Corruption and us

Ranjit Sinha

There is no magic wand which would lead to an instant solution to ills like corruption and black money. This was the disclosure of Prime Minister during his interaction session with senior editors of the country recently. As a head of the democratic set up, PM advocated for enforcement of more laws to tackle corruption.

Obviously, fingers are raised against Congress being the party in power for many decades on corruption issue.

BJP declared the 2010 as year of the scams with its slogan ‘Congress ka haath, gotala ka saath’. The scam list include 2G Spectrum, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh Society, rotten food grains, inflation of food prices, rice export, PDS, CVC appointment, LIC housing and Satyam Scams. The party’s fact finding committee also prepared a report on scams in North East separately.

However, it does not mean that political parties other than Congress have developed its immune system against corruption.

During the first quarter of 2004, the Congress had slapped 55 pages chargesheet against then NDA Govt, titled, “Vajpayee government: a saga of sins, scams and shame”. Congress had alleged that country had lost Rs 49,057 crore because of various scams, including Tehelka, UTI, Balco, Hudco and the coffin scams, during the rule of the Vajpayee-led NDA government.

It is seen that when people talks about corruption, the political parties indulge in mud-slinging without coming to the logical conclusion as to how the corruption be eliminated.

Now the pertinent question is who will bell the cat. Should we wait for Govt to do miracle against corruption, or wait for more Anna Hazares or social organisations to eliminate corruption?

When asked about possible ways to root out corruption, a citizen said corruption is a world-wide phenomena. Corruption was always there in India since the time of raja, maharaja and in our society as an unwritten and untold accord.

He went to add: It is impossible to eliminate corruption as it is governed by human mind set and attitude. Before talking about complete elimination of corruption we should ask ourselves how far we are honest and devoted for well-being of our nation, he said.

Suggesting two-pronged strategy in order to reduce corruption, he further added that apart from sincere efforts in Govt level, society and citizens with conscience should come together to promote human values which will ultimately help reduce corruption to minimal level.

So long there will be wide gap between rich and poor, corruption will always there, said an officer of a financial institution. He suggested ‘progressive tax’ for richer section of the economically backward class to reduce the gap between have and have nots. Such steps will help minimise the corruption in the society, he opined.

An educated youth, who opts to take up agriculture in bigger way for self-employment, said corruption can not be eliminated by laws only. How could you believe that all the members of law enforcing authorities and vigilance committees are not corrupt, he asked.

According to a social thinker, corruption is a dreaded social disease. Though there is no immediate solution to the corruption, we can reduce corruption to significant level, he said adding that we can bring it to a half if start acting against corruption with honesty and sincerity.

Does the major responsibility of reducing corruption lie on public or individuals in the society ? 

Courtesy: www.arunachaltimes.com