We often hear people around here talk of how ill the system in India is. We are informed from childhood about how most government officials refuse to work unless they are bribed; how disfunctional the government schools and hospitals are. It might enrage us to hear someone speak so poorly of our country's but the matter of the fact is whoever says all that is actually right.
But then there are those of us who feel things will never change. Thats when they are wrong. For it is one thing to have problems and an different thing entirely to give up on fixing them. The fact is that there are still good people here. These people are the ones who do not want to take bribes and torment us regular folks unnecessarily but are often crushed due to their small numbers and the great numbers of the corrupt around them.
I don't want to give you reasons to support Anna Hazare's anti corruption campaign. That would be belitteling Anna's dignity that inspite of knowing his cause, he or anyone else would need you to beg for support. Anna is 74 years old. He is going on an indefinite fast against corruption from 16th August. He is not doing that for his personal benifit. He could have easily become a politician with all his support he recieved during all his movements against anti-social causes in the past. But he chose to stay a social activist. Now, he is going on a fast for you and I.
The government is throwing magic dust into the eyes of us commoners by coming up with a version of the anti corruption Lokpal Bill which actually supports corruption and protects the corrupt. Only 0.5% or 1 in 200 government officials are under the category which falls under scrutiny. No one from the ministry (including the PM) can be indicted.
Why does the government want to have separate laws for some and a different version for the rest in the world's largest democracy ? It is because they themselves have skeletons in their closets and know what the outcome might be if they get caught. They are counting on the ill informed people in the indian population to not know the difference between the versions. But by now all of you should know.
We live in a poor country. It is not because the money is any less here. But because these dogs among men have taken it from the commoners and have accumulated as their black money. So I implore you, whatever might your view on Anna be, its not him but his cause that needs your support. The government can crush one Anna Hazare but it cannot crush 150 million of them.
As is mentioned in the Geeta, nothing is permanent and when the pot of sin overflows, the restore to balance is natural. I feel that for the government, the pot is overflowing for sometime now. It is now or never. For those of us who can, show up in large numbers and demonstrate in a non violent yet firm way that it is time for the second struggle for India to begin, it is time to put a foot down for what is right, it is time to fight for our right; our right to have competent people lead this country.
