Battle corruption with the audacity of hope

Sixty-three years have passed since India won her freedom after a struggle of 150 years. How much longer will it take before the country becomes free from corruption?

There's a deep, systemic corruption that affects the common man in his dealings with virtually every department of the government. And there's mind-boggling corruption involving a well-entrenched nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, corporates and builders. That's where favourable policies get framed and manipulated, tenders awarded selectively and land reservations lifted or modified with an ulterior motive. This is the arena of the big politicians, where enormous amounts of kickbacks are generated that help fuel ambitions, fortify electoral war chests, and help them stay in power one way or the other repeatedly.

Trapped in such an environment decade after decade, it's natural for the common man to feel frustrated. It is years of such pent-up frustration that threw up an Anna Hazare, who roused hope that at last something will change. Then followed attempts to pick holes into what he's trying, debate and discuss his "arm-twisting methods" and ask whether he's disrespecting parliamentary rights and procedures.

Hazare did not break the rules but created new ones. Weeks after Hazare broke his fast, there's been fatigue and doubt over the initial, euphoric victory. Will the hard-won gains in getting civil society to participate in the revised drafting of a Jan Lokpal Bill really fructify? Or will the effort get entangled in red tape?

Pessimism comes naturally, especially in matters as insidious as corruption, and yet, there's reason supported by cold logic to be hopeful. Most certainly, civil society can win this war against corruption. Think of what we have today which our freedom fighters didn't possess when they stood up against the British raj. The people then were extremely poor, the middle class was struggling to eke out a decent living, and there was no live television. There was tremendous unity, will and hope. But there was no computerisation, internet and Facebook and the people were not well-educated.

Modern systems make it easier to track the trail of financial dealings within and outside the country. If one probes into the affairs of a suspect company, it's not difficult to get the records one way or the other; identify the real and dummy shareholders, question the undue favours from the government and basically, connect the dots to unravel the fraud.

The Right to Information Act, 2005, which is a relatively recent legislation, was born out of civil society initiatives and is a potent weapon in the hands of the anti-corruption crusaders.

In this age of terrorism, India and the global community has realised the need for transparency when it comes to hawala transactions and the stashing of black money in Swiss banks. There will be increasing pressure to fix this. These are the many reasons why civil society must be alert, aware and vigilant; optimistic and not pessimistic in this war against corruption.