A few days back when I wrote in my blog on' Corruption and Black Money-Control through good governance' that we should declare a war on corruption and black money, I thought that it was a fairly easy job for no political party will have any objection as it can in no way clash with their political, economic and social agenda. To day after hearing the debates going on in media over the much talked about Lok Pal Bill (a small but significant step in our war on corruption and black money) in the light of fast unto death by Gandhian Anna Hazare for bringing the same into effect by the present government, one gets an impression that any step towards fighting the menace of corruption and black money affects definitely affects the personal agenda of a vast majority of our politicians. So much so the fast unto death by Anna Hazare for a cause which is of prime importance to the country, to each and every individual of this country and to the hapless Aam Aadmi who believes that his lot will improve in the hands of these leaders was described as pressure tactics by the spokesperson of Congress party .I wonder what these guys think of the numerous fasts undertaken by the Father of the Nation for social and political issues?
Anyway the present day politician should not be ashamed of the fact that he could do nothing on this issue of prime importance to 1.2 billion people in whose service he is dedicating his life. After all his predecessors from various governments and parties also tried on eight different occasions during the last forty two years and failed to achieve anything concrete on this front. Still they are great patriots who had dedicated their lives to the service of the nation.
None of the political parties or any individual leader can afford to deny that proper legislation is required to end corruption and have an Anti Corruption Bill in place. If this is so why are we looking for some arguments or excuses for not doing the job in right earnest. If the government is serious and sincere it can formulate a draft in a few days with or without the inputs from civil society and if it does not respond in the right earnest the names of our esteemed leaders from all parties will be remembered with utter disdain. Is it too much to expect from Dr Manmohan Singh, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mr LK Advani, Mr Nitin Gadkari ,Mr Prakash Karat and all the esteemed leaders of regional parties that they rise above petty politics and for once act as if they are part of a national government in formulating an effective anti corruption bill. This is a God sent opportunity for them to get their names in golden letters in the history of India.
The game going on in taking the first small step towards India's war on corruption is quite clear to anyone with a bit of intelligence. First keep on dillydallying over the formulation of a committee on one pretext or the other, then over the draft to be taken up for legislation and finally tell the nation that political consensus could not be arrived at.In short resort to the age old bureaucratic dictum " Look busy, sincere and forthcoming and do nothing". After all we have an intelligent bunch of people sitting at the top and cannot expect them to cut their own hands with their actions.
The game going on in taking the first small step towards India's war on corruption is quite clear to anyone with a bit of intelligence. First keep on dillydallying over the formulation of a committee on one pretext or the other, then over the draft to be taken up for legislation and finally tell the nation that political consensus could not be arrived at.In short resort to the age old bureaucratic dictum " Look busy, sincere and forthcoming and do nothing". After all we have an intelligent bunch of people sitting at the top and cannot expect them to cut their own hands with their actions.
