Corruption & India completes its 64th year of Independence

Corruption won't cease as long as we keep paying Rs 50 to escape prosecution for jumping a signal. Our governments are a reflection of what we are.



If the roots are rotten how can one expect the fruits to be sweet?





As India completes its 64th year of Independence, a lot of the baggage it used to be identified with has stayed on.



Caste and pocket strength are still calling cards of social standing;



Having a 'jack' in a government office still gets things done smoother (with a few bundles of currency, it still gets more smoother);



The girl child is still considered a curse;



Witchcraft and black magic still dominate the hinterland;



Despite 'figure-backed' tall claims, the number of people in India who are below the poverty line is still over 300 million;



MiG-21s still keep dropping off the sky; Bofors is still a mystery;



Pakistan is still an 'arch-rival'; China is still a threat;



Doordarshan still lives in the pre-historic make-believe world of its own;



Hockey is still India's national game; the tiger the national animal (both of which are dwindling today);



Parliament sessions are still chai-samosa jamborees at tax payer expense;



Farmers still keep committing suicide; Sharad Pawar is still in power;



70 per cent of India's villages don't get a full-day's electricity;



Women still can't walk alone on the street after 10 pm in the nation's capital;



The definition of literacy in India is still based on the concept 'If you can write your name, you are literate';



Zebra crossings are still meant only for four-legged species; and



Cops still let you off for jumping a traffic signal for Rs 50.

The only people who really have improved are our beloved netas. Each one seems to be jostling to stake claim to have embezzled a bigger amount. And they are successfully doing so as well.



Travelling back home from work well past midnight, the cab driver and I got into an argument. Nah, not over the fare, but about what is not fair around us.



As his Padmini bounced over Mumbai's rain-ravaged roads, he asked me: 'WHY? Why can't the government maintain these roads; they do collect road tax from us na? Why can't the government control prices?'



After a few more whys, he came up with a solution. The entire country should come out on the streets and protest. I laughed out aloud. Seeing him perplexed, I told him that people are so busy figuring out their lives that they wouldn't have the time to make a united front.



Also, even if the government buckles to public pressure and agrees to do something about it, no matter who's in power, things are going to stay just the same eventually.



There would be more committees, more meetings, more reports... and then nothing.



The unnees-bees and chalta hai fundas run through the veins of India. Sundarlal Bahuguna tried, Medha Patkar tried, and more recently Anna Hazare and his Sena tried. All in vain. The lives of over a billion Indians continues like clockwork.