Gandhi, Grandpa, Anna & Corruption

Whenever I see Gandhian way of protest in public life from any individual, the flashes of my grandfather come across in my mind. He was the last person of Gandhian generation in my life. I still remember, I was in class 4 and along with him I had gone to a government office. He had some work with official and after discussing the work that official asked some money from him and without any protest my grandfather gave that official twenty rupees. I was surprised and shocked, because being from gandhian generation he always talked about Gandhi ji and Gandhian principles. This act of my grandfather was unexpected for me. I Protested “dadaji, it’s wrong, you are paying bribe”. He laughed at me and very gently said “I know “. “Then why did you pay bribe” I was still angry at him. “To get my job done speedily” this was his reply. That was the first day when he talked at length about corruption in the society. “Corruption has become the part and parcel of our life. If you want to get your work done, you will have to cough up money. Even Gandhi ji also used to pay money to coolie to get a seat in the train. If you do not believe read his autobiography ‘The experiment with truth’ and you will found out how he used to bribe coolie to get a seat” he had said. But at that  day he accepted that corruption is a disease which has entered into our society. But this disease was benign, controllable and not severe in his perception. Then he came across so may scam in coming years, MP vote bribery, fodder scam, stamp scam etc. The disease which was benign had come malignant. He was unhappy man. “We need to fight corruption now, otherwise it will develop into cancer, gangrene” one day he said after watching detailed description of recent scam in the country on TV. When RTI was passed, I was very happy at that day. I told my grandpa about the act and asked his reaction. “I am partially happy” that was his curt reply. “But why partially” I wanted to know reason. RTI is just a medical test to find out the disease (corruption) but where is the medicine. Medicine which can control, curb and eradicate the corruption.




Really where is the medicine? In fact we do not have any stringent law, forceful rules or aggressive code to fight corruption in our country. Medicine is really elusive from our lives to fight corruption. This system is drenched with corruption and we common people are like helpless cow. Our money is being looted everyday and we are mute spectator. Every day we come across a new scam in our country and like a sex less chicken we do not even react. We are allowing bloody politician, bigwigs and those in power to plunder our hard earned money and we do not even think about it.

Thanks God, Anna hajare is amongst us, who is fighting against corruption for us Indian. A man from humble family background, who struggled to get two squares meal in his childhood, joined Army, fought two wars against china and Pakistan and came back from army only to dedicate his life for social work. From more than three decades, he has been doing social work with impeccable integrity and honesty. Now this man is on indefinite fast. What is his demand? Just a real, effective and strong law to combat corruption. A legitimate wish of every citizen of our country. And this lawful demand is being denied by powerful. To get this legitimate demand Anna has to adopt Ghandhian way to protest the powerful. Still those are in power, do not feel affected. But corruption is affecting our life ever day, every time. We need to stand with Anna. Overall this is our fight against corruption and Anna is a chieftain, our frontline solider.


Ramanuj Dubey