The Parliament has accepted Anna’s demands. The gesture of the Parliament is being hailed as “People’s victory”. So far so good. It is an occasion both to feel elated and have a sigh of relief.
But, even Anna while breaking his fast was very cautious and indicated that it was only half battle won and he had only suspended his fast, not ended it and his crusade would continue till the Parliament passed the anti-graft bill. In other words, even the man who mobilized entire Nation around his demands too is skeptical that there is still long struggle before the corruption is eradicated completely.
To put Anna’s words in a different way through dialogues from a movie of our own once Mega Star, it is all not over as “In front there is crocodile festival”. Because, mere Parliament adopting a “sense of the House” declaration agreeing in principal to the three key demands of Anna, should not be a reason for celebrating that path is cleared for constituting a strong anti-corruption body.
Let us beware of sophisticated saboteurs in all political parties. Anna and his bunch of civil society members by forcing the Parliament to agree to their demands had hurt and bruised their elitist ego. A wounded politician is as vengeful as a wounded tiger. Now that he would be on a prowl designing ways and means to scuttle the efforts to see that the Lok Pal takes its own course before it becomes a Law or to be precise a "FLAW".
They would make every effort like prisoners who had been asked to construct a fence around the jail, with emphasis for escape routes to construct the fence.
Now that Anna had won the democratic half battle, the politicians would enter with their own game of politics to fish in troubled waters. It would be an entirely different game altogether, in the din of which Anna's voice might sound feeble. Or will the coterie around Anna develop political ambitions to reap political benefits pushing Anna in front? Khel Abhi Bhaki hai Bhai. Anything can happen in this world of political intrigue.
But having said the above the ultimate question remains: Can corruption be abolished by law?
We are a society in which we even bribe God to seek his blessings. The corruption is deeply ingrained in the national culture, and the political will required to wipe it out is simply not there.
To quote Kautilya “It is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the King’s revenue”. The climate culture of corruption helped British to plunder us for centuries and the mantle is only passed to our modern day rulers.
The political- Bureaucratic nexus in our Country is like a ravenous vulture that devours the carcasses of the dead.
What the British did, the modern day Political-Bureaucratic Maharajas continued, ravenously devouring the living carcasses of their subjects. Add to this our consecrated culture of bribing God to grant us favours which have gone deep into our mental makeup that God’s blessings can be purchased. It follows, that a minister’s blessings and a bureaucrat’s favours can also be bought. And it has been a hall mark of our day to day activity as we look for short cuts to get our works done.
In a society where Corruption is accepted as part of life, will Jan Lok Pal bill be able to halt corruption? To some extent it might act as an instrument to punish the guilty that were caught. What about those who are not caught and there is mutual understanding for exchanging favours?
We have become immune even to the moral dimensions of corruption.
We all think that corruption is something that other people practice. In fact, it is systemic in our social structure and our public life; everyone, willingly or otherwise, consciously or otherwise, is a participant.
The real issue is not this bill or that law. The real issue is: How do we change ourselves?
The effort to answer the above question was somehow lost in the frenzy of slogan shouting of “Anna is India and India is Anna” or may be somehow is not the concern of the Civil Society which has a hidden agenda to serve the interests of NGOs and corporate enterprises whom they deliberately kept out of the purview of their Jan Lok Pal.
To repeat our own Mega star once again; In front there is crocodile festival.
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