The word corruption has taken up a lot of media space of late, and everybody has little else to speak of. It is as if the government and Anna Hazare, and, if the television visuals are to be believed, more than half the country are locked in a severe battle. The government has stopped doing what it is entrusted with — that is, govern, and is holding meeting after meeting to tackle the ‘known citizen'. While millions rally around Anna, I am at a loss to decide which side I am on, or, whether there is a side at all? I feel kind of isolated and out of fashion, and worse, unpatriotic, for not joining the majority. (As somebody said, if the principle of majority is to be upheld then our national bird should be the common crow and not the rare peacock, and our national animal ought to be the rat, which is aplenty and not the vanishing tiger).
Is the mass media colonising public conscience like the Roman crowds in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar? So I decided not to join the majority, but take time and reflect for a while on the issue. I believe that corruption spreads out into a tree and fills the sky, but has its roots deep in the soil of its origin. Even the little short-cuts we use at home to get things done are fertilizers for the malaise. I have “blackmailed” my child and coerced her into eating food: if you eat this, I shall tell you the story of the evil stepmother. The story of the evil stepmother itself is a kind of brainwashing. I ‘kidnapped' her conscience every time I instructed her to say I am not home, when I anticipated an unwelcome phone call. I have bribed her, promising to buy her something she craved for if she scored better grades. In doing all this, I was actually embossing corruption on her little, white mind. I guess I am not the only parent who has committed such ‘crimes.'
India has become one of the most corrupt countries, and although every Indian is aware of it, and although there are laws to prevent it, nothing ever happens. Can a bill cure this deep-rooted malaise? There are laws against the acceptance of dowry, but does that prevent people from demanding and offering dowry? This in no way implies that all bills are ineffective. It is said that that government is the best that governs the least. If so, why submit ourselves to more governance? Then wherein lies the solution?
I am reminded of a little folktale: a poor man went to the court to recite to the king a poem he had composed. At the gate, he was accosted by the guards and denied permission to enter the court. He was permitted entry only on condition that he give them 50 per cent of whatever he received from the king, which he gladly promised. On the way he was apprehended by the chief of guards and the minister who demanded 25 per cent cut.
The poor man finally found himself in the presence of the king. He recited the poem, and the king was delighted. He ordered that the man be given 100 gold coins. But the poet refused the reward of the gold coins and asked the king to give him 100 lashes instead. The king was astounded, and insisted on the reason for such a strange reward. The man then told him about the promises he had made to the guards, the chief of guards and the minister.
The king was shocked to know that people who were directly in his service are so corrupt. He punished them and rewarded the poor poet. This is a little story from our huge reservoir of folktales, and there are numerous variations, and the wisdom is there for all to
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