Thursday, September 28, 2006

Indian Corruption

If you google these two you get tonnes and tonnes of articles on it. It is a phenonmenon and it made me think a lot when I was in India trying to get a passport made, years ago. It took all of one year of going about it the 'right' way..and landing up nowhere. Till it was time to go, and I did NOT have a passport. Some pressure helped produce it in a few days. But that was the first brush with corruption in my adult life.
Was reading a book by Mark Tully, 'India in slow motion'. He writes about individuals struggling against a system of which they are part, forming pressure groups and pushing for answers and punishments. The politicians, the businessmen, the middlemen, the armed forces, the police...corruption knows no boundaries it seems. Who watches the watchmen came to mind when I was reading about the police beating up people who file complaints.
We are the largest democracy, but are we really democratic..we have a right to vote (sometimes) but there is a lot more that needs to be changed.
When I think about the fact that an educated person, who has worked within the system, (like the many IAS officers who quit their jobs due to disillusionment) struggle to right what is wrong, I wonder at what scope there is for a rural uneducated person to make a change?
I know this sounds like idealistic thinking..but I guess it is an idealistic country..every right for every wrong, every rich for every poor, every up for every down, every beauty for every ugliness, kindness for every act of brutuality, attempts are being secular and democratic despite our diversity.
Its making me think...

1 comment:

Sanjay D said...

Hi -- tripped up on your blog following a trail. I think it will take a coalition of sincere thinkers like you to make a dent against some aspects of Indian corruption, through proposals for better laws and enabling the few fighters using RTI or such remotely. If you'd like to e-discuss, my yahoo id is s n d ani (without spaces).