The Fight Against CorruptionAuthor : Parag Jagtap
THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
A big agitation against corruption is going on now-a-days in India and is gaining strength day by day. A common man, Anna Hajare, who holds neither a big Government position nor any significant wealth, has hundreds of millions of Indians standing behind him in the fight against corruption.
About 20 years back, I had participated in a youth camp at Ralegan Siddhi - Anna Hajare’s village. Even in those days, Anna had become quite famous for transforming his village. People beyond Maharashtra, from abroad; and also water management experts from places like Israel used to visit Ralegan Siddhi to learn how this particular village had achieved such water-selfsufficiency and resulting wealth in a very drought prone district such as Nagar District in the state of Maharashtra. Of course, the key person behind was Anna Hajare. After retiring from the Army, Anna returned to his village and followed Gandhiji’s advice of going back to villages to achieve India’s progress. Very quickly he became successful in achieving complete sobriety in his village thus solving a major problem in the village. Then he achieved water self-sufficiency through unique methods such as drip irrigation and “stop the water and wet the earth” kind of schemes. These two things naturally led to other progress symbols such as electricity and schools. These things – no doubt – were achieved through cooperative efforts that Anna led people towards. Ralegan Siddhi became a model village not just across Maharashtra but across all of India.
While concluding our camp, Anna chose to speak on Corruption. We were about 50 youths at that camp. Anna said, “ Just because we want to root out corruption, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen just like that. One needs to be aggressive and insistent about it. Just plain speeches won’t work. Let me give you a simple step that you could take in your fight against corruption. I will give you a list of 100 topmost corrupt government officials and their addresses. Find out 100 youths like you. Each youth selects one corrupt official and obtains his appointment at 10 am on a predetermined day. Then on the day of appointment each youth goes in to see the official and without saying a word right at the stroke of 10 am, slap the official in face!!” Anna further said, “Imagine the impact of the news next day – 100 youths slapped 100 government officials across Maharashtra!!”
I liked that idea as much then when I was 20 as when I am near 40. I liked it especially after I came to US, where I learnt that political rights can’t be obtained by begging for them. One has to fight for them. Begging might give one a bone or two but it won’t yield rights or dignity.
In the years after that camp, Anna Hajare successfully raised his voice against corruption in the state government and the Maharashtra government had to take note of it by firing two of the corrupt ministers. But even more importantly Anna Hajare later on realized that right to information was a great tool in the fight against corruption. He then took that up as a cause and made it happen in Maharashtra which became the first such state in India to enact right to information into a law. Later on the government of India made it into a law.
Today Anna Hajare’s fight has become a nationwide fight against corruption. A few months back he was able to bring government to the table and agree to introduce the Lokapal Bill which aims to institute a parallel structure of Lokpals who will be authorized to work against corruption at multiple levels. However the government aims to keep key institutions like Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and CBI out of the reach of Lokpal which Anna is opposed to. Anna doesn’t want exclusions and he wants Lokpal more as an institution rather than a few heads trying to weed out corruption. I haven’t personally studied either side, However I tend to believe in Anna Hajare much more than the current PM and his cabinet.
Some naysayers, couch-potatoes, politicians or relatives are criticizing this agitation but haven’t exactly been suggesting alternatives. It’s very easy to theorize and philosophize about anything, but very difficult to act upon something. Even the Jana-Lokapal Bill Hajare and his colleagues are proposing is bound to have some shortcomings. Who is going to watch Lokapal? The existing system does have some checks and balances, why not use them? Why not address the problems with the Judiciary? There are hundreds of good thoughts. I too agree that any new parallel system would fail if people ultimately don’t show the courage to participate and question wrongdoings. Until the common man has the awareness about his rights and shows the willingness to fight for them, ANY, system is bound to fail. Even Lokpal!
But instead of only debating, discussing or philosophizing and beating this to death through empty rhetoric, it is much more critical to gain something useful in the fight against corruption and take a small step in the right direction with understanding that yes some things will be imperfect to begin with. So let’s support this agitation the best we can in our own capacity.
Jay Hind!
By Parag Jagtap