Not so long ago 3 Idiots got together and made us laugh our hearts out. Today my heart bleeds for this fourth Idiot who is trying to achieve the impossible dream. But then Idiots like him do not live in today’s India. They live in an India, as India should be and not in the India as it is today. No one who is part of the establishment, be it the executive or the legislature or anyone else whom Anna and his team wants to bring within the purview of the Jan Lokpal Bill, will agree to or accept the draft prepared by them. They will continue to beat around the bush, skirt the issue, continue talking about precedents, procedures, policies, practices and try every trick possible to deny them a chance to participate in the drafting of a bill which will strike the first nail in their coffins. He is fighting for us, but a vast majority of us still, look upon him as a nuisance, a hurdle in the path of Government. Still he is willing to die for us. His idiocy lies in his ignorance, but then we need more such idiot’s and a lot more.
Anna needs to realize that today’s India isn’t what he thinks it to be. More than 25% of India’s population is still illiterate. Of the ones who do know how to read and write, a vast majority can not be considered educated. More than 50% of these “literates” of this country will find it difficult to define “corruption” leave alone understanding its effect. How can we expect such people to have any kind of views on anti-corruption laws? Roughly 35% of India’s voting population does not care who runs the Government and how they run it, they are happy and content with the one day gazetted holiday given to them every few years and they invariably find something better to do on that day, than taking a walk to their polling stations. How can we expect them to care about cleaning our system off corruption? According to a World Bank 2005 estimate roughly 42% of India’s population can’t afford to buy two square meals a day. How can we expect them to disregard the ‘500 ka patta’ given to them few days before Election Day? Another 2% of India’s population is employed by the Govt, including dependents this would translate into, roughly, 5% of the voting population. This segment has to report to the executive or the legislature either directly or indirectly, their fate is decided by the whims and fancies of those in command. We can not expect them to vote for a law which makes the lives of their masters difficult. The chain of command ensures that heat passes from the top to the bottom of any organizational pyramid and in the end it’s the people at the bottom who pay the heaviest price. According to a recent CAG report roughly 9.58 crore Indians have obtained a Permanent Account Number (PAN) but a mere 3.41 crore actually file their tax returns. These honorable citizens of our country, who constitute roughly 10% of the voting population (including dependents) had to obtain a PAN card as now it is mandatory for making certain types of investments, but since it is not mandatory for a PAN Card holder to file his returns they shall continue to live happily ever after. How can we expect such people to vote for a law which will stamp out Black Money and will eventually make them pay taxes?
The people who are standing beside Anna today, or are likely to support him over the course of next few days, constitute a very small percentage of the voting population. I would say not more than 8-10% even in my wildest dreams. As compared to this, a political party needs merely 30% of voters (roughly 20% of India’s adult population, remember 35% don’t vote) to vote for them to win elections and stay in power for 5 years. The Govt or the political class will not be affected by few thousand people demonstrating in select cities, there are millions who would be more than willing to vote for them at the next elections in return for a “paua/addha/khambha” or a “gandhi”.
Then there are the organizations and people who have a vested interest in the Jan Lokpal Bill. Vested interest in the sense that their businesses and livelihood will be adversely affected if Anna gets his wish. Take the case of the ‘holier than thou’ Swiss Bankers or those from Cayman or Liechtenstein or from any such tax heaven. If the Jan Lokpal Bill sees the light of the day it will start a chain reaction which will result in these bankers loosing roughly 15-20% of their clientele. Anna and his team can not expect these wealthy-powerful bankers to sit still and watch them take away their bread and butter (actually they eat caviar and foie gras, but it doesn't rhyme as good as bread and butted). They will go to any length to protect the source of their revenue. Then there are the Hawala Operators, the untouchables. Untouchables because they have been in our country for longer than we would like to believe and they have been doing really good business for a really long time, flouting every law/act/rule made by the executive and the legislature; only because they have patrons in high places. Hasan Ali is the tip of the iceberg, there are many more Hasan Ali's who need to be brought to book. They have more money at their disposal than what we can imagine and needless to say money talks. Idiots like Anna are trying to shut down a whole parallel economy which runs on corruption/black money and take away the livelihood of thousands of people who run it. You can’t expect them to give up without a fight.
Based on some unconfirmed reports, various political parties spent close to 10,000 crore during the 2009 parliamentary elections. Then there are the various State Assembly elections, Municipal, Students Union, etc etc etc. Where does that kind of money come from?? Contributions? Highly unlikely. 120 crore Indian will have to contribute Rs. 85 per head to get to Rs. 10,000 Crores. Roughly 80% of India’s population earns less than Rs. 90 per day, how can we assume that they will give it away to a political party. Where does this money come from? Go ahead, take a wild guess. In October last year couple of senior ministers from Maharashtra were accidently caught on tape (after a press conference these politicians started talking to each other without realizing that the camera was still on)discussing the amount of money the CM and each of his ministers had to contribute towards a rally in Sewagram to be lead by a national level leader. (read it here) Rs. 2 Crore from the CM and Rs. 10 Lakh from each minister. I have never contributed even a single penny to any political party and I know it for sure that no one in my friend circle has ever done that.
Every 100 or 500 rupees that people like you and me pay as bribes travels all the way up. Elections are an expensive affair and when they are not fighting elections they need to keep holding rallies (like Sewagram). If the Jan Lokpal Bill becomes a reality, slowly and steadily it stop the flow of money from this channel. It would become really difficult for people like Raja or Kalmadi to go around allocating national resources or spending our money in an unfair manner. Today’s politicians need money to fight and win elections, they have long ago forgotten the ideals and principals on which we fought for and won our right to govern ourselves. It is their fight for survival don’t expect them to give up so easily.
They have already started their usual political tactics of mud slinging and trying to malign Anna, trying to deflect attention and to mislead the people of India. Given our political history and the gullibility of the people of India they are most likely to succeed with their rhetoric. People of India need to understand that it will take a lot more than few hundreds going on hunger strike and few thousands gathering in select places in select cities. The machinery of India needs a complete overhaul and it can not be done while the machine is still running. We need to stop it. Bring the entire Govt to a complete standstill, before we can expect them to give up their fight for survival.
The people of India also need to understand that the Jan Lokpal Bill is not the “Brahmastra” or the ultimate solution that will stop corruption immediately; rather it is the first step for a nation which has been suffering for more than 6 decades because the powers that be do not want any kind of checks and balances placed upon them. We need huge systemic and social changes in the way we live, act, behave and govern ourselves if we want to see a corruption free India. The Jan Lokpal Bill will only serve as the starting point of a process which might take years may be even decades to clean our system of corruption. Apart from bringing in a law to check corruption in governance we will need to reform ourselves and that’s easier said than done. A country, which has been, for the last 60 years eating/living/breathing/sleeping corruption will need time to switch over to the new mentality. We will have to wait for the awakening of a new generation which will not pay 500 rupees to avoid a traffic challan, a generation which does not want to be paid in cash for selling their properties to avoid capital gains tax, a generation which does not prepare fictitious rent receipts or medical bills, a generation which asks for a bill while buying a mobile phone even if it means that they will have to pay VAT, a generation which is willing to stand in a queue for 3 hours but is not willing to 1000 bucks to a tout. We can not expect Jan Lokpal Bill to act as a magical wand which makes us forget what we have been doing for the better part of our lives and become honest incorruptible modern day mahatmas.
It will be a long and arduous journey, but now that Anna has showed us the path and given us a ray of hope; lets go all the way, lets not let this movement die a slow painful death at the hands of the ruling elite. Only then a new
India will emerge; an honest
India and an
India where there is no place for corruption or for the corrupt. An
India that we can, actually, be proud of.
