Corruption

The way people have started talking about corruption gives an impression that the menace just erupted and therefore needs to be nipped in the bud. And in came Anna Hazare and his show complete with tents and full media glare; joined in by everybody and anybody eager to hog lime-light no matter how fleeting moment be. Even if for a brief moment one gets delusional to accept that corruption didn’t exist before; even that would not justify the demand for the creation of a totally bizarre organization through bizarre insistence of bizarre duo of Hazare and so-called Baba Ramdev. So-called Baba has been making hay through naivety of his country for many years and his franchise has become bloated to the level of a complete corporation through sale of all types of superfluous and misleading health products. But here Baba is not an issue nor is Hazare, howsoever genuine he might be. The issue is corruption, and its real consequences. Corruption exists and existed without any discrimination. It never discriminates on the basis of religion, caste or color and even political affiliation. I deliberately excluded gender because men are prone to be more corrupt then women. It exists in all forms of vocations and it permeates every strata of society. And it would be an understatement to say that its effects are devastating; but not in the way Anna Hazare, Ramdev and their ignorant urban acolytes perceive. To understand the ruinous effect of that corruption one needs to come out of parochial and pseudo-nationalist tendencies and take cognizance of large multidimensional reality of the country like India, which exists beyond Jantar Mantar. Naxal movement (a generic name for multiple troubles) is a manifest of a corrupt society in denial; people in north-east are lesser citizens because of moral bankruptcy, which not less than any corruption. Does dealing of popular grievances in Kashmir through draconian force and repressive laws not constitute moral corruption? Why unjust incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen never touched Anna Hazare and his followers? Does forced exile of Maqbool Fida Hussain not constitute corruption? And what about those filthy rich people who try every mean under the sky to evade paying taxes?