The “Enough of Corruption” SAAKU Rally

Dr. Balasubramnyam of sustainable economy, Arvind kejriwal an activist from Delhi and JP Narayan founder of the loksatta party, were on the dais at the hockey grounds, after the end of the protest march from the Vittal Mallya and Kasturba road junction. The gathering was impressive with all the media people including NDTV and others. The T shirts with Tec nova Badges were available with the volunteers. 

Dr. Balasubramnyam alluded to his first 420 Km walk from Mysore to Kanakpura and later in Bangalore. That time the Bangalore people were conspicuous by their absence. But he was happy to see the response today. The differences between the city culture and the ground realities in the village side are quite contrary. In Village side there is coercions by the authorities, where as in cities it is convenient to give the bribe and get things done. [ I am reminded of my own experience long back when my lawyer told me to give Rs 500/- before going to the registrar for the formalities of registration of a site. ] It is like greasing the engine for a smooth ride. The gram panchayats are 70% as compared to the 30% of cities. Hence empowering them to resist coercion is the key to fight corruption. District level Ombudsmen are required. Well developed, proved methods are available. It is less known fact that the food schemes scam is of the order of 30 million annually in food schemes alone. We need to be the change we want to. 

Arvind Kejrival from Delhi a Magasye award winner was the next speaker. He felt that the corrupt need to be sent to jail assiduously. Corruption is investigated by department heads which does not work many times. The stumbling block is that the gilty is jailed perhaps but the money swindled cannot be touched. Lokapal bill needs to be passed. The FIRs are not forth coming as one would like them to.

JP Narayan is a living example of honest people being in politics. He was asked by a girl during the rally, “what is going to happen with one more rally” like the one to day. It shows the anxiety of people for not getting any result from these inputs to day. JP made a point that initially like when we heat water, nothing happens till the boiling point is reached. The corrupt are going to jail when the bursting point is reached. It is inevitable. JP put the following points as a silver lining:- 

• Once upon a time we had to wait for a Land line for years but not any more
• Mobiles are a new dimension in the communication scenario
• Things are changing
• So are the scams like the [Mega] spectrum scams.
• After 2G the government telecom spectrum is on sale. More avenue for corruption?
• When enough is enough things have to explode when water starts boiling in a closed container.
• The changes we expect will be dramatic
• Society does change in leaps and bounds
• and will be dramatic
• The instrument for change is the challenge 

In Collusive corruption both the parties are to be punished but not so in coercive. The 2G spectrum being collusive both the parties need to be punished. JP touched upon the benefits of computerization as was evident when the Railway reservation was computerized. Land records are on priority for computerization. 

JPs Conclusions in summary:- 

• India is rotting from the top.
• Elections are fought with ill gotten wealth
• Politics has become an enterprise [invest 0.5 million make 5 billion
• In USA people like Blogowich did get punished
• YMAX of BSNL is coming before we recover from the present 2G scam 

The following was an interesting way of summing up by JP:- 

• In 1700 India was the richest country
• In 1991 it became the poorest
• In 2039 it is expected to be the largest economy in the world
• Corruption is the worst enemy to countered at this juncture