Corruption without doubt is the greatest threat to our moral and social fabric in India. No other threat is as grave and as real as corruption. Corruption occurs on a daily basis and is so much a part and parcel of our lives that we consider it 'Normal'. Now that is a scary thought.
There has been some awareness and some political movement recently against corruption (like Anna Hazare's protest and Baba Ramdev's fast) though all this helped in highlighting corruption in the media and our dinner table conversations but it is very disheartening to see the members of the civil society and the government fighting and squabbling like kids.
The larger question is:
Is this the right way to go about address this pivotal issue without really including every democratic constituent into the whole process. No single committee of the civil society or a political party can preside over the process of finalizing the draft of the Lokpal bill. We will need every constituent representation and ideas to be involved in the process.
I think we have the political, judiciary and the executive representation but how do you really get in the common man especially the Indian middle class represented. And, I say that the participation of the Indian middle class is necessary because there is no one real representation for this important section of the population. We will need a platform so that people can voice their anti corruption ideas and suggestions. With regards to this one story caught my attention, in Iceland the government is using social networking to ensure participation by its citizens in drafting a new Constitution (more than 2/3rd of Icelanders are in Facebook). But, skeptics may say that this will not work because of the low level of computer and Internet penetration in India. I totally agree with that but the point is, not that one solution fits all, the point is explore and add in new ways of including people's participation along with other democratic means to important pieces of legislation like anti-corruption bill draft and make sure the best ideas and the most practical are not lost in the jungle of politics.What do you think?
There has been some awareness and some political movement recently against corruption (like Anna Hazare's protest and Baba Ramdev's fast) though all this helped in highlighting corruption in the media and our dinner table conversations but it is very disheartening to see the members of the civil society and the government fighting and squabbling like kids.
The larger question is:
Is this the right way to go about address this pivotal issue without really including every democratic constituent into the whole process. No single committee of the civil society or a political party can preside over the process of finalizing the draft of the Lokpal bill. We will need every constituent representation and ideas to be involved in the process.
I think we have the political, judiciary and the executive representation but how do you really get in the common man especially the Indian middle class represented. And, I say that the participation of the Indian middle class is necessary because there is no one real representation for this important section of the population. We will need a platform so that people can voice their anti corruption ideas and suggestions. With regards to this one story caught my attention, in Iceland the government is using social networking to ensure participation by its citizens in drafting a new Constitution (more than 2/3rd of Icelanders are in Facebook). But, skeptics may say that this will not work because of the low level of computer and Internet penetration in India. I totally agree with that but the point is, not that one solution fits all, the point is explore and add in new ways of including people's participation along with other democratic means to important pieces of legislation like anti-corruption bill draft and make sure the best ideas and the most practical are not lost in the jungle of politics.What do you think?
