Canker of Corruption
is eating irreparably into the vitals of our society it appears, or has it already done that? All the ideals adumbrated in our Constitution for the establishment of an egalitarian social welfare society seem to have been thrown to the winds and the ruling coteries as also the aspiring parties, groups and persons, save for a few honourable exceptions, seem to have joined in the rape of the motherland. Veterans who still remember the days of the British rule generally rue that society had not fallen to such abysmal depths and corrupt drains in those days despite all the high-handed and atrocious conduct of the imperialists. Not only we see scams everywhere – of the Adarsh Housing Society in Bombay, illegal mining and land allotments in Karnataka, real estate and mining scams in AP and above all the 2-G scam which is creating tremors in the Union Government now, but also the corrupt and inept administrators seem to be confident of sailing through all the hazards of prosecution and punishment for their illegal activities in absolute safety. The Courts occasionally bark for the protection of the ideals underscoring the need for zero tolerance to corruption but then they too face serious allegations of corruption within their wing, which even if 10% of the same be established, stand as a matter of unredeemable humiliation for the society. While the rich, neo-rich and super rich are joyfully sailing on waves of affluence and luxury, comes the gruesome news of poor and hungry mothers selling away their children for paltry hundreds as the only way to save their families from sure starvation deaths! And now Mr. Kar, a senior economist, comes with the sensational revelation that more than 20 lakh crore rupees of black moneys are stashed away overseas right from 1948 till date and the so-called liberalization policies claiming to create more transparency have in no way reduced corruption but exacerbated it. He says with such huge amounts we could have paid for the entire infrastructure needs of the country and much else – better schools, better health and nutrition programmes for the poor, etc. Regrettably, instead of fighting this malaise with all devotion and strength people seem to be frittering away their energies in silly parochial and petty agitations which deliver no real fruits to the needy. All this fortifies our convicton that a real revolutionary upheaval by the people, rising above all petty concerns, against corruption, misrule and concomitant evils and atrocities can alone save this country §§§
