Troubling Times...

As you are reading this, I take it that you are trying to be knowledgeable of the things that are happening around. These are troubling times for democracy. We have been watching and feeling the raising apathy among persons in various positions of the government, starting from the President/PM to a peon in the govt. office, towards the common man. The Mind-boggling numbers associated with each scam and the high reputations of people involved in these scams puts our faith in this democratic system our forefathers built for us, to test.

You must have heard about the Niira Radia tapes (you can listen to some tapes which are leaked, by clicking on link there or download a zip here) that came out during 2G scam investigation, which were in the nation's discussion some 3 years back and as usual forgotten. The institutions like CBI and IT(Income Tax) Department also slept on them saying they are private conversations, until a PIL is filed in SC(Supreme Court) recently. The CBI was already caught by the SC during Coal-Gate investigation, changing case reports, also termed as govt.'s parrot , which does cover-ups for govt. choosing cases that suits the party in power. This issue had resulted in the resignation of the Law minister but, the more culpable Attorney general got away.

Coming back to the tapes, The SC Questioned the inaction of CBI and IT on these tapes, which clearly show the involvement of the big corporate names(Ambanis,Tatas) and their lobbyists in

1. The decisions the govt. or opposition takes,

2. The discussions of parliament,

3. The MSM(Main Stream Media) news and articles.

With this kind of involvement in every govt. decision, is it any surprise that the scams are queuing up one after the other. Our govt. has been converted into a system that manufactures scams and the Media lives short on real investigations and more on political drama.

Often we blame a person or a class of people on the spur of the moment. But we know its not a single uncommon incident. All public systems are getting murkier and the plague is spreading fast with the honest getting punished, threatened or even killed. If you are a daily news follower, you know what I am talking about. We only know one Narendra Kumar who was killed, one Ashok Khemka(Vadra-DLF deals-Full Video) who face transfer twice every year, one Durga Nagpal who was suspended and don't even know how many others were forced into the system or out of it. Some of you may know more such cases.

           On the other way around, we face the corrupt babus regularly while applying for a Driving License, during a Passport verification or land registration, etc. We please him/them and tell to ourselves, it's not really going to do any damage to the already "corrupted to core" System. On each time, we feel we are alone against it and there is nothing else we can do to get what we needed. We can think of getting rid of it only if we unite against it.

One doesn't need to sacrifice his life or leave every thing else in his life, to fight against corruption, if only majority of citizens really feel concerned about it and act against it. Unfortunately, it's not the case in our country. We often have/had a fistful of corruption crusaders and sadly they are/were hunted down. How many can be hunted down, if every one join.

Its 8 years since RTI(Right to Information) Act is passed by parliament after a tremendous effort put in by the various Civil Society Organizations. But still only a small group of people know about it, and even less use it. Though it's not a magical eradicator of corruption by any means, its impact will be felt by the corrupt. I am one of the small group who knows about it and I intend to try and file some RTIs myself and I encourage you to do the same.

Do you know that the 6 major political parties(Congress, BJP, NCP, CPI (M), CPI and BSP) uses public money indirectly in the form of subsidies, Tax exemptions and benefits and also were given lands in prime areas at low rates whenever their party is in power in a state or at the centre, based on which, they come under Public Authorities as per the RTI Act. and same is ruled by the CIC(Central Information Commission) 2 months back. 

But our so called major parties are so terrified of the CIC that the govt. proposed an amendment bill instantly which is welcomed by all parties(except very few) with in days. And the proposed amendment also comes with a retrospective effect from the date of the CIC ruling. 

Our parliament which take years and decades(even a century is possible as we still wait on…) to pass bills that the nation badly in need of, is going to pass this bill in days. There may be another amendment forthcoming to counter the recent SC ruling(without any retrospective effect) that no convicted criminal should stand in elections. What does this say about these parties? They are only there to safe guard their interests, and leave no trials of the loot happened.

But, we have a better weapon than RTI, which unfortunately comes only once in 5 years, and we won't even feel like using it and using it for good against corruption. 

I appeal to you, that this once we use it for the fight against corruption, without worrying about relation,caste,religion,region(I thought i could include party in this list, but after a second thought i think we need to choose an untraditional honest party as honest people in traditional parties were reduced to mute spectators like dolls used for showcases) and vote for the honest and non-corrupt candidate who delivers not for his parties, relatives and close friends but for the common man. We also need to implore our friends and relatives to join this fight, remember its always majority which wins in a democracy. 

We are lucky that these issues haven't really affected in a disastrous manner yet, or we think so, but you can't expect it to continue long and to your children. These are troubling times and we need to act united against corruption for the future of our nation.