A generation awakens.. but How?

(All views expressed here are personal and cannot be attributed to my employers and/or mentors)


I was back home, sitting in the verandah when I saw my younger cousins, all of 4 and 8 years respectively running around chanting "ek do teen chaar, band karo ye Bastachar". It was then that it struck me,the movement had become bigger than any of us expected. It had taken the nation by storm and the statesmen by surprise.

I went around to find young men and women racing around town in sexy cars and bikes, with candles and flags and the now familiar Gandhi-Anna topi chanting slogans. Some slogans wer pro-country, some were anti-establishment. However, in the heat of the moment, both passed off equally well. My country was getting up from a state of slumber, the nationalist in me was happy. I remembered the lines said by Nehru, "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."

I remembered the days of the agitation against reservation. Having been a part of it five years back when the entire nation erupted against reservations, I had some amount of skepticism with the results. The earlier movement had also died an untimely death. The establishment had stuck to its guns and set some grey bearded men to report on it. What happened is anybody's guess.

Despite the fervour, I made out that something was missing. Soon I figured what. The agitation had little to do with Lokpal or anti-corruption. It was a generation venting out its anger against the establishment. The same generation that refuses to count their bit in the mess. Understandably so, they were fed with vague statistics and incorrect news and were fed up of their present situation. I do not wish to poke fingers at anyone so I will take myself as an example.

I am an honest Indian. Last year, I paid almost a month's salary as Income Tax. When the time came, I left a cushy job to participate in the Legislative process of the country, never mind the huge salary cut. But, am I clean? The question may be as hypothetical as the advert asking, "Have I made it Large?" but is important, because we need to introspect.

The answer is no.

• I had my licence when I was 15.
  
• For the one which I currently hold, I haven't given a driving test. It was delivered to my residence.
• My voter ID has a picture of me atop a Gypsy at Corbett. This was because when the police came for verification, I was away. My mom gave them the print of whatever photograph she found. Verified!
  
• I have avoided paying the challan and instead paid in cash (because, I can pay the challan and not the cops, but I really dont want to go to a court to do that)
• Despite paying a huge amount of income- tax, I have cut corners while paying sales-tax by buying things without a bill (buying camera equipment from Chandni Chowk- rings a bell?)
  
• On and off, I have travelled in trains/buses on various VIP and "friends' dad" quota.
• Rarely have I paid for services provided by various government organizations to my family and friends.
• I have a lot of friends who pay minimum tax but have crores of wealth stashed away in a maze of cross holding companies in the names of all known/unknown relatives.
  

This is a representative list. If any of us say yes to one of these, we are corrupt. Then how on earth can we run around town asking for stronger Lokpal. Corruption will not leave this country till it leaves our hearts. The lokpal will have no magic wand to transform everyone's conduct. At a personal level, we need to introspect. At a policy level, we need to identify the reasons for corruption.

Recently, there was an article saying, "PhD's applying for Class four positions". I wasn't surprised. A class four employee (peon/ attendant/ orderly/ driver) hold enormous Access power. A transclucent system ensures that nobody knows what happens in a government office.

The officer concerned may be honest, but he doesn't have the time to look at everything. He will only look at the files on his table. Who puts the files there? The peon. An officer who is managing an entire district/ office/ profit center is always on rollerskates. There is only one person who has his ear. The driver.

Now substantiating the point od PhD's applying for these positions. It lies in this power that almost always translates into money. It is not entirely impossible for someone to earn double his salary due to the power.

Taxation: The business class, from the local grocery owner to the owners of largest oil fields, thrive on corruption. From bribing the ruling class for a licence to creating fictitious companies that almost always run into losses, they do indulge in what they despise.

The circumventing power: I know the MD and the GM won't bow down to me. So I call up my friend and he just puts in a word. Nothing unethical, but this is the consequence of the immense discretionary authority given to bureaucrats and politicians. This ultimately resuly in objections being overruled and/ or the honest persons being forced into accomplice.

Combine all these people in a society. The peon takes the money because he wants a lifestyle suiting his education and atleast matching those traders who he lives with and who have almost entirely been unknown to taxes. The third guy uses his Uncle power to stand in sync with these. It is a vicious circle.

The question arises who takes the lead. Uninformed youth will not take the country anywhere. I saw people celebrating the Victory yesterday. Pray tell me, what was the victory after which the entire country celebrated and downed tonnes of Happiness.

The youth needs to understand that attending a candle march does not improve the society. It is our actions that need to be improved. Till we inculcate a sense of belonging to the nation and an allegiance to the nation's laws, we cannot weed out this devil.

Youth without helmets triple riding on bikes with some happiness gulped down are in no way capable of keeping up a revolution. A revolution requires you to be clean and free of the traits you are fighting against. Not everyone who wears the Gandhi topi is clean, nor is the person who demans a Lokpal.