UPDATE to my post 'How Corrupt are you?'

Friends, on a day when the whole of India was glued to the TV watching the World Cup Cricket Final and the subsequent hullaballoo over the winners, one man was quietly sitting in the Delhi sun at the Jantar Mantar, undertaking a fast unto death to demand for the Lok Pal Bill.


It is ironic that I was at the same time writing a blog post on corruption, little realising how deep and how virulent the cancer of corruption has become in India today.


This evening, the TV networks are highlighting Anna Hazare's fast and the fact that support for him is spreading like a pandemic across all sections of society, especially the middle and poorer classes. I joined the group Avaaz to express solidarity with this humble and remarkable soul  and I fervently urge you to do so too, if not already done. The moment has come to say it in one voice " NO to CORRUPTION".


I am reposting the original mail for your reference and action.


Dear friends across India,

Right now, Anna Hazare, a 73-year-old Gandhian, sits in the burning sun fasting, and he will stay until death -- unless the government agrees to consider a powerful law that could rid Indian politics of the scourge of corruption.

This “Modern Mahatma” is taking the utmost act of courage and determination to push through a bill that would give an independent body the power to punish corruption -- even in the Prime Minister’s office. Across the country a movement has exploded, and a media storm of pressure has been sparked that’s engulfing Singh. But dirty politicians are desperately trying to water down or kill the law.

For the first time in forty three years, we have the chance to change the way politics is done. Let's join together and stand with Anna Hazare to tackle corruption and clean up Indian politics. We have no time to lose -- sign the petition to Prime Minister Singh and send this on to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_anna_hazare/97.php?cl_tta_sign=357988a96fdee182ef20744d055dba3f

Hazare is championing a citizen-developed bill called “Jan” Lokpal that will create an independent body, selected by judges, citizens and constitutional authorities, with enough power to investigate and punish all politicians. No minister or bureaucrat will be able to influence its investigations.

Since 1968, when this bill was first introduced, greedy politicians have thwarted its passing. Now the government is pushing for a watered down Lokpal with no hope of ending fraud, vice and dishonesty -- it gives politicians overriding power to decide who will be investigated, and is a complete eyewash.

Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Singh to endorse the "Jan" Lokpal. Members of the opposition party have begun to make the right noises in support of Anna Hazare. And even the National Advisory Council, a powerful advisory body to Sonia Gandhi have come out in favour of the bill. But corrupt politicians and vested interests are doing all they can to kill it.

Anna Hazare has set the example. But only a national citizens movement can ramp up the pressure to get Singh to endorse “Jan” Lokpal and save Hazare's life. Sign the petition and forward it to everyone now:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_anna_hazare/97.php?cl_tta_sign=357988a96fdee182ef20744d055dba3f

Corruption in politics has become a plague across our country, it is draining our resources and demoralizing our nation. This bill would go a long way to deterring those that steal and undermine the public good. Last year, the Avaaz community in Brazil won an important victory -- against the odds millions of people came together and pushed through a historic anti-corruption law. India has a proud history of people power overcoming oppression -- today if we all stand with one voice we can fight this corruption that is poisoning our political system.

With hope,

Saloni, Shibayan, Ricken, Ben and the whole Avaaz team.

Traffic Rules in India. Follow or ignore Them?

There is a saying among Hyderabadis that if anyone learned to drive in the city, they could drive anywhere in the world.In my childhood, I was surrounded by bicycles ( we had the second largest cycle population next to Denmark) and rickshaws, interrupted by an occasional tonga. In those days, even if we walked on the road, we came to no harm. Fast forward to the nineties, when the pedal driven vehicles gave way to Japanese two wheelers and Bajaj's three wheel autos.Bollywood and Tollywood heroes ruled the roost. A new release simply packed up the theatre parking yard so much that there was no space for bicycles! Suddenly everyone was riding one. Then came the small car revolution and formerly wide roads seemed like tiny lanes.
Driving a car or two wheeler today is a gamble with your life. You never know when you will meet with an accident and get injured, or possibly cause loss of life, even lose yours.The local TV channels and the print media are eager to publish gory pictures of accident victims or smashed vehicles.The road transport authorities merrily register new vehicles without checking the condition of the roads that cannot take the load.
Getting a driving licence is supposed to be a two step process with a computer test and a live one on a test track. You should also be able to reel out answers to random questions about the rules and relevant laws.
Once you get the licence, what happens then?
Every traffic is broken with impunity and utter disregard for the rule of law in Hyderabad. Sometimes the offences take place right under the noses of the watchful policemen. Stopping for signals before the stop line, following the centre line, not crossing the yellow double lines, using indicators before turning, keeping to your lane, triple riding on a bike, 12 people in an auto meant for six, driving on the wrong side, crossing the median to go across to the other side, using cell phone while driving, parking at no parking areas, wrong parking.... Almost every rule is broken.    

The most infamous one is the menace of drug induced/drunken driving. Hyderabad has never known prohibition ( except for a rather brief 18 month period) and drinking is the norm rather than the exception.A major factor in a number of accidents is drunken driving.

What can be done? The Hyderabad police have done a lot to book the culprits and force them to attend remedial driving lessons. The roads are policed by watchful CCTV cameras and traffic policemen who catch a snap of the offenders and send a challan home.  But a vast majority go about without care. The road rage we hear about in Delhi is slowly creeping up in Hyderabad, where words turn into blows in quick time.

There is a proposal  to revise the fines sharply to deter the rule breakers. Unless there is a system where an offender gets his vehicle impounded for a week and has to pay a hefty fine to get it released, where he cannot wiggle out by naming some big wig ( the names of some MIM MLAs and the lone MP are freely bandied about by those who have been caught). If a bigger fine is automatically levied for this, maybe we will have a semblance of order in traffic.

Till then all we can do is pray that we return home safe and in one piece.

       

How Corrupt are You?

In the 2011 elections to the state assemblies, a survey found that corruption occupied top place among Tamil Nadu voters.No wonder, corruption in high places and mostly innocent seeming higher ups raises a stink. The politicians and bureaucrats in question look appropriately sombre, as if they were caught red handed with their hands in the cookie jar. Later after a while, their faces change as they prepare an appropriate response on the lines of 'it was done earlier by the opposition party', ' nothing wrong in doing it' or a very brazen ' I don't know, it was my juniors who did it'.

Anyone who knows about the system knows how the scam happens. Someone finds an opportunity to make a fast buck( rupee?), runs to the political top guy with his idea and gets the nod. The wily politician sends the appropriate message( mostly oral) to the pen pushers 'to consider the matter' and lo and behold, they revert saying no problem or with too few conditions  that are not a bother. Let us imagine how the hands are greased with the wheels of convenience. Ministers may go abroad on a fact finding trip, get their share duly deposited in the offshore account of their choice and they return quietly.

How about an RTI with the Home Ministry asking for details of ministerial jaunts and their intermediate destinations? Remember they also know that someone is always watching! Maybe a trip to the annual Davos jamboree is enough.

Coming to ourselves, Just how corrupt are we? The following figures are true, I heard them bandied about by friends, relatives, others and sound credible enough:
1. To get a driving licence. How much we  pay as bribe to the RTA? 100? 200? or more?
2. To get a ration card, how much? 500? 1000? 2000?
3. To get a plot/flat/house registered? 5,000? 50,000? or more?
4. To get your tax refund? 1000? 5,000? or more?
5. To get your passport? 5,000? 10,000?
6. To get the police/municipal/tax off your back?

We seem to be doing it willingly so that we 'save'  the inconvenience of making umpteen trips to get it done. You would rather get a middleman ( broker/dalal/whatever) who will do it for a hefty price. Because he honestly/dishonestly says to you, I have to pay all the way to the higher ups.

Do you have an alternative to not paying a bribe and still getting it done? Yes. If you seem to have connections with the ruling party and can name a few top ones to get it done.

What if a bribe giver knew that he would be jailed/fined/ banned for giving bribe? What if the bribe takers realised that getting caught would mean automatic dismissal from the job and confiscation of all his assets?
What if politicians knew that even a mere allegation of mala fides would force them to step down and submit to an inquiry to clear their name?

India is not the most corrupt country in the world. We are helping it go up the ladder of corruption, what with the uncovering of bigger and more massive scams in almost every sphere of activity.

Could you ever imagine that the specialist doctor who is about to operate on you may have acquired his credentials fraudulently like the pilots?
Or imagine that the bright hot shot on the rising plane is doing things that are unlawful/illicit/or not legal?

For some time now, we are getting our newspapers with a huge colour advertisement on the front page, turn the page and the real front page is ensconced cosily. Don't the newspapers ever think that they are cheating their readers with a 'prime opportunity for ad' ?

You see evidence of corruption everywhere. When it is a Government holiday, the normally busy gaggle of 'writers','touts', 'hangers on' and 'chamchas' are totally absent. with 50% of the vehicles off the road, the traffic is smooth and congestion free. On a working day, the entrance is always crowded with helpful people offering their services to do your work.

As for myself, I am not blameless on this issue. Though I try to wiggle out of a potential bribe giving situation. I got my tax refund painlessly and quickly, thanks to a colleague who was a schoolmate with the IT official handling my case. A Sub- Registrar meekly withdrew his demand for 'handling charges' on learning that I was a journalist and working on a popular Watch out column.

But even I cannot stop the rampant cheating that happens at the petrol pump. You give the guy a 1000 and ask him to pour the fuel. The needle stops at 998.20and jumps to 1000. If you wanted a litre of petrol for  your two wheeler, if the price said 67.15, you have to forgo the change and take 32. Even the ever humble autorickshaw walla  has no change to give you when you give a 20 to pay for a 17.50/18.10 fare. It happens.

How corrupt are you? Maybe the question is merely a way to jolt a jaded and sleeping conscience.      

                     

Hi World! Namaskar and an Indian's viewpoint

It is 2011 and just a year and nine months to go if we believe the 2012 doomsayers. Better late than never, say I and push my viewpoints to the world.

What qualifies me as a Cynic and an Indian Cynic at that, is the general disenchantment and frustration I feel every moment of my life living in Hyderabad, pompously called the IT hub, and grandly misnamed as the city of pearls. It should instead be called the city of the disappearing lakes. Many neighbourhoods are called baghs (gardens) and it is well on its way to become a Modern Sahara desert. Yet I am proud to call it home, so much so that I never felt tempted to abandon it for any other place.   

According to the latest census,  Indian is now officially 1.2 billion strong. There is a marginal drop in the rate of population growth and girl babies lost at the first trimester.I do feel very proud to be a fan of a mercurial cricket team that is a step away from repeating its triumph of 1983. but more important to me is the rather cavalier way our major parties are playing the pass the buck when it comes to corruption. The figures bandied about are mind boggling. Lakhs of crores of rupees lost in the labyrinth of foreign banks that rightfully belongs to us Indians. People who become rich by questionable means are lionised in the media, specially on Television, so much so that the aam aadmi feels they must be right.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar envisaged a system of checks and balances under the Constitution so that wrongdoing can be checked. But when lawmakers and lawbreakers collude and the government looks the other way, nothing can be set right. Corrption is now institutionalised and fiercely protected. Whistleblowers are killed or intimidated. The chalta hai attitude is creeping up to the very top. Thanks to the Supreme Court, we still have a chance.

The Indian Penal Code needs a drastic reform and the penalties be made harsher and justice must be quicker.Only when justice is quickly delivered will the message percolate that crime does not pay.