The
electioneering phase is filled with a lot of bizarre concerns for our political
establishment. Issues, great and diminutive, current and history, factual and
fictional, all gets muddle up and comes to fore from the high podiums of the
political theater. The real bolt from the blue is the fact; the political class
impulsively gets transformed to a congregation of saints out there to defend
the moral and the virtuous. The vocabulary of each leader, irrespective of
their color of party affiliations could be summarized in one line, ‘they are
the corrupt and we are the saints, vote for us’ or could be rephrased as ‘They
failed you and we won’t, vote or us’.
The
regional social consciousness of the political class certainly reaches the sky, the aspirations,
hopes, disappointments and despairs of the masses converges with the long and
often uninspiring political discourses. The accusations and counteraccusations
leveled by political parties against each other have now become a routine hear,
but the issues raised or promises made seldom has any element of surprise.
In
case of Tamil Nadu it’s always the freebies and new services offered. Social
aspirations of Tamil Nadu has now become more of good Governance than any other
petty issues, things have reached a saturated level here. Whereas in other
large and northern states along with the ‘polls’ the citizens have to
countenance myriad problems especially made-up for their votes. The promises of
Religious reservations, State reorganizations have stirred up a hornet’s nest;
the concerns raised have become a topic of national importance. Each party may
subscribe to an exclusive cause but the common cause of all the political teams
happens to be- ‘elimination of corruption’.
The
indictment of corruption is a vicious circle; all our options are corrupt to
the core, the only choice is who is the ‘least corrupt’ in the entire assortment. Like our power projects corruption has many
levels, ultra mega, mega, medium and small, every level has attained a degree
of acceptability in our culture. Bofors, union carbide, fodder, coffin, Tansi,
Telecom, 2G, NRHM, MGREGA, illegal mining…etc the list is endless and they made
some loud noise once, then faded in to the oblivion of history over a period of
time.
Public
memory is too short but that’s not the case here; as a larger line drawn next a
line makes it look smaller, a new and a larger allegation of corruption makes
the former one smaller and a gets a bit of tolerability. Are we so much concerned
about the ultra mega corruption? Yes or a No, the answer depends on its
repercussions, a pinch or a fatal incise. Though a tragedy like Bhopal would be
never acceptable to us, but we did pay our homage to Rajeev Gandhi for Bofors
that saved us a Kargil and in future somebody would appreciate A.Raja for a
steep reduction in call and Trunk call charges.
The
group C and D corruption thrives by the grace of the middle class. In our ever
busy calendar, we don’t mind paying for a service or a concession offered to
us. In an age where time is money, a small amount could be spared to save time.
Is bribery glorified here? Certainly not, the elemental observation made here is
factual and what some may call it as practical.
If
public corruption is such a menace as it is portrayed sometimes, how should we
eliminate it from our system? Drink a cup of Tata tea, join the Jagore campaign
and refuse to pay a bribe; who asked for it in the first case, aren’t we guilty
of zealously offering one before being asked. Or listen to the old and wise, a
simple and a forceful slap. Oops, can a law abiding citizen slap a policeman?
Except
for a serious overhaul of our Governance system, corruption would remain an inseparable
part. Computerization or online services may provide some succor. So much
social concern for corruption, when the normal voter is not much concerned
about it, why the political parties make an issue out of it? From now on, whenever
you listen to a politician’s speech, read between the lines, ‘they have earned
enough and give us our turn’. God bless India.
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