Prep for Lokpal and Developed Nation
India against corruption (IAC) group led by prominent socialist Anna Hazare is struggling with the government to introduce an anti-corruption bill which will bring epic changes in the social and political system of India. IAC is made up of common people working tirelessly round the clock to bring justice to all of us-countrymen who have been suffering from corruption for so long. The group is making excellent progress in bringing out easy methods to make the citizens understand the draft and garner more support. In India it is said that if there was no (minimal) corruption in India, even an Apple would cost much less than what we pay for.
Changing the perception
One of the biggest hurdles in gaining more support for Lokpal bill (and for development of India) is to overcome a strong impression few of us have that ‘nothing good can come out of this system’. I meet so many of my young colleagues and friends who are strong believers in ‘No change can be brought to the system!’ There are people who are so much depressed with this system that they have lost all hopes and they do not want to hear anything about it, either good or bad.
In contrast there are good things happening here in that system. Look at a very meaningful law that has brought some change in our good for nothing system. Right to Information (RTI) is that law which came in to effect in 2005 which empowered citizens of India to demand any public information from almost any of the government departments in India. For example if you have applied for a passport, you can enquire as to what forms you need to fill up or you can demand for application status. Similarly citizens can demand information in a specific area such as the money that was spent for welfare or to build infrastructure, existing rules, regulations, policies, forms and statuses can be enquired using the Right to information Act. Many folks in India are actively using it; media is using to find more information on certain activities of government. So system has improved with this law, if we do not use RTI, it is our fault and should stop blaming the system for being hopeless. The system is in place, and to those who think nothing can happen, one good thing has definitely happened in this system.
Developing Country
In most cases best quality of development can be achieved by enrolling educated, wise and intelligent minds, not necessary IITians or IIM graduates. By those with reasonable education, those who cannot be fooled easily and those who can point out loop holes in any Trojan horse theories of the government. We have off course acknowledged that India is fast developing and in fact development being a complicated process, it can be best deciphered and shaped up by the wise people. Ironically it appears that blue collar of India is more involved in any changes such as supporting Lokpal bill than someone like a bank manager or a professor or an engineer or an IT professional.
I have heard many of the older men in India saying ‘let’s see what they are going to do’, till date I imagine who are they?. I am not good at giving analogies, but in US where I live, when a man and a woman suddenly realize that the woman is pregnant from their causal relationship, there is a big debate, does the father gets involved in bringing up the child or not? . In case of India I feel ‘educated’ people have been like the men who do not want to get involved and just dust the responsibility off. Here my discussion is not to point fingers to complain that Indians don’t do their social responsibility but to give reasons to get us more involved in the process of development. We are stuck in this debate whether I am affected or not, if yes our usual reaction has been ‘let’s see what they do about it’. The politics for last 60 years has been slapping our face and still every time around we say the same sentence over and over again. The country with vast intellectual and great culture up to some extent fails to keep up with this job. Ineffective vigilance wings, corruptible judiciary, twistable police and powerless citizens have been the highlights of the social and political system. The situation becomes more helpless when most people think it’s a wisest decision to stay out of this debate of whether Indian political and social structure is heading in right direction or not.
Talking about development there is an important aspect in my opinion which needs to be acknowledged; Developing country = developed minds, developed policies, developed thinking processes and most important of all open to ‘change’. This aspect must be embraced whole heartedly, we have it in us, it is functional, and we only have to start acknowledging it. We need developed mindsets and not developing ones. In my opinion it is one of the biggest virtues in the whole process of nation building. In an already ‘developed’ country there would be no public movement such as Lokpal because people in developed country would have never allowed the system to get in such a bad state. Secondly if they received a country that was in a bad state, instead of losing hopes as a first response or making a mockery of it, every individual would put their best effort to make it developed.
Studying the past, knowing the present and attempting to completely predict the future is sign of a developed mind and a developed country. When we say a person is educated, this is what, should be his state of mind. After living in a developed country I started to change many of my own philosophies and the way I looked at things. Change with humility up to a great extent can be an indicative of a fast developing mind and that of a fast developing nation. Instead of believing of knowing the answers, always appearing to be looking for answers leaves a big room for improvement. In US I see technologists appear still to be looking for answers in the field of technology where they already are much developed. Conversely I used to walk proudly thinking that in India all answers were found 5000 years back. For example ‘hamare yahan aise hi hota hain!’ shows that we know the answers and there is no room for making any better. Conversely a developing nation should say ‘let’s see what improvement I can bring, I will give it a try’. Complete prediction of future makes us more ready to expect what may come. Bottom line here is that Lokpal bill is giving us one of the final chances to break this vicious circle of politicians rule and get a country poised towards serious development and in true sense to improve quality of life.
Real World example- Lokpal
Let us look at an example of strong Lokpal bill in place. If a person goes to municipality office to get birth certificate of his son or daughter what will happen. He goes to the local birth records office, view the Citizen’s Charter and understands what forms need to be filled. Also using the Citizen’s Charter he can verify the officer/s or staff that will be involved to get his work done and the time required to do the work. After gathering the information he submits his application without paying any bribe and go home relaxed as the concerned staff will have to get the work done in fixed time or possibly face fine.
If citizen’s charter has indicated that to get a new birth certificate it will require the office 2-3 working days, the applicant can be assured that to does not have to wait more than 3 days. If his work is not completed in 3 days then he can write to the head of that department with the receipt of submission. The Head of department (HOD) will be responsible for completion of that task. If HOD is not able to perform his duty, then the citizen complaints to Lokpal. Lokpal officer will get the work done and put a corruption investigation against the officer and the head of the department and can also fine the HOD and the responsible staff.
The citizen will benefit, as the fined amount will be awarded for the delay caused to get his work done. Note: It is assumed that for every task this situation (of going to Lokpal) will not arise as the complaints against the HOD will be negatively marked and other steps will be taken to control the situation. Also at the same time once the Lokpal authority is in place, the supposedly corrupt staff in the government offices will shape themselves up to get accustomed to the new system and to save themselves from fines.
Now one might have questions like these;
- What if every staff takes the maximum amount of time to perform a work.
- How to fix the time lines for a given work when there is more than one department involved.
- Citizen charter will be displayed and available easily or you have to pay bribe to someone to even get access to the citizen’s charter.
- What if staff still asks for bribe to get the work done instantly?
- What if staff asks citizen that he will delay and let the complaint go to head and then only he will perform his duty?
- There can be other ways to exploit this process….
I presented above questions not by the intent to answer them here but to bring out the point that educated people are needed at this point to predict vulnerabilities and create solutions that are modern and fault free. Why developed minds? To predict the future and stop the exploits before they happen. Also best quality can be achieved by using best professionals and best development can be achieved by having wisest people. There are folks who tend to just blindly or emotionally support a cause without studying all aspects of the matter, we cannot afford that anymore. There is another very important reason for doing predictions and discussions. As once the bill comes in to reality the people who have blindly supported Anna Hazare’s movement, if do not see quick changes happening, will quickly loose their faith in the Bill. This may cause chaos in future and might mislead people who have reasonable faith and understanding about the Lokpal. So educated people at least must understand it and stop from it being mocked. Hence in parallel to taking part in this movement, people build a very clever approach to fight with the problems and be very systematic in achieving those social goals. I sincerely plan to write a blog to discuss some methods in which busy working people can help to bring some changes to the country by doing small tasks. In short I am looking to suggest methods to industrialize social work activities.
Bottom-line
Educated and white collar of India should get more involved in social and political scenario. Lokpal bill is seen as one of the most important movements in India because it is going to give us a change and make us ready for becoming a developed nation. Its significance is not just because of Anna Hazare, it is because more and more people have minds ready for change and a truly developed country. Let us acknowledge one more thing that if something good has to happen to the system it is now, when the Lokpal issue is heated up. People of India should stand up for themselves. Lokpal movement has been the best thing happened to democratic India by helping common people realize their part of duty. No bribe is a concept un-thought off in India, let’s gear up to make the government give up their draft and accept a strong Lokpal bill. We don’t want a paper tiger but a real tiger which are about to extinct from the nation.
