Since independence, the country and its states have seen and tested many governments and many parties, but all the governments and leaders knowingly or unknowingly, so far, seem to agree on one thing -that corruption will not only exist but will be allowed to prosper. So all political parties make empty promises to end or reduce it- by pledging to send the looters/scamsters to jail whilst canvassing but when they form the government – they do nothing, writes former IAS officer V.S. Pandey
The hurly burly of the general elections for the Lok Sabha of the largest democracy in the world is over. The world has rightly applauded our gigantic electoral feat. The winners of this electoral battle are triumphantly gloating and the losers have been left pondering .The powerful electorate is now again reduced to being the hapless vulnerable populace that is suffering déjà vu -whoever wins/loses – hardly makes any difference to their abysmal lives -which remains as Hobbes had asserted nasty and brutish and at the mercy of their venerable maibaaps who are esconced in power . The famous verse of Goswami Tulsidas written more than five hundred years ago still resonates “Koy Nrip Hoye Hamen Ka Hani, Cheri Chhod Na Hoibe Rani”( Whoever becomes king, whoever rules, what loss do we have? I am a maid, I will remain in the same condition in future also, I will not become a queen by change in the regime.) It is so brutally true even today. New leaders with new flags dyed in new ideological colors of new parties have come and strutted on the electoral stage and dramatically made new promises of honest governance but all have changed rapidly after getting the mandate. Nothing has changed for the millions who continue to wallow in poverty and remain dependent on doles to keep their body and soul together.
For transformative change to occur in the life of our teeming millions a critical paradigm has to change – the character of those in power. Since independence, the country and its states have seen and tested many governments and many parties, but all the governments and leaders knowingly or unknowingly, so far, seem to agree on one thing -that corruption will not only exist but will be allowed to prosper. So all political parties make empty promises to end or reduce it- by pledging to send the looters/scamsters to jail whilst canvassing but when they form the government – they do nothing. The result is confronting us all today- it is extremely rare to get justice in police stations, tehsils, government offices without bribes or sifarish. Despite this, it is business as usual currently for all the leaders and parties with no attempt made to even attempt to attack leave alone eliminate this evil monster of corruption.
The fact that there has never been any salience given nor serious discourse undertaken on the unethical conduct of leaders and politics is surely a pointer of some huge crisis in the making. The truth is that the horrifying and ugly consequences of the actions/inactions of a system which has been consistently been deaf/mute/blind to the dishonesty, lies and fraud prevalent in public life for years is confronting us now. The country seems to be divided into two parts- the well off comprising about twenty crore people whose needs are being fulfilled – enjoying all civic amenities like uninterrupted electricity, clean water supply and well-equipped houses with well-organized sanitation . Their children go to expensive public schools and enjoy access to medical facilities. They are ensured decent jobs being well educated and when required can fight for justice – they are empowered citizens of a shining India.
But what about the impoverished majority? There are more than a hundred crore people who hardly have anything- who are toiling ceaselessly for their daily roti/kapda and can’t even imagine ever having a makaan . Basic necessities like education and health or rudimentary amenities like drinking water and sanitation are totally absent in their lives. This is not because we lack the resources -it is so because the rulers have not bothered to attend seriously to these people and their welfare – they have only provided lip service and now are giving doles to this hapless lot. Just one statistic is enough to show the level of poverty in our country – our country still stands at number 129 in the list of countries across the world in terms of per capita annual income, i.e. in the midst of the list of poor countries. It seems that the people sitting in power do not want to face this truth. As a result of decades of lopsided economic policies catering to the interests of the rich only, the gap between the rich and the poor today in our country has increased so much that India has become one of the most iniquitous nations in the world. Still the governments of the country are ostrich like burying their heads and not showing any inclination to make any change in their economic policies. To correct the increasing economic inequality in the country, it is imperative that immediate steps are taken on a war footing to improve the economic condition of the poor. Such economic policies should be expeditiously implemented which can remove all manifestations of poverty afflicting the lives of the common people in a time bound manner.
To attain this, it will be necessary that a similar level of education should be ensured for all and for this a national program should be started under which schools equipped with requisite facilities providing highest quality education from class one to class twelve should be established for a cluster of seven to eight villages so that the “poverty of education” prevalent among the common people in the country can be eliminated. Similarly, to provide free and high quality medical facilities to all, all district hospitals should be fully equipped in the next three years. The number of seats for medical education in the country should be increased from the present one lakh to seven lakh in the next five years so that the shortage of doctors that has been prevailing for years can be overcome. A nationwide ten-year plan to rebuild all villages should be implemented under which all civic amenities should be made available to all the people in all the villages. These three steps are necessary for the reconstruction of the nation and through these the gap between the rich and the poor can begin to be bridged. But the highest priority should be given to ending corruption because without solving this problem nothing will be possible. This is easiest to achieve because to do this only honest intent is required- all necessary steps should be taken to end the octopus like grip of black money on the political landscape of our country.
It is clear that our nation has no shortage of resources. What is needed is that the resources should be honestly used for the welfare of the common people .India will definitely prosper more when we ensure that we have narrowed the wide yawning chasm between the rich and the poor and ensured that our poorer brethren also enjoy fundamental equalities and liberties. This task is not at all difficult. What is needed is only people-oriented political will. Our governance must be transformative now.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary Government of India)
