The Bitter Experiences of Jihad against Corruption

Corruption is once again on the front burner. Media as a whole is at it again because of which the anti-corruption activists are enjoying lime light. The whole affair, however, is a bit confusing to laymen or onlookers like the writer of these lines. It is indeed difficult to discern who the real crusader is and who is waging a fake Jihad against corruption. Another confusing aspect is who among the anti-corruption activists is genuine and how he/she can be distinguished from the politically motivated ones. Similarly, it is easily discernible that part of the media apparently waging war against corruption has political motives, if not ambitions.

One can understand that the fight against corruption, like the corruption itself, is complex. Corruption in India is deep-rooted, wide-spread, intelligent, powerful and shameless, even cruel and ruthless. I often wonder if the people fighting against corruption have the mental, physical and especially financial resources to sustain the Jihad they are waging against it.

There was a time when the corrupt would bow his head in shame when caught. Today he/she smiles at people in front of camera. I have failed to understand if their smiles are teasing or just a genuine expression of joy at having become super-rich overnight. One thing, however, can be stated clearly and with a great deal of certainty. That the corrupt knows well that he/she can exploit the loopholes in our judicial system to his/her advantage as his/her illegally-obtained wealth will enable him/her to buy the best legal aid available in the country or elsewhere.

It is most disturbing that bright and brilliant young men are increasingly becoming corrupt making corruption too intelligent to be tracked and nailed down easily. It is equally disturbing that they seem to be thinking that money matters the most in India as it alone enables you to fulfil all your desires, right or wrong. They also seem to be of the opinion that money can help them manipulate judiciary and escape punishment. When the young men start thinking on these lines, the country has to worry about its future.

I have said above that corruption is a wide-spread and complex phenomenon because of which it is difficult for an individual to comprehend all its aspects. It is, therefore, wise to focus on areas of corruption where you may feel comfortable to wage a Jihad. For instance being an academic it should be relatively easy for me to understand the corruption prevalent in campuses around the country.

Many charitable organizations donate fund to universities for carrying out academic programmes or creating infrastructure. The universities spend such funds as per government rules. For instance if the privately donated money is being used for creating infrastructure, the university authorities invite tenders and award the contract to the lowest bidder. But recently a university has found an intelligent way of corruption. The authorities of the university recently received some three crore Rupees from a waqf. Their thinking is that the waqf money is private, hence the government rule of inviting tenders for constructing a building will not apply here. So, they have given the contract of constructing a huge building to a favourite contractor without inviting tenders. When the engineers and technical staff of the university refused to give approval to such an illegal contract, their objections were ruled out. Perhaps they have also been made/forced to maintain silence.

Most employees, especially academics, are coward in India. In the first place no one will go to court for undoing the illegality mentioned above. And if someone dares to do so, he would be taken care of, if not punished or harassed by authorities. Moreover, soon he will realize that his legally earned money is not enough to fight a court battle mainly because the corrupt has abundance of money. One can imagine how discouraging such experiences are and how difficult it is to wage a Jihad against corruption.

The most discouraging fact is the realization that your fellow academics, whose cause you are championing, consider you a fool. They dissociate from you or leave you alone on the street to shout slogans against corruption, rush to the authorities, openly or secretly, and pamper them for pittance. Not for nothing the politics of the campuses is called the meanest, because most often the stakes are too low.

The scene at the national level is not encouraging either. Those involved in the fight against corruption seem to have eaten more than what they can chew. Foolishly they have opened too many fronts which are hampering their movement against corruption. They have also committed the mistake of undermining the political class. As a result the politicians are hitting back, and hitting very hard. It is to be seen how the anti-corruption crusaders will cope with it.

[September, 2012]