A scam a day keeps development away!

I am simply appalled at the huge scams that surface daily in our country. The electronic media lately has only been reporting corruption at the highest levels, rape and murder, very often of minors,by men in power. I don't wish to blame the media on this because the gargantuan proportions of crime and sleaze have permeated every facet of life, and there is so little developmental work done as the ruling party is constantly having to "defend" itself in Parliament against charges by the opposition on almost every transaction that takes place in the public and private domain.

This parliament session, we are told, has been a complete waste of time and money, which could have been usefully employed for the discussion of hundreds of issues concerning food prices and how to lower them, healthcare, esp. in our villages, education and innumerable developmental projects that have not even been debated, leave alone sanctioned or completed.

This is indeed Kaliyug at its worst! Men and women in public life possess neither character nor conscience. Corporate frauds have left business in tatters,and the average honest hard-working human has lost their faith in the system, in which corruption is endemic. The rot is from top-down, and unless there is stringent punishment meted out to all wrongdoers at the top, we have very little hope for a really progressive and prosperous India.

It is indeed a matter of utter shame that India ranks 6th ( a statistic reveals) in the list of the quantum of illegal money stashed away in Swiss banks! A country, which is still poor (Never mind Mr. Obama saying that we have “emerged”!), with over 400 million people living below the poverty line, earning less than a dollar a day, not having one square meal or clean drinking water or a proper home not exposed to the elements of weather and with minimal or non-existent healthcare.

It is clear that since we opened up our economy in 1994 as a first measure towards achieving globalisation of trade, and became a member of the World Trade Organisation, whatever “benefits” in trade and wealth that was supposed to flow out of this has barely trickled to the poorest of the poor. The men and women in government, along with the corporates, have built a fine nexus between themselves enabling them to line their pockets, looting the country and the national exchequer to to an extent that defies imagination! Our soulless politicians and all enforcement agencies have also been helping themselves to a giant share of this loot, making a mockery of the poor and the disenfranchised.

Our soulless politicians and all enforcement agencies have also been helping themselves to a giant share of this loot, making a mockery of the poor and the disenfranchised.

What are solutions to correct these frightening and frightful aberrations that threaten to tear the very fabric of this Republic? Of course the first one is to elect a new set of men and women to serve the country – easier said than done! However, I fervently believe that there has to be a people’s movement and I see this as the major solution for correcting this awfully skewed system – again easier said than done. But then somewhere we have to make a start.

Ms. Kiran Bedi has already started such a movement, and if more of us (ordinary citizens) join her and other like-minded people, we can hope to right the wrongs that have hijacked the glorious culture of ethics and honesty that pervaded our parliament and society, when our founding fathers evolved this democratic system of government.

Ultimately, we can begin by infusing in our children the values of honesty, goodness, integrity and selfless service towards the country, esp. towards the underprivileged sections. If we can only stop equating success with money and material goods, and if we develop the courage to say a resounding “NO” to more money than we need for a comfortable life, I think we can still harbour the hope of bringing in reforms that will cleanse this system and move towards a more equitable distribution of wealth and an egalitarian society, where the hiatus between the rich and the poor gets reduced to reasonable and acceptable levels.