Anna Hazare has set the ball rolling. The journey has begun. The long and arduous task of cleansing our system of corruption has finally taken off. Hopefully, the people of India in general and the youth in particular will pick up the gauntlet and take forward this movement, without losing impetus, to its logical conclusion.
It is indeed very heartening to see people from all walks of life joining the India Against Corruption movement. People from every corner of India as well as Indians outside are eagerly doing their bit to contribute to its success. It is amazing to see the sheer energy going into the campaign, be it through protests on the streets, activities online through tweets and various other means. It is humbling to see that people in high places including celebrities are cutting across social barriers and party affiliations in support of Anna. In fact one such person whose blog I read influenced my thoughts and I too am trying to do my bit in any which way I can.
Cleansing the system involves not targeting the Government or politicians alone. The ‘system’ includes every walk of life where corruption is inherent, right from the grassroots level to the top. That is the reason the Prime Minister too, should fall within the ambit of the Lokpal or Janlokpal. To quote Sri. R Soma Varma, retired Principal Research Scientist, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, “The anti corruption act must bring in the private sector also. It is not only government servants that are corrupt, the private sector is the one that corrupts and breeds corruption and pressurizes even the unwilling government officials also to become corrupt. Likewise RTI (Right to Information) should be applicable to private sector as well. Exceptions must not be allowed to rule. May be exceptions to rules should be indicated in small print as in advertisements - *conditions apply !”
The cleansing needs to be done systematically and elaborately to cover all sectors and strata, beginning of course with the political system. Reforms need to be introduced by which the voters would have the right to recall the elected representative if they feel the need for it. A minimum qualification should be specified for contesting elections. We do not want illiterates and people with criminal backgrounds sitting in our legislatures and parliament. We have been compromising for far too long; let us not do that anymore.
Now that a beginning has been made, we need to thank the Government for all the wrong steps it took which contributed to galvanize such a massive movement. The remarks of certain elected representatives in parliament only further aggravated the people. They even went to the extent of labeling Anna as corrupt! They jailed and then released him- on his terms, when they realized it was too hot to handle. It was indeed amusing to watch one of them smilingly concede on a news channel (live) that Anna indeed is a hero!
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