Sunday, June 19, 2011

Our Ailing Society !

One of these days, disgusted with failure of his son in PMT entrance test, one of my friends came to me and said, “ See, there is so much corruption”. what is it”? I asked. “This time too my son could not make it. They say the question paper was leaked out to some candidates. You know. there is no hope for the honest people like us,” he sneered. “Next time, he will do it”, I sympathised. “Please, take care of my son as you know the controller of examination ”, he emphasised.

I could not respond to his stance which was the result of his despair. But later I expatiated about what he had said. I sum up that In fact, we despise and appreciate corruption in the same breath. Though there is utmost despair and disgruntle among people, yet they do not want to lose opportunity to resort to foul play if it benefits them. If we fail to get anything out of the foul play, we start criticising the corrupted system and take the stance of an innocent person. If our own deeds are questioned, we justify them by saying that all are corrupted therefore our corrupted acts must be ignored. For instance while travelling by bus if conductor offers to charge less without ticket, we grab this opportunity and call the conductor a ‘nice human being’. That is just a small instance whereas our life is full of such instances when we at once forget all ethical values and change the standard and stance.

Notwithstanding the ongoing clamour and protests against the corrupted system, the long persisting contagious disease doesn’t seem to be cured that easily irrespective of the response of the government and the political parties.

No doubt the modus operandi of ‘Anshan’ or ‘Satyagraha’ or any other form of agitation may play a crucial role, but more important is the change in attitude, approach and outlook of the individuals and society. Therefore, we need a change in modus vivendi if the menace is to be cut at the root. The long and short of it is that we are honest only as long as we don’t get the chance to get corrupted.

Instead of acting as deterrent, our society has learnt to accept corruption as a way of life. It is not out of place to say that corruption has got into our blood and veins. In a bid to accumulate more and more filthy lucre, the biggest fish wants to swallow the smaller one, and the smaller the smallest one. Now, what the smallest fish do ? In this dismal world it is the smallest fish whose voice goes unheard and is the worst hit victim.

It is also equally sustainable that those whose lives have been nothing but a rat race for money will resist even the smallest effort initiated to curb corruption. In fact, we need double edged sword to tackle the issue of corruption. On the one hand we need more Anna’s and Dev’s to bring the big guns to book, on the other a consistent campaign must me launched to inculcate and spread the ethical values.

So, be it Lokpal or the satyagraha to bring black money back, it is the change in attitude and outlook of the common mass that is going to be important if we want to cure the society of corruption.

10 comments:

  1. No Lokpal Bill or fast unto death can on its own put and end to corruption or bring back black money from wherever it is said to be stashed away. In fact it requires reforms within ourselves, as we are both the victims and perpetrators or rather perpetuators of the sorry stater of affairs prevailing at the time. Need of the hour is also to take care of the black money in circulation within the country itself !.

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  2. yes.....we must start from our-self first, then only we can expect some good from others....
    butt who cares, its simple n easy to say that what i did is nothing, see how big corrupt n dishonest he is.....

    btw a thought provoking post......

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  3. we have the same problem..n its worst here...ask me and I will tag corruption as pakistan's biggest problem this moment...you know when you stop protesting and start taking things as they are fine the way they are, it becomes a crises..people in this part of the globe have gotten used to it now..its taken as a normal thing,,part of the system....and this is what makes it worst! why dont we protest/? why dont we talk about it? this is a simple collective behavior which has strengthen corruption's roots ..."silence"!...its time that we should talk about it more and more..

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  4. Yeah. If corruption works for me, then don't say anything...otherwise corruption is bad...it is sick but that is the problem we see. Check out my blog post on 'India Against corruption'.

    I see a lot of people complaining about corruption but they are corrupt people themselves.

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  5. We as a nation are neck deep into it .Not only we need to bring a change in our attitude but also we must support people who are genuinely fighting this battle against corruption for us.

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  6. You have put it so well....."we despise and appreciate corruption in the same breath." It has become a part of the system. Big corrupt deals fund elections in India..in fact democracy is funded by the C word.

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  7. By design we are contradictory in nature.Just look around you and you will see a myriad of contradictions in people,places,color,religion,races, everything.So then why expect to be an exception?

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  8. Great post... Change should start at home, start with ourselvesGreat post... Change should start at home, start with ourselves

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  9. Tremendous effort to wakeup the sleeping donkeys.

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