Prioritize duty not rights to kill corruption

Nabeel A Khan

Sixty four years have passed but we continue to be embroiled in the spiral of corruption. We have witnessed all forms of scams in a series all this years- from coffin to bicycle to fodder and with time the size of the omnipresent malice and involvement of people have been making a northward move. The story of corruption which started in India soon after the independence in 1948 when V. K. Krishna Menon, then the Indian high commissioner to Britain, bypassed protocol to sign a deal worth Rs 80 lakh with a foreign firm for the purchase of army jeeps. The case was closed in 1955 and soon after Menon joined the Nehru cabinet. Now the phenomenon is a part and parcel of life at every nook and corner of the country.

It is an irony that, in a country of over one billion population, where every single individual shows (in words) to be the most upset due to the spreading tentacles of corruption. But the eloquent enigma is that whose support has kept the demon alive. The only statement comes from most corner is that ‘nothing can be done about it’ and finally all the blame is smacked primarily on the politicians as if they have landed on this earth from some other planet. Before you get me wrong, let me clarify that I have no intention to give a clean chit to the white-khadi clad people and I know their vital role in the germination of dishonesty in the country. But do we not need to think that how can these few thousand people can overpower billions who claim to have abstained from the evil pie.

However, in this long time period we have seen a number of campaigns and demonstrations against corruption but none has been effective. They came and faded and in my view the only reason I see is all the while the main focus was to put full blame on a particular class of the society and no one emphasized on their own responsibilities. The proper execution of responsibilities or duties of the people is mightier than the rights. So if every one performs his/her duties and responsibilities properly it will ultimately result into fulfilling the rights others. So in order to form a clean and corruption-free society, we need to shift our prime focus to act upon our duty rather than rights. And we really don’t need to be somebody to have duty and responsibility at whatever level or status we are we all have some attached responsibilities. Suppose you walking on the road- you have some duty as walker –like you should always cross the road from zebra crossing and not coming in the main road rather walking on the pedestrian lane. Similarly if you are driving it’s your duty to give the first right to the pedestrian to cross the road.

We all know an old adage ‘it needs two to tango’ so for any action there has to be respondent, single handedly nothing can be done. Let’s take an example of a petty bribery which is apparently the most common form of corruption in India –there has to be a giver and then only there will be a taker. And we cannot shirk away by just putting all blame to one kind of people as we have already seen examples that no one is left from being party to corruption including educationist, corporate, sportsperson, army, judiciary, policemen, media, investigative agencies, civil society or a petty clerk they all have contributed to down rooted corruption in the country.

So, if we count the number of people supporting Anna Hazare for an anti-corruption cause, and consider that they all were really serious and committed then the graph of corruption should be substantially down with a sea change in the structure and functioning of a good number of departments. I guess a substantial percentage of people who were making a statement in the recent event at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi some how had the opportunity to eradicate corruption at their levels. But had they really stopped their direct or indirect involvement in any kind of irregularities. The kind of answer comes to your mind is the real concern. So we just not need to be upset with the corruption in words but also in action. The other concern is that just passing legislation is not enough the full implementation is the real key. We have laws against corruption but had we been able to stop it. No. We have Right to Information Act then why are we not able to save people who are risking their lives to expose the corrupt. So answer all this we just need to see inside us as how many times have we really lived for the society.

According to a survey report revealed by Transparency International in December, 2010, 50 percent of the Indian had admitted to paid petty bribe in the last 12 months to get their job done. And half of the people said that they paid the bribe to avoid problem with the authorities and a quarter of them said that they paid the bribe to speed up the process.

The other interesting fact which the report revealed was that the bribes to the police have almost doubled since 2006 and an increased number of people reported paying bribe to the judiciary and permit service divisions. Other shocking fact revealed in the report was that the lower income earner (touted as common man) paid more bribes than higher income earners. The report further added that the poorer people are twice likely to pay bribe for basic services such as utilities, medical services, and education than their wealthier counterparts.

Going by simple calculations of the presented statistics we will notice that almost every individual is directly or indirectly party to the pandemic of corruption and now only way forward looks is to start turning the fingers towards ourselves. The main reason for the launch of Voice4You is to call for a holistic introspection amongst the fellow citizen for a cleaner and corruption-free society.