Our own Tahrir Squares

The turmoil in Egypt is a lesson for dictatorships and autocracies in the Arab world, their moments of glory are coming to an end. We should wish the citizens of Egypt good luck in their quest for establishing a democratic polity and a free society.

Is there a lesson for established and vibrant democracies like India whose people are free but their aspirations are yet to be realized. Aspirations which are basic and fundamental to be called a civilized and mature democracy.

The Indian is frustrated with the type of democracy we have created. Frustrated that the powers that be are subverting the democratic institutions for personal gains. All the three branches of governance are compromised with serious issues relating to their integrity. The private enterprise is not to be left out of the equation their role in the current crisis is unmistakable.

There is a former Supreme Court chief justice being accused of
inaction and nepotism. A cabinet minister has made an ass of the entire system selling precious spectrum at whatever price he decided. Another minister and his cohorts ran a national sports body like their personal fiefdom and milked money. There are many bureaucrats being caught with crores of rupees during raids conducted by the CBI. All of us are aware of these instances and I am sure there are hundreds more unearthed cases across the country.

Whilst corruption has been around since long the scale and blatancy of it is worrying. Scam after scam is having a demoralizing effect on the citizens; there is a loss of trust on all three branches of governance. The question is will we ever become a “developed country” with the type of system we have created.

Mechanisms to punish the erring politician, bureaucrat exist but the credibility of the institutions that are required to do that is questionable. How many of us believe that the CBI is truly independent?

It is not easy to change the system but we need to do it, the way we handle the Spectrum, CWG and other high profile corruption cases will determine our intent towards establishing a system that is feared by folks who want to subvert it.

I think India is a cross roads and the government should be seize this opportunity to correct the deviant system, else all of us need to walk to our own “tahrir squares” in our cities, towns and villages to force the issue.