The recent polls in Bellary (Karnataka) elected an independent candidate Sriramulu with thumping majority but he did not take oath as member of the house Monday as he wants to first meet Janardhana Reddy in the Hyderabad jail. People elect these kind of candidates with decisive majority. I think this is the second highest majority in the Karanataka election history. So, I suggest all of you to sit back and see the bigger picture of the corruption.
When a traffic policeman is accused of corruption it is because of the people who are not willing to pay the fine. If the citizen is not corrupt then the policeman has no means of being corrupt. When you decide to take the easy way out in a government office and not go through the different windows you will end up paying bribe to the officials and encourage corruption among them. It is very much the “common man’s” fault too and the “common man” is too proud to admit his mistake. A little introspection is needed before accusing others of corruption. Apart from monetary corruption the society is filled with moral and social corruption and all is done by the “common man”. He is not as innocent as his image is projected in any such discussion where inevitably he is the victim despite the rights and privileges given to him by constitution and by law.
The blatant laziness and complete apathy towards India as a nation has resulted in today’s condition of unawareness and corruption where leaders are non existent and anybody can influence a group of people who do not possess any kind of moral stand that could be equated to the kind of sentiments they display when abusing the system for its failure. They conveniently forget that they too are part of the same system and not some alien observers who are invited to give a critique of our administrative system. Even when foreign scholars give honest reports (Appleby) they are rejected and he is asked to conduct his research again just because they did not like the truth. When there is zero involvement of the “common man” in the administration then he slowly loses his moral right to question the system towards which he has not been dutiful but only apathetic.
A little introspection will give anybody a clear perspective. A person who is self motivated remains most productive for a longer time. There is a huge deficit of such people today. Even if a great leader comes along, there are no quality followers to lead a great revolution. I know many will disagree with this statement citing the most recent lokpal agitation under different leaders. But fact remains, 90% of those who protested have no idea of why EXACTLY the agitation is still going on. There were a few who actually tried to explain the other side(government’s side) but only to deaf ears since they had already made up their minds that the govt can never be right. Thats the reason I say again that awareness is the only way to form OUR opinion and not just follow someone else’s opinion blindly.
Common Man is not weak. The constitution derives its power from the common man. He is rendered weak due to the apathetic nature of everyone. As long as we dont care about anything else other than ourselves this state of affairs will continue. No political leader or civil servant will be able to do any substantial difference if the common man is not willing to fight back. Life is often said to be a ever going battle, so we cannot stop in between and expect to enjoy. At the end we will lose the war and die but we can win the battles if we are motivated to strike back. Attitude is the key here. Once you cultivate an attitude where you will desire meaningful goals out of life you can change the whole outlook of your life and common man will not be just another name for the weak but it will be the name of a force that can bring about sweeping changes in the society. As captian planet says, “The power is YOURS”
