Easy Topic - Politics and Corruption

I am yet to meet someone who doesn't have a very strong opinion about "Politics and Corruption". That we absolutely must root out deep-seated corruption in our politics and in the government is something everybody agrees upon. Outpouring of self-righteous anger and integrity-bound-high-seat are common sights in such discussions.

While Anna (Hazare) doesn't need a lecture from me (especially me) on this topic - I submit that the popular treatment of the topic is superficial and misleading. To imply that our politicians and the government are the epitome of corruption and rooting it out must begin there - is to look at the tip of iceberg and steering our social Titanic right over it. Why?

Our politicians are not born and brought up outside the system - despite all the implications of Baba Ramdev's famed assertions about their wives and daughters. Every politician (corrupt or otherwise) had had a childhood, had (and still has) friends and grew up pretty much like others, within limits of statistical and wealth variations in our society. While they were growing up, their value systems were influenced by their parents, friends, teachers and the environment around them - just as it did all of us.

This is true for all those others (especially in the government) whom we accuse of unadulterated greed, opportunism and moral turpitude. So I ask myself: How is it that within the same system, we are able to produce innumerable number of morally upright, high-integrity people (counting all those - including me - who freely lecture on the ills of our system with copious prescriptions to anyone who will listen) and yet fail so spectacularly in checking corruption?

To explain this, I propose that the problem is not as localized as our newspapers and demagogues have us believe. It is deep-rooted, widespread and insidious; its tentacles are embedded in nearly all of us.

Just that some of us are more blatant than others. Most of us readily justify our minor transgressions with "Look, I can't change the system alone, can I? I had no choice!" or "I wasn't greedy... I wouldn't do it if it were not for my son's future!". Something like that.

Haven't any of us come across these:

• A driver pilfering petrol or fudging travel logs and diesel bills?
• A junior or a colleague submitting inflated travel expense statements?
• Someone whose medical bills and LTA bills are not entirely above-board?
• Bought a place in a queue or a berth in a train from a porter / TTC?

I need not say more. It is never "us". While we stand in our self-righteous glory, someone next to us is doing all that. On the rarest of the rare occasion that we are forced to do it, we never do it out of greed or other base motives. We are compelled, had no choice, and so on.. (insert your glib rationalization here). 

Don't get me wrong. We must root out corruption. No doubt about it. 

However, let us not deceive ourselves that it can be done by addressing the tip of the iceberg alone. In order to treat the whole iceberg, we must begin by coaching our children - at home, at the schools, in the play grounds, everywhere. Teachers need to take our "Moral Science" subject seriously in schools. Anna Hazares (and Sas3s too) of the world need to carry their voice into all walks of life - in the form of education and social awakening programs. 

Oh and I couldn't resist this one; pardon me for falling for sensationalism. Unless Nandan was misquoted, he is losing his touch... Here is a multi-part quote from his interview to Raj Chengappa, reported on the July 3rd. My interspersed comments are in italics. 

"Personally I feel that in the whole debate about corruption, passing a law will not stop anything." 

Yup.. I fully agree. 

"I believe if you systematically re-engineer the public-services - if food is distributed to all concerned on time, if money is delivered to bank accounts and you can keep track of it - then you will be able to clean up the system and the whole thing can be sorted out." .... now IMHO, this is misplaced optimism. Having tried a few eGov projects for reform, my experience has been that our people are unbelievably ingenious. Most service seekers, including the poor (surprised?) want corruption because it gives them the unfair advantage that they so badly want (and sometimes"need"). Service givers (read: Government) are only happy to oblige, by rapidly innovating around any re-engineered processes and IT systems. 

Back to my pet theory. While Aadhar-enabled services are necessary, they are not going to solve this particular problem as described by Nandan. They will surely get some benefits to targeted beneficiaries and plug some really big retail leaks. However, they will not have any impact on grossly wrong targeting systems, politically motivated largesses window-dressed as benefits programs, wholesale loopholes and such. 

I think that for a deeper, wider, longer-lasting impact, we need to take our social awakening ("activism" alone is an insufficient concept) programs into all walks of life ... especially the lives of our children. Better still, ask them to lead us on this crusade, before they learn too much of "let us be realistic" rationalizations from us.

Surely, there is more to this problem and the solution(s). Deeply linked, are concepts of population-growth, resource-starvation, food-insecurity and even deeper - sentience itself!! I hope to be able to write more on this in my later blogs.