We have seen so much anger and anguish, indeed a cry of desperation and helplessness, in India over the last couple of years. Hopefully 2013 will usher in the kind of change all of us are seeking anxiously.
Change must
start at the top, for that is where the gaze of everyone is fixed. It must
begin with the politicians, their cronies, the political parties, their leaders
and workers, the political class in its entirety. People want to see debate in
Parliament, not mayhem, vigilance and dissent, not boycott. It is the example politicians set
in Parliament that filters down, and their negative actions only lead to
cynicism and hopelessness.
The funding
of elections and political parties needs to be addressed urgently. It matters
little whether the spending is frugal or exorbitant; what is important is that
raising of funds and expenditure should be transparent and legal. The hypocrisy
of a limit on expenditure on elections, with all manner of clandestine spending
in cash, must end. Dishonesty begins from right there.
Beyond
that, the lust for wealth and property has to be resisted. Politicians and
their cronies must learn from the simplicity of men like Ratan Tata, Narayana
Murthy and Aziz Premji, and businessmen and tycoons need to understand the
philanthropic ways of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. There is a limit to all the
material possessions that a person should hanker for. Beyond a point these are
useless numbers. Wealth should serve a purpose, one’s own and others’. Blatant
hoarding is good for no one, not even for the avaricious collectors of mindless
riches. There is a good case for a campaign and awareness about the right
places to invest that would help the investors, their families, fellow
countrymen and the nation. Collection of a vast inventory of real estate, gems
and precious metal is not really in the interest of anyone. There must be a
self-imposed limit on them.
One must
also make a fervent request to all political parties to ask all their leaders,
big and small, to immediately relinquish posts they have held for years and
decades in sports bodies. We need medals at the Olympics and international
sports meets, not the sight of the same self-serving officials over and over
again. It will be good for our self-esteem if we are able to achieve this.
While much
anger has been spewed on politicians, not much has been said about the ways of
the bureaucracy, higher and the petty. It is a mistake to generalize, but
certainly some bureaucrats see themselves not as public servants but masters in
the quintessential imperial way. Drunk with power, complacent in the idea of
job security, and unshackled by accountability, their role is often
obstructionist and bereft of vision, if not arrogant, and many of them are the
window to corruption that citizens are faced with on a day-to-day basis. This
arm has to looked at closely if India is to move ahead rapidly.
The role of
the judiciary is crucial. The wheels of justice are painfully slow and get so
expensive as one moves up the hierarchy that they spiral out of reach of the
average citizen. Those who thrive under the system are the rich and the
powerful. Criminals are smug in the belief that they can work around the
system, whatever their misdemeanours. Often judgements are not clear, leading
to further litigation. It has been observed that a very high percentage of
pending cases involve governments and their agencies. The bureaucracy often
passes orders that leave citizens unsatisfied, if not with a feeling of having
been cheated, and it is cause for more litigation. If government orders are
challenged there should be a mechanism within the government itself to see
whether actual injustice has been done to the citizen, and to take remedial
measures before prolonged legal battles take place. The bureaucracy has to be
held accountable if its actions are seen as being unjust towards the citizen.
Much focus
has been on the police in recent times. This is an overworked force not
rewarded adequately, used and abused by the political class, and caught in the
crossfire between the rulers and the ruled. It is not a day too soon to carry
out police reforms. The police must be given its due place, well remunerated
with drastic improvement in their working conditions. The practice of
politicians using the police as conduits for collecting bribes must be stopped
immediately. The police force must get back its pride and dignity, it must be a
friend of law-abiding citizens and the nemesis of criminals. The harassment of
the honest citizen has to stop and the criminal must be instilled with fear of
the law.
Finally, we
come to the media. It has played a very crucial role in drawing focus on
serious issues but it needs to have a sense of perspective, exercise moderation
where it is due, relentlessly follow up matters of national importance instead
of merely being obsessed by TRP and indulging in sensationalism only for
purposes of circulation. We need more of positive stories, less of negative news,
fruitful debate and interaction, viewpoints of the experts, education, clean
family entertainment, focus on achievements, instead of just doom, gloom,
crime, corruption, violence, failure all the time. It’s a sense of perspective
and proportion, remember, and the media must play a positive lead role when
most of the other institutions have failed us badly.
