PUBLIC AMNESIA OR INDIFFERENCE

Arise, Awake, Stop not till you Reach the Goal (Swami Vivekananda)

Each day we switch on that television or grab the morning newspaper we wake up to a new scam. The headlines scream out that an untidy cupboard of scams has been unraveled or an emphatic bill has been passed in great haste to deflect from the core issues throwing the aam aadmi into a corner.
The impressive layouts of the newspaper thus run us through the scams, price rise, crimes, new policies, a little bit of opinions, monopolistic decisions, soaring markets but unaffected by all that hue and cry we inevitably get struck in the most unproductive element called cricket.

The youth is totally consumed by this rage unaware of the more crucial things happening around them. I am awed at the fact that crores of rupees are spent on cricket, its players and its promotion by the Government and some private players. I understand sports need to be promoted and encouraged but why only cricket and why so extensively? Is this a strategy to disengage and deviate the youth interest and attention away from the core political issues haunting the nation.

If the big wigs and the consistent inept Governments had prioritized, promoted, glamourized and provided quality education so much like cricket, we as a nation would be far more developed today. The majority of the youth is busy facebooking, SMSing or hero-worshiping some Bollywood/cricket star who don’t contribute to the society in any constructive way. They would comb every little information about their favorite stars but how many of them know what it takes to secure a ration card, do they at least know who is heading their constituencies and how qualified and credible their leaders are.

It is only when the youth of the country is empowered and encouraged to actively participate in community decision making, bringing about structural reforms with innovation, idealistic goals with a little hand holding by veterans with integrity will this country make progress. In fact every political party should have a 15% youth quota in their list of candidates.

The youth is lacking direction, focus and vision. The very patriotic feeling for which our ancestors gave their lives itself is missing. We cannot blame them either as they might have witnessed the demand and supply of corruption at an early age by way of their parents getting a DL done or getting a house plan sanctioned by paying a bribe and getting the job done conveniently thereby failing to adhere to the rules.

Now bystander criticism will not help improve democracy, how many of us actually adhere to the municipal authority law of letting the 3ft space around our houses. If every other house in the vicinity is constructed end to end and so you are also tempted or forced to do the same. When your plan is not in accordance with the rules and you still want it to be sanctioned you are obviously bound to pay an incentive to the official, effectively you are demanding corruption and when there is demand the supply follows. So don’t do lip service by saying this country is corrupt and things like that. If only you had adhered to the law you never had to go through all this (not that you don’t get harassed by the official otherwise).
But considering the current real estate rates( which is again hyped and hiked because of corruption ) it is not easy to procure the space that you actually need so definitely people would try to fudge with the law and try to get that extra space. This kind of inch to inch construction has become the order of the day and so is the bribe taking. If building houses so close to each other is rampant and are even being approved by government officials the 3ft rule only exists in the papers then it is pure red tape, this rule is obsolete and should be changed if not it should be imposed and adhered to strictly.

Corruption was there in the past also but people were more sensitive and honest even without much facility and awareness they were content.
Today even with so much technology, awareness, amenities and even the buying power (artificially created by infesting loans and credits) people are less credit worthy, un empathetic, insincere, dishonest and far more greedy be it from an auto driver to a top level bureaucratic official. Even with the hawk eyed media reporting and pointing the glaring irregularities one scam loses focus with the emergence of a new scam, core problems are not addressed and issues are diverted by using highly qualified persons who can pun with the words using the best of their vocabularies to confuse the common man if not convince him.

The forces to keep law and order of the country are like spine in a human body. When it is not empowered enough and is constantly infringed by nepotism immoral and dishonest officers cripple the body and render it useless leaving the common man in the lurch.

It’s time the police force is made a glamorous and noble profession. There should be no place for quotas based on caste, creed categories thereby recruiting only deserving, honest, qualified and patriotic candidates in the larger interest of the country.
In fact there should be a hiring clause that every candidate selected for the police service should compulsorily serve for a min of 3years in the military service as well.
This way there would be more patriotic and genuine officers in the police force who have taken up the profession because of their passion to serve the country and not just for a mere earning or extra earning!
Also their salaries should be at par with any IT employee as this would boost their moral value and increase competence and contain corruption.
To implement the above into our system we need the strong will of the government which is today crippled with scams, corrupt and dishonest politicians hailing dynasty politics. As corruption increases the economy falls flat this is when inflation soars high and people are plundered day in and day out in the name of price rise.
If this dirt has to be cleansed then it has to happen from within the system that is within the Government itself unless there is direct democracy in place or an effective strong lokpal bill has to be passed.
But this is becoming a farce because of people’s ignorance, aloofness, indifference towards community problems, regional and linguistic attitude towards the society and not to forget the PUBLIC AMNESIA.

Scrolling back to a few major scams and how our judicial system works:
Bofors scam : in 1986 under Congress rule:

Implicated	Rajiv Gandhi (then Prime Minister of India)
Amount involved	64 crores officially (which was a big money at that time)
Beneficiaries	Ottavio Quattrochi the Italian business man close to Gandhi family, A.B.Bofor
Convictions	None
Money recovered	None

BHOPAL GAS TRAGEDY: In 1984 30 metric tons of methyl isocyanate escaped into the atmosphere

Implicated :	Warren Anderson the CEO of Union Carbide Corp
Deaths caused	15000 deaths(3000 immediate death,8000 deaths after 2weeks from the occurring.8000 more died in time because of toxic gas related problems.5,58125 people injured 38478 people partially disabled 3900 people permanently disabled.) 2000 animal carcasses were found bloated due to toxic gas inhalation.
Convictions	On 7thDecember 1984 Warren Anderson was escorted out of India by the then Government of Madhya Pradesh very safely overnight.In 2010 after 28years some 8 people were found guilty out of which 1 is no more, they have been convicted for causing death by negligence and slapped a fine of $2000 each.Keshub Mahindra got 2years jail after 28years of people’s suffering and who are still suffering but Anderson is still a free man spending his old age in America.
Compensation received	$470 million received and kept in account since 1992.
Ground Reality	This compensation meant for 1 lakh people was distributed among 6 lakh people, which means an average of Rs.12000 was received per person which is a mockery of a human life. Even to get this amount victims had to contest after much protest they were given overall compensation after 20 years in 2004 after an order by the SCThe abandoned site is still contaminated with thousands of metric tons of hazardous toxic waste. The soil, ground water, vegetables and even breast milk contain toxic chemical traces.350 tons of toxic wastes remain un-cleared from the debris since the last 30yearshope the clearance of this site which involves millions of rupees does not spin into another scam.

So ruthless are our political babus that they can plunder even from a kargil coffin or even from disaster compensation fund. It’s time India wakes up.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Endless nightmare – Times Of India

articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com › Collections › Union Carbide

Sikh Genocide 1984: Riots happened under the purview and the protection of the netas and police. Hundreds of Sikhs were killed under the pseudo secularists’ regime their properties looted many were displaced but the main accused are all acquitted and roaming scot free even today.

Fodder scam: 1996

Main accused	Laloo Prasad Yadav (then chief minister of Bihar)
Amount involved	Rs 950 crores
Status of case	Investigating officers were transferred frequently hindering the case. In 2012 after 16years the CBI has filed charges on Laloo. The case is still going on
Amount recovered	None

2001 Parliament Attack

Our honor was attacked with 5 gunmen infiltrating into the parliament, this attack was organized by ‘Jaish-E-mohammed’ a terrorist outfit. 7 security staff fought it out and laid their lives.
After years of court proceedings and investigations the accused were convicted and given death sentence only to get mercy from the president annulling the valorous sacrifice of the CRPF guards and all those tedious elaborate judicial procedures in nailing them. The efforts, valor, sacrifice, time and money spent a mockery of the Indian citizen and gave out a loud message that anybody who kills can get away with a mercy however recently Afsal Guru the main accused in this plot was executed in a short notice leaving the aam aadmi(common man) perplexed and pondering over the gimmicks of the UPA Government’s strategy to score a point in the upcoming 2014 elections.
The bereaved family of Kamlesh Kumari the CRPF jawan and others who had returned the Ashok Chakra awarded to them when the mercy petition of the terrorist was accepted by the then president Pratibha Patil have again accepted the gallantry award by Pranab Mukerjee the current Indian Congress President after Afsal’s hanging after 12years but surely Satwant Singh(Late Prime minister Indira Gandhi’s assassinator) was hanged within 6months.

 2G Spectrum Scam: The big daddy of all scams
Amount involved: Rs. 176000 crores
Main accused: A. Raja (then telecom minister from DMK) and Kannimozhi (d/o Karunanidhi DMK supremo).
Case: misappropriation during biddings for allocation of 2G spectrum
Status: A.Raja was arrested by CBI and kept in jail for 15 months but was given bail from the Supreme Court and was back in action as he was nominated for the parliamentary committee in the energy berth. Kannimozhi who is co-accused in 2G Scam was also nominated for the home affairs committee.
But now after the DMK has pulled out their support to the UPA government they might face music again. Anybody who dares the congress will be under CBI’s scanner and will be slapped with various cases against them.
Amount recovered in this case is nill.

COMMON WEALTH GAMES SCAM 2011
Loss incurred: Rs.95 crores.
Accused: Suresh Kalmadi (MP from Pune, the then Sports administrator)
He was being nominated to parliamentary berth of external affairs even after the uproar of scam.
Case is still pending against him.

COALGATE SCAM 2012—1060,000 crores
Status: attention diverted to social reforms
The case is still blooming for many more skeletons to be revealed from the closet.
This was just a flashback reminder of how things have been functioning in our existing set up. The scams in the news have caught our attention because of the huge amount involved and the extensive media coverage.

THE VVIP AUGUSTAWESTLAND HELICOPTER SCAM:
Rs.4040 crore deal with Augustawestland for procuring 12 VVIP helicopter in which a kickback of Rs.350crores was received by Indian officials to pass the deal is still being investigated with no arrests yet.

It is an irony that such people continue to get voted into power, as long as such corrupt people are voted more scams will continue to happen and we will keep getting looted and cheated if we don’t raise our voices now.

What changes are needed to cleanse the system?
 Provide quality education to everybody.
 Know your rights.
 Law and order keeping forces to be strengthened.
 Reform in judicial system making it more approachable and simple.
 Moral science and current affairs should be made compulsory subjects in colleges.
 All cases should be disposed of within 2years.
 Young patriotic minds should be ignited to get into politics.
 Every politician should be rated on a credit system just like the ratings in semester exams periodically. If commitment to perform and deliver is lacking then he/she should be sacked.
Most importantly the people should come out of arm chair criticism and actively participate and vote for genuine candidates.

If one simple man Anna Hazare who worked as an army jawan for 12 years could change the status of a barren drought prone village RALEGON SIDDI into a self-sufficient rich region with his vision and honest commitment to improve the people’s condition thus putting the small village on the global map prominently why can’t the empowered and instituted do it?
It is only a matter of our willingness to resolve things and the depth of our belief to achieve the unachievable.
Keep the anti-corruption spirits rising and empower the right people, keep questioning and give up the ‘chaltha hain’ attitude.
Think right and act appropriately.