By Col Sudhir Rana (Retd)
Recently, I saw two old movies “Indian” and “Indian 2” on TV. These movies are an imaginary tale of a vigilante who is trying to eradicate corruption, by killing the corrupt people. Both movies are masala movies but the narrative of these movies, jolted me.
First one was that some idealistic students, on advice of the vigilante, report against their own corrupt parents, to the enforcement authorities. But when the parents suffer the consequences of their misdeeds, the very same youngsters go against the crusader himself. This suggests that we are comfortable only if somebody else suffers for corruption, but we cannot accept the punishment if it visits our own home.
The second thing which struck me was the inertness of youth in the film, who want to live in a corruption free society, but don’t want to work for it. They want somebody else should come from outer space to solve their problems, but they will not lift their own finger. It is OK for them to take a shortcut to success but they pontificate others. I have seen students in a private medical college complaining about reservations, forgetting that most of them were in a medical college because their parents could pay fat fees. So, the motto is “let me have the butter and others can suffer”. Both these messages left me disturbed and disillusioned.
Nowadays, an agitation is on in Delhi. In the present scenario, young people are genuinely frustrated and have resorted to a protest against improper conduction of NEET examination. The aim of the agitation was justified, but these students were manipulated by vested and equally corrupt and inefficient manipulators. Nobody checked the antecedents of imported cockroaches or termites. Suddenly some unknown entities without any record of public service, started descending from USA and started an artificially generated agitation. Initially, the protest was against NEET exam and the demand was to remove the minister responsible. But soon the agitation was hijacked by failed political vultures and several dubious groups like political farmers, leftists, publicity seeking filmy folks, Islamic activists, discredited Kashmiri politicians, who made a mess of a well-meaning agitation. They kept hovering in that zone to pick up their share of dead meat. One also saw some failed political forces trying to revive their lost fortunes in the garb of supporting the agitation. Nobody seemed to be interested in the solution of problems of the youth. Besides that, it is beyond my comprehension how change of a minister will bring transparency and fairness in competitive examinations. No matter which system you apply for evaluation, if we are corrupt, then the system can be hijacked. If we are honest ourselves then any system will work. Are we sure if this regime is changed then it will be replaced by an honest and patriotic dispensation? The faces of the possible replacement don’t generate that confidence to me.
None of these supporters, suggested a viable solution, educational reforms and methods of checks and balances. Their intent was only to discredit the ruling party and score political points. Instead of reforms they were more keen on changing the minister and embarrassing the present establishment. When the whole system and machinery is rendered useless by inefficiency and corruption, how can only change of a minister or secretary improve the situation?
Today, whenever we are struck we call out the armed forces to clear the mess created by us. We need the Indian Air Force to transport exam papers. We need army to provide disaster management, we need army for medical evacuation, bridge and road construction. Soon we will be calling them for policing and teaching in schools and treating public. This will expose our apolitical army to what is wrong with our society. This will put the only remaining decently working institution in great stress. Ours is a story of collapse of institutions and destruction of the nation from within.
Instead of asking for change of the minister only, we should start demanding work towards cleansing our society and getting rid of the maggots. This is an open secret that external powers are fishing in troubled waters, but it is also true that we are also a part of the problem.
Some of the suggestions are given below. By no means are they exhaustive. They can be improved upon and new ideas can be added:
- Emphasis on culture, ethics and moral teachings in household and primary schools.
- Involvement of decent and honest senior citizens in junior schools education on voluntary basis.
- Strengthening and sensitisation of law enforcement machinery. Their training should be aimed towards service of people and not to become masters and exploiters of people
- Ensure justice delivery at reasonable cost in shortest time frame. The judiciary should also be held responsible for its tardy behaviour and incompetence. They should also be accountable to public.
- In our case, society has failed to protect honest and law abiding citizens from exploitation. It protects the powerful and rich elite and punishes poor. Society should denounce corrupt, dishonest and criminals without reservation as well as protect and reward it’s innocent and honest citizens.
- Our institutions should be strengthened and zealously protected by our executive and judicial wings. Effective checks and balances should be in place to prevent their collapse.
- Let us elect capable and honest people in public office, irrespective of their caste, creed, region or linguistic background. Then only we can have laws made for welfare of us all.
Let us all work towards it whole heartedly. Jai Hind.
