Corruption has been a constant issue in every single election in India, post-independence, right from Pt Jawaharlal Nehru - the first prime minister of India. Recently in 2014, Narendra Modi made corruption a huge political issue and like all other politicians, Modi too, got an immense support from the masses across India. During the same period, many civil societies, NGOs and other torch-bearers also agitated many times on the same issue. In 2013, Anna Harare did a "fast unto death" agitation in Delhi and people from all corners of India lent its support for the movement. Technological developments and evolution of social media added fuel to the fire and ensured active participation of every singly households by heart and spirit. These anti-corruption movements have seen the rise of many stalwarts and many of these stalwarts later took plunge in active politics with a single promise - "to bring a change" i.e. corruption free governance! Most recently we have seen the emergence of a new anti-corruption crusader- Arvind Kejriwal who questioned whoever he wanted to and the credibility of our contemporary politicians were so low that we all believed whatever Kejriwal told us and we trusted all his allegations. Kejriwal’s instant judgments put him in a different league, even though there were serious question marks on his allegations. The only man who stood the test of Kejriwal was Narendra Modi. Modi not only defeated the establishments but also passed all the allegations labeled in peoples’ court of Justice before marching to the highest corridor of power.
Anyway this article is not about Modi or Kejriwal or for that matter any other politicians. It is about the system or the establishments which were promised to be changed by many different politicians, civil society members, agitators, NGOs or many other self-proclaimed anti-corruption crusaders. Almost all prime-ministers of India and respective chief-ministers of all states of India, since 1947, have made a promise of “Corruption-Free-Governance” at some point or the other. Many of these office bearers regained the power with the repeat of the same promise. However the heat of corruption reached right to the doorstep of almost all these power riders – almost all CMs and all PMs with a very few exceptions. Even a man with highest integrity, Manmohan Singh– who has been the prime minister of India for 10 years, could not save himself from the established system and CBI had to call him for interrogations. Manmohan Singh had no answers to almost all questions asked to him. He, cowardly, had to hide behind the statement – “History will be kinder in judging me”! Those who were loudest in raising the anti-corruption slogans while not in power, eventually became the epicenter of corruptions themselves. Mulyam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Nitish Kumar etc. all are product of 1974 anti-corruption JP movement who rose to fame on the anti-corruption noises eventually faced serious corruption charges and some went to Jail also. These names, later, became the synonym of corruption once they assumed power. Jayalalitha, Karunanidhi, NTR etc came from reel world and they were not part of the system but even they had to face very serious charges of corruption and go to jail. Some other leaders who came from downtrodden community, whom people trusted enough to give them power, also had to face the allegations of corruption and were tried by various investigating agencies. Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee and Madhu Koda can be named from this category. After the demise of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Jagan Reddy had to pay for the sins which his father did. The point is we tried leaders from all sort of background with same hope but to no avail.
Let’s evaluate the two most recent torch bearers of anti-corruption movements – Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Their emergence to the national politics is purely because of their clean image and work against corruption. Modi had successfully demonstrated it as a Gujarat administrator while Kejriwal sounded credible. Modi, in his mammoth election campaign for 2014 general election & in almost all rallies, came heavily on various corruption issues and people involved in them during the then UPA govt headed by Man Mohan Singh.2G, Coal, Black money & Commonwealth scams were major high tickets scams which shook the UPA govt to the core and even Supreme Court made many adverse observations against govt. UPA govt lost its credibility completely and Congress sympathizers started appearing with various disclaimers. Modi also dragged the first family (By dragging Robert Vadra’s name) into the corruption discussion. Now Modi just complete one year in office but we see no major change in the course. Modi can only be credited with the fact his own first year administration has been corruption free and he must be congratulated for it. But he made no move in the direction of bringing other corrupts to the book. Similarly Arvind Kejriwal who always carried a file on almost everyone suddenly had no evidence against any one the moment he came to power. His major hara-kiri was on Sheila Dixit episode where he came up multiple serious charges with “credible” evidences. These evidences disappeared the moment he rose to power. His ridiculously high audacity was so high that he took support from Congress party to form govt in Delhi. Kejriwal returned to power with a historical mandate but the person who “sacrificed” his CM post on the issue of Jan-Lokpal does not even talk about it. Apparently he does not how to rule and hence his govt with struggling on almost all issues. He picks up fight with almost every one. His ministers are facing with various charges, many of which are serious in nature. One of his minsters was sent to jail.
Absolutely no-one likes corruption, let’s make no mistake about it. Still the question is- why this menace called “corruption” could not be eradicated even after so many battles, agitations, movements and sacrifices. The common men trusted leaders after leaders, agitators after agitators but the net result have been null for them. Those who made noises joined the power center, got their piece of cake and the common men, as usual, felt cheated not once or twice but every time. Anyway common men are meant to be cheated and nothing new in this. Even the technological paradigm shift could hardly make a difference. Those who promise to bring change are found changed themselves after assuming power. Therefore the million dollar question is – why the so called anti-corruption crusaders change themselves the moment they join the power corridors? What is there in the system that changes their own narratives? Why the things which look so easy outside power corridors become so hard the moment they become powerful. Why becoming powerful makes them so powerless? Why is it so easy to come up with ideas when not in power, to bring change, but those ideas have no meaning the moment they become powerful? Or the poison of power is so intoxicating? These questions have been asked since ages and probably will continued to be asked but will never be answered, not at least in foreseeable future. The irony with common men is that they support everyone who comes up with the fresh idea of change, and most recently the support has been unleashed on Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. They have been elected with unprecedented mandate. Let’s wait if they bring a change in the system or they themselves become the “system”. Until then, let’s play corruption-corruption!
