Anna Hazare broke his fast, to the relief of all Indians. He began with a agenda of forcing the government to toe his line on the methodology of rooting out corruption from our nation. He put his own life on the anvil. The sheer power of his simplicity and unassuming beliefs made it possible for us commoners to identify with his cause and we all in our own little ways made it our own cause......WE THE PEOPLE made the pillars of power resonate our call. Everyone from the media to the chaiwala were unanimous in declaring the politicians the VILLIAN No. 1 of this country. I guess the political class of this country might not have been subjected to such public outrage for a very very long time. It made them jittery, irked and even coy.
Did Anna succeed? Well this is a matter of speculation and individual interpretation. But he did bring the problem of corruption on the forefront of our national agenda. Personally, I think Anna got the politicians realise that this country will not accept graft and nepotism any longer. Yes that is what I like to believe.The LokPal would come, but in what form, is something which the whole country is eagerly waiting. Lets wait and watch.....
Meanwhile, a question is lingering in my mind for some time now...
"DO WE DESERVE ANNA?"
Do we deserve his sacrifice? Do we really feel strongly about his (our) cause?
Yes it's true...
I know, it has got you thinking...Think hard....Are we worthy of his efforts.
I read somewhere, that if Anna had put the condition that only those people who had not committed a graft in the preceding 07 days of the agitation can only join his agitation, then only he and his team would have been available at the Ramlila Maidan......maybe it is true.
Jokes apart, it is a fact that when we scream heart out against the politicians, that very heart knows that we are also corrupt.....
How many of us think before breaking the traffic rules? How many of us think it is bad to travel without ticket? How many of us think that queuing at the bus stop is actually right? .....These are some examples....There are many such situations where we don't think twice before breaking all civil and social norms. And if and when the law catches up with us, we know we can bribe our way out.
Now some one would say these are trivial issues. No Sir, it's not. These are also forms of corruption. These small manifestations of lawlessness results in the bigger cases of graft.
The politicians are corrupt , the government bureaucrats are corrupt, we say ....but they are because we allow them to be. And it has come to a point wherein, when we come across some honest person doing his job properly, we start suspecting his motive. We just can't believe, that he can be honest.
Honesty is no longer a virtue we can adjust to. Sad ...but it is true....
I would not be off mark, if I say corruption is in our blood.
Anna, was spot on, when he said just wearing a cap with the words "I AM ANNA" does not make you one. We need to make changes in our thought process, in our actions, in our words.....and it has to be real and sincere changes, if we dream of making our's a model society.
We as a nation needs to improve by leaps and bounds if we actually want to reach the standards we often dream and crib about.
Ask yourself, Do we deserve ANNA? I know, it is difficult in the world we are living today. Even I am not sure I can change myself. But I will try...........
Yes! I really agree with you that we all are corrupt in some way. But I sometimes wonder if it is possible in todays scenario to be honest?? I will mention a real incident which happened to me during Anna's recent fast.
ReplyDeleteI was on my bike in late evening in Kanpur City. The electricity supply was not there and it was quite dark. I was about to cross road crossing, suddenly I seen a traffic police raising his hand to stop my side and allow other side to move. It was too dark to see his signals as he was not carrying any signal wands and not wearing florescent jacket. I almost missed him and crossed the stop line.
My luck! nothing happened and I moved when he cleared my side. But the incident together-with Anna's fast made me think had that traffic policeman stooped me for challan, what would I had done...
1. Accepted that challan and filed a petition in court against that challan as it was not mistake but the mistake of administration which was supposed to provide electricity and signal wands /florescent jacket to the policeman.
2. Simply give Rs 50 note and move away.
Of course Anna would accepted option 1 but do I have the courage, time, money to do that. But by doing so I would save the time, money and of course life of may others, as my success in court would result in better administration and better services from govt. Otherwise keep paying Rs 50 to the policeman. The same Rs 50 had allowed many car thieves, militants to escaped from police for just Rs 50.