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]