when I encountered my father, he told me the more shocking stories. He told me how he has to pay every month to the caretaker of the store to get the ration on time; he told me how the most of the sugar, wheat and rice bories and kerosene drums fall short of the exact quantity that is filled in it. He told me how the store caretaker facilitates the black marketing of the ration, you can sell it from there itself. He told me that the ration shop owner cannot survive without selling the ration in black as he has to pay bribes to so many people who all take it without any guilt, that is why I have decided to resign from this responsibility.
So where lies the problem? Can someone figure out?
Actually the problem does not lie in bureaucrats or politician only, it lies within us as a nation, we are mentally and morally a corrupt nation as we have lost the sense of wrong and wright, just and unjust. We do not consider taking bribe or breaking a queue a crime, the feeling of guilt never run through our blood even for a moment when we take or give bribe. Here again I would like to mention a small incident that happened when I was working with a company. The company facilitated a certification course for its employees; the certification’s cost was around 5500 Rs. per head, Some guys in the first group which took to the certification, planned to make some extra money, they talked to the owner of a private institute which arranges the exam for that particular certification, the owner agreed that he will take 5500 from them and give them a receipt of Rs. 600 hundred so that they can get reimbursed 500 extra from the company. I did not see even a mildest feeling of guilt on their faces. It looks a very common and a very small incident of corruption but in fact it has a lot in its folds to show, when these guys will hold more important posts they will obviously get involved in the bigger scams.
So we cannot put the blame of corruption and irregularities on our system, it’s we who are corrupt and if we are corrupt no system can work whatever transparent and well organised it is. I mentioned above a chain of corruption in one particular field only but to be true, this is happening in each and every walk of life in India.

Anna has taken up a good cause and he should be applauded for that but the solution he is seeking to adopt to stop corruption is not right as the people who will be selected for Jan lokapal cannot be angels as they are from among us. The above mentioned facts show that the more the people involved the more rampant is the corruption so the jan lokapl will be nothing but one more corrupt body in the Indian government system.

Reducing corruption is not a matter of just one day, we cannot bring chage unless we change ourselves and we have to change if want to grow well as a nation and want to reach the pinnacle of power, progress and development. It will take years to reduce the corruption. First, we have to remove the flaws of our education system, because most of the things emanates from there only. We have to inculcate good morals in the next generation i.e. our children, we have to create a sense among them that these things are wrong, we have to bring them up in a morally perfect environment, only then we will be able to reduce the corruption and create a just government and society.