(Anna) Hazare Khwahisein aisi

It is finally happening in India! But sadly enough in this country of young men and women, it has taken a frail old man aged above 70, to wage a battle against a nemesis that has afflicted every Indian at some point of their life. Corruption - yes, the

asking for your money to perform his duty has grown into a monster that has engulfed the collective psyche of the entire Indian population. Today there is not a single aspect of our life that has not been touched by the dirty waters of corruption and yet it has taken a 73-year old man to speak up against the scourge.

The national media is covering the Hazare revolt (I prefer to call it this way) widely, although I still suspect the ingenuity of their purpose. Do they really care or are they just harping on the sentiments to make money? Pardon my scepticism but the rampant corruption around me has forced my thought process to become unbelieving. If the former is true then they certainly deserve the applauds and if the latter then the movement is doomed.

In this country of ours, more than half the population is below the prime of youth, i.e aged 25 and how many of us have been untouched by corruption, nepotism, bribery and so on? I bet every single person has contributed to this growth in one way or the other but still we all crib about the magnitude to which corruption has spread. Starting from a child's admission to a five-star, fully-facilitated school, going through the entrance to study in various courses in different colleges, to right up to securing a job, we have all been there and done that. Corruption is nothing but our insistence on getting things done in a relatively easy way.

Engineering and management courses are a rage these days with every other parent wanting his child to go through them and rake in the moolahs. They appear for the exams, good ones go through and the rest either donate insane amounts to colleges and get admitted - the first stage of corruption. Since they are intellectually challenged, it is more often than not they dole out amounts to get the results and if not then they go through campus placements, give colleges the money and what we get are incompetent fools raking moolah because their parents did a good investment by getting them admitted in those colleges. Has anyone given an attention to this? No, however insignificant it may be it still is a form of corruption and can be oustered if we have the guts to go through the system and get what we deserve.

The problem is that all of us know the problem and thus seek to get tasks done without stepping into the quagmire. We do not want stay in a queue, what we do is bribe a lesser mortal and get things done while others standing much ahead of us still wait for an eternity.

Our leaders are borne out of our indifference and if they are neck-deep in corruption then it is a result of our complacency. How weird that the current generation of Indians has access to everything but still is befooled when it comes to his hard-earned money.

Hopefully, Anna Hazare succeeds in what he wants for the nations but from then on we have to ensure that India never slips back to anarchy and that we all live in a country that has no place for corruption. If your political affiliation discourages you to join Hazare's movement then please bear in mind that corruption knows no ideology and the movement he is leading is not against any party it is against the system, against the hypocrisy and is meant to ensure that our ethics remain intact.

OneIndia