Corruption and Anna Hazare Phenomenon

Two of Aamir Khan's biggest movies are Rang de Basanti and Ghajini. In one movie, DJ has epiphany, shoots the defence minister and stirs the country. In the other movie, he has a short term memory loss every 15 minutes or so, and after that he has to start all over again. Imagine what would happen if a movie was made that was the almagamation of both these movies. Such a movie would have Aamir having epithany due to a crisis, the epiphany will last 15 minutes, and then he will have amnesia and he will have to start the process all over again. Sounds funny? Well, thats what the Indian society of 21st century is.

What I am referring to is the latest issue of Ana Hazare undergoing a fast unto death over the issue of Lokpal bill. While I have no doubt whatsoever over his credibility, and while I can understand his anguish over the blight of corruption thats making headlines, to the growing coterie around him, I would say "Whoa! Hold on, dudes and dudettes!! All the status messages you post on facebook regarding being with Hazare, all the pics you post on fb showing you holding candles, look great..but tell me honestly, what do u precisely hope to achieve by burning precious petrochemical candles and polluting the atmosphere? Do you really know what you are doing? Or are you doing this coz its cool to do so, coz u get cool catchy lines to put on facebook, cool pics to share and cool groups to join?

Am I ranting? Have gone mad, you might think. Then answer a few questions. What is the history of the Lokpal bill? How many clauses are there in the lokpal bill?What are the contentious clauses of the Lokpal bill and why is Anna Hazare fighting? Have you heard the Nira Radia tapes?If no, then why are you fighting a battle that you dont have even done any homework on? I would say you are like the girl on Roadies who wanted to join NASA but didnt even know the full form of NASA!(P.S. I dont know properly all these either, but since I am not holding candles I guess I can safely ask the candle holders :P)

You are fighting for corruption, you would say. U are showing your anger at the 2G scam, the CWG scam, the nira radia scam, and what not. But tell me friends, who elected the government? Who voted the current government to power? All these leaders-Sharad Pawar, A raja, Suresh Kalmadi-they are not first time MPs. They are sitting MPs-who have been reelected again and again. Karunanidhi has been CM for so many times. In 1996, there were a string of scandals. Hawala scam, Urea scam, Jayalalitha colour Tv scam and what not. Yet how many people have been punished? We still reelect Jayalalitha and will probably make her CM this time again,people still root for the free colour TVs, sarees and free rice that DMK and AIADMK are doling out. In 2008, Kasab and co attacked India. It jolted the public morale. Candles were lit, people agitated. Vilasrao Deshmukh was removed from power. The govt was castigated for the poor national security. Yet what happened in 2009? We elected the same Congress govt at the centre, the same congress govt at Maharashtra and we have all but forgotten about the Kasab tragedy. Pakistani terrorists still roam scot free, we invite pakistan for peace talks during the world cup and establish a new series of bonhomie, Kasab is still alive, we still havent got David coleman Headley and Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus of Mumbai( or for that matter any important building of India) is still under threat. Our lives are as insecure as it was 3 years ago. Did your candles then have any effect? If not, why are you lighting candles now? One of the fundamental rules of MBA is that the company is accountable to the stakeholders. 2G scam has come and gone, Nira Radia tapes have surfaced, yet how much have the stock prices of ADAG group or Tata fallen? If our own shareholders dont want to hold the business leaders accountable, then why are we engaging in the sham of lighting candles?

Who is to blame for all these? Nobody in fact;its our attitude, our lack of identity, purpose and our lack of vision that is to blame.If India is under such a condition it is because you are myopic. What is India's identity? And by identity I dont mean cultural identity. I mean professtional identity. British are stoic. Americans are hardworking and innovative, yet individualistic and greedy. Italians are passionate and creative. What are we? In fact we cant find an epithet that describes us other than we are a nation of english speaking multicultural people. Thats not an epithet. We dont have an epithet because we never had time to have one. Remember one thing: The catharsis of a society is a slow process that takes its own sweet time, and it is absolutely imperative that we try to give it that sweet time that it demands. You damage the society if you try to slow it; or worse still, when you try to speed it up. Thats why the great revolutions of the past failed-whether it be french revolution or the Russian revolution, because they tried to bring too much change in too little time, leaving the people disoriented, confused, without any guidance, without any direction where to go, and most importantly, without an identity. That chaos became the breeding ground for corrupt, despotic rulers who decayed the society further. On the other hand, if countries like England and USA survived this chaos and have stable society and stable identity today that is because they took their own sweet time to come of age; they had to struggle, suffer from civil wars and all that moulded the society further. I am giving this example because we in India are slowly falling into the same trap of revolution; we are being consumed by out impatience instead of bringing the required catharsis. We arent giving ourselves time to think about who we are, what we want, what is our identity and most importantly how confused we are. We want to be prosperous like americans or Japanese; yet americans and Japanese are loyal to their jobs,want to earn their own money, frown upon freebies and behave as responsible shareholders. Thats in tune with their identity that has got ingrained in their DNA, an identity that gradually set in, and they try to behave according to their identity.They have a purpose that conforms their identity.We on the other hand, switch jobs every year or two, gladly accept freebies when DMK or AIADMK dole them out, are only interested in the dividends that companies dole out rather than asking our business leaders blunt questions about the 2G scam, and when it pinches us when these scams occur, we come out holding candles, yet forgetting everything 2 months later, going back to earning our money mindlessly, without caring about this country's future or the political system,only busy with trying to be like America or japan as soon as possible by hook or by crook. Face it; we are a nation of selfish individuals, only interested in our own self gratification, with no sense of responsibility for our society. In other words-"the chalta hai attitude".

Is this bad? After all we have always been poor;whats wrong if we try to be prosperous as fast as possible? No issue at all; but remember the dialogue of Rang De Basanti" ye neta log maa k pet se corruption seekh k nahi aaye hain. Hum hi ne inhe chuna hai. Agar badalna hai khud ko badalna hoga". We have to remember that having our own national identity and all round development, both of our own personality and our society, is as important as our endeavours to grow rich. If you want to root out the problems that the country is facing today-be it corruption or terrorism, you will embark on the first very important step of catharsis if you as yourself"what is your role in this?" and try to weed it out. Remember, charity begins at home. And secondly, evolution takes time, dont try to speed it up by embarking on revolutions. At least learn from history's mistakes regarding revolutions. More than money, identity, vision and purpose are important; its high time we spared the atmosphere of candlesmoke and gave some thought on how to build them.