How Far We Can Tolerate The Corrupt?

Now this is a long gap. I mean real long when you don’t turn back to your blog for a good part of last fortnight, throwing that typical Indian politician attitude of not visiting their constituency post the voting day till the next election dates are announced in five years’ time. Even though I can furnish a lot many excuses, the real reason of my apathy towards my blog and a handful of regular readers that I have is my work. No; don’t mislead yourself that I have started working; it is just that unholy call of the duty where I was forced to come to Bangalore for few months on an assignment. After a struggle of two weeks to negotiate myself with the Bangalore traffic, food, people who believe there is only one language in the world that need to be grasped is Kannada and of course the non-existing roads and copious potholes; I am from God’s grace still alive, kicking and able enough to jolt down something.

As a starter, Bangalore roads have reminded me at least one thing. The number of corrupts that we have in every sphere of our governance, policy making and delivery to the nation. From Shastri Bhawan to the local Gram Panchayat office, it is only filled with corrupts of various level, magnitude and size. If there is a certain A. raja or Suresh Kalmadi in the sports ministry, be rest assured there is always a counterpart called Ram Sing or Haridas Gupta in the Panchayat office to loot the money from Rajeev Gandhi Gramin Sadak Yojna. Corrupts rule the roost from inside-out with an equal amount of rascals felicitating their loot and making sure the highway robbers are never acted upon. In a massive nexus between the corrupt and their bosses, the nation has long plunged into a state where expecting a non-corrupt official is as bizarre as hoping Aakar Patel to talk sensibly someday. Horrendous as it may sound but there seems to be a strong relationship between our nose diving economy and the corrupt that we are grooming in our country.

But I am not here to talk about the corrupt since half of the world is pretty much doing that and I don’t want to join that bandwagon. I am rather here to talk about us. We the people or so called the rest of India who either is comparatively less corrupt or clean to some extent. I am here to talk on how we have got used to the massive daylight robbery that is going on for decades together. I am here to talk about how we have easily allowed the corrupt and thugs be one among ourselves in social circle without any objection or revolt. I am here to talk on how we have directly or indirectly patronized a large set of buffoons to not only loot us but also to stand beside us without any trace of shame or repentance the very next moment they looted us. I am here to talk about our collective attitude of taking it very lightly on the kind of society that we are building up for the generations to come by allowing scoundrels roaming around among us. I am here to talk about the easy go attitude of ours to allow few idiots to hijack the national interest and treat the government and its policies as a milch cow while we remain in oblivion and busy with petty issues all around. I am here to talk how it is only we who should squarely be blamed for the situation that we are in. I am here to ask all to give ideas on how to save our face when our upcoming generation will ask uncomfortable questions once we handover an outright rotten and depleted society to them in future.

Why we are so nonchalant about the state of affairs? How in earth we are so tolerant towards thugs and looters? History is only a testimony to the fact that all societies across the globe which ever claimed themselves to be responsible have got one thing in common. They act against the wrong and shout their voices for all that is not good for the nation, the society or the future of an entire generation. On those criteria, are we a responsible society? Have we ever shouted with conviction against the corrupt and their nefarious dealings? Have we as a nation gone to the streets to protest against few rascals who treat the nation as a personal property? Have we as individuals ever shown our displeasure towards any corrupt individual? Perhaps not. Not because we are any less concerned about the wrong been meted out to us for decades but because we get used to the situation without giving a fight. It is only because for our attitude of callousness that the governments we choose tenure after tenure conveniently look the other way and keep on looting us further.

How many of us have their blood boil by the mere mention of A. Raja or Suresh Kalmadi now? Perhaps a handful. While we were all over the place when the scams were unearthed with our displeasure, we seem to have forgotten if something called 2G scam ever happened. While we shouted from the roof top when shit and mud was thrown at us for the utter mess during CWG, we now have forgotten a certain Suresh Kalmadi and his unpardonable attempt at maligning our nation’s reputation on international forums. We in a collective effort blew a lot of hot air when these scoundrels were first unearthed but now looks like we have forgotten the bitter past that people like A. Raja and many more carry. The classic example of our easy go attitude towards all the wrong is the thinning out presence at Anna Hazare rallies of late. While we should have been more aggressive with our protest after looking at the repeated attempt of a democratically elected government to hoodwink and cheat an entire nation, we have conveniently taken their dishonesty in our stride and gradually have started to accept the thugs. No wonder hence why could all the scoundrels managed to get bail one after another in a systematic manner. The bitter truth is - while the robbers go to their banks laughing, we the looted are getting cozier with the state of affairs and the complete lack of accountability within our elected government. This ground realty is in fact scarier than the enormous number of thugs those surround us.

So before blaming the government of their intention and their complete lack of interest in bringing the culprits to task, it is we all who should rather blame ourselves and introspect. You get the government that you deserve and to be honest what we have got as the output of the world’s largest democracy is just befitting to our collective lethargic psyche. Hope we have reached to the bottom in terms of tolerance and pray we can only improve from here on since the situation is getting more suffocating by the hours. It is not the idea of capsizing which is scary but the vision of staying alive on a life raft and drifting alone to alienation. Wake up India. It could just be – “Now Or Never”.