Why Not Anna!!

“Like men, like state” said Plato and true he is. When Anna started his agitation against corruption, it was the first thing that came to my mind. The Anna brigade has been fighting corruption like it is some diseases and it can be eradicated with medicine, in this case the Lok Pal bill.  He could not be more wrong and that is my opinion. I know saying this will make me unpopular, guys will give me names, call me un-patriotic and so on; but like a girl in love these people are thinking with their hear and not head.

In a democratic country everyone has a right to his/her opinion, if I am not to mine, we are not democratic – and this is the first form of corruption in our country. I agree with Voltaire the French philosopher when he says “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.” And I ask you this question; do we in India have the right to speak openly?? Where a farmer is imprisoned for questioning, books are burnt and removed from syllabus for their opinion and women molested for their dressing style.

Humans are by nature very corrupt and moreover corruption is a part of our culture. We can see corruption in every nook and corner in our country not just in the government offices. We expect everyone else around us to be saints but we don’t mind breaking the law.

 You may ask me why I believe our culture is corrupt, and it depends on the definition of the word corruption. The basic and widely accepted definition is “the action of making someone or something morally depraved or the state of being so”, now I might be wrong but this was what I have seen:

·         Most couples prefer male child – female foeticide
·         Women are torched and murdered for dowry
·         If the cops are not around it is ok to break the law
·         Most want their work done first- no queues
·         Most will pay a bribe than a fine
·         We will bargain even if the price is fixed- according to the definition this is corruption
·         We have the north Indians and the south Indians –  you will be favoured if the person in authority is from your cast, region or speak a common language.
·         We do not vote for political parties agenda, but on what the person standing for election can do for the individual voting.
·         We are highly cast based
·         Media and political parties taking advantage of people’s general despair

They are not just problem with Indians, it is a global phenomenon and varies in degree from country to country, but being corrupt is human nature. So coming back to Plato “like men, like state”, the nature, the personality and the dealing of the state is the refection of the nation. It is the mirror image of the people in it; these countrymen whose behaviour in turn is influenced by the social and cultural environment within. If the country had few bad people we would have had few occurrences of corruption. Now that each and every public project has varied degree of corruption; how corrupt the thought of each individual has to be?

I support Anna for he wants a better nation, I want a better nation, a better world. But I do not support the method in which he wants this done. By introducing a committee of non government civilian, we are only introducing just another layer of corrupt people there. As humans are corrupt by nature we shall find different ways to still be corrupt. Though I agree that this might reduce corruption but not completely eradicate it.  We can achieve this by- all of us being a little less corrupt ourselves or making and implementing the laws we have more stringent. Corruption is not a disease, though the media says it is. Corruption is human nature. Corruption is like being lazy, you may introduce laws to make a person less lazy but that will not change his lethargic nature.

Then again, how do I trust a neutral committee of people, appointed by the people to police those who in the first place were appointed by the same people they are supposed to police?

The solution to this, that I could think is ‘similar’ to that what Plato though when he thought about ‘Utopia’. His Idea still stands today!! You may google what it is- I am not explaining it.  But to all intends and purposes it is not a practical solution. 

Cheers,

Ninad Dighe.