Another must win Match: India vs Corruption

I don't know where to start this post from. Should I start speaking about the entire herd of corrupt politicians that are at the helm of affairs in the Country? Much have been already said about them; but the shameless bastards continue looting the Nation's exchequer, unabated, unfazed. Or should I speak about the billions that our Country has lost to the greed of these people whom We elected - pushing the nation behind on the development front and shoving it up on the corruption ladder (#87 in 2010; source - Transparency International).

While I can speak a lot about all these vexing topics, no amount of words would do justice to describing this man with a mission - Anna Hazare. His action speaks louder than these words. As of today (7-Apr-2011, 2 AM PST) this septuagenarian has already been on fast for more than 60 hours and he says he'll die fighting unless the voice of the people against corruption is heard by the the powers that be. He has rattled the power corridors of New Delhi several times till date and this time the movement has already started making its mark. The fight this time is against corruption and the several corrupt Ministers and other elected representatives that are running the country today. The fight is for the acceptance of the Jan Lokpal (जन लोकपाल) Bill by the Government of India, to truly empower the People of the Nation to act decisively against the corrupt without intervention from the Government.

It is sad seeing a 72-year old person having to take such a step - a real surge in feelings for the state of affairs in the Country driving this very gentle man, perhaps. But at the same time it is heartening to see that the movement has caught on with the youth of the Nation supporting it throughout the Country. Support has come in from many prominent figures in the Country from all quarters. All that is needed now is to continue the momentum and rope in more and more support for the cause, for the fasting grand old man and for the hundreds of other Indians who are on indefinite fast with Anna Ji.

Many would want to draw parallels with the Movement in Egypt and the Middle-east. While there can be some similarity in which the Movement is spreading among the people but they are definitely not towards the same end. Ours is a Democracy and we are not being ruled by despots. We are being ruled by Elected representatives, albeit corrupt. This movement is against the corrupt. Having said so, there still are honest politicians and it is these good people who should be leading the Nation.

I am not providing any solutions here. The way has been shown to us by the likes of Anna Ji - we simply need to tread on it. Follow the lead and take turns in leading. I am simply trying in my own small way to support the cause, to spread the word on the movement. Also, many of us (yours truly included) have been guilty of corruption - mostly by means of feeding the greed of the corrupt. We must try to inculcate in us the need to shun corruption in every walk of our life.

After the World Cup Cricket triumph, it's now time to win another important match - against corruption. Just as the nation united during the Cricket World Cup to boost India to victory, people have to create a non-stop movement till the Jan Lokpal Bill is passed by the Parliament. Thousands have already lent their support. But, we are a Nation of a billion plus and a billion plus Indians cannot be unheeded. जय हिंद.

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P.S.: In the past few days, I have been posting numerous comments on News articles, posting on Facebook, Buzz, Orkut and emailing people about the movement. I am probably not doing much, but just my little bit to spread the word. Please consider using all means at your disposal to support the cause.















EDIT <<<< -- Update on the Movement -- >>>

Anna Hazare called off the fast after 97 hours on 9th April after government issued a gazette notification constituting a 10-member joint committee of ministers and civil society activists, including him, to draft an effective Lokpal Bill. Just goes to show that Gandhi and his motto of non-violence are still relevant today. The fight against the corrupt of course doesn't stop here. This is just the beginning and We, the People of India must not lose the momentum. जय हिंद.

Following is the text of the Gazette Notification issued by the Government of India constituting the Joint Drafting Committee comprising ministers and civil society activists to prepare the draft Lok Pal Bill (Source: The Hindu)

“The Joint Drafting Committee shall consist of five nominee ministers of the Government of India and five nominees of Shri Anna Hazare (including himself).

The five nominee Ministers of the Government of India are as under:

Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister of Finance, P Chidambaram, Union Minister of Home Affairs, M Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice, Kapil Sibal, Union Minister of Human Resource and Development and Minister of Communication and Information Technology and Salman Khursheed, Union Minister of Water Resources and Minister of Minority Affairs.

The five nominees of Anna Hazare (including himself) are as under:

Anna Hazare, Justice N Santosh Hegde, Shanti Bhushan, Senior Advocate, Prashan Bhushan, Advocate and Arvind Kejriwal.

The Chairperson of the Joint Drafting Committee shall be Pranab Mukherjee.

The Co-Chairperson of the Joint Drafting Committee shall be Shanti Bhushan.

The Convenor of the Join Drafting Committee shall be M Veerappa Moily.

The Joint Drafting Committee shall commence its work forthwith and evolve its own procedure to prepare the proposed legislation.

The Joint Drafting Committee shall complete its work latest by 30th June, 2011."

Two cents from a now idle mind

Almost an year has passed since I last wrote here. And I am not surprised that in spite of mentioning that I'd follow up with posts more frequently, I haven't done so. Not that anyone was waiting. It's not that I did not try. It was just that I wasn't able to put into words all the thoughts that had engulfed me over these many months. Things have not got any better. But here I am still trying to do justice to the space that Google has provided me for writing.

A lot has happened over this last year - besides stepping into a new Decade. I was in Schaumburg (IL) a year back and those were very tough times for me work-wise during those days. Relentless work and the icy cold weather just made a mess of my stay in that place. Did not quite get a chance to catch a proper glimpse of Chicago during my stint there - all thanks to these two factors. No Sears Tower too. But got a feel of how chilling it can get in the Windy City. Took my first US Train ride during this time - from Schaumburg to Chicago. A few malls, a few eateries is what I visited during this stay in IL. Did not manage to get my driving lessons. I look forward to visiting Illinois again some day, during summers of course.

My work took me to San Jose (CA) during 1st week of April. A welcome change, I'd say, so far as the weather is concerned. But no respite from work. We still managed to visit a few places in and around San Francisco. Alcatraz is a nice tour. Not worth a 2nd visit though. However, we ended up visiting that place twice. I would come back to the purpose later in this post. SFO for sure is a lively place. The area around the Embarcadero stretch along the Bay reminded me so much of my stay in Geneva an year back. The people roaming around, some running and the hustle was so much akin to what I saw in Geneva around the Geneva Lake. I loved the buzz. Given the food buff that I am, it was hard not to try out a few of the food joints in SFO, especially the Sea Food ones. Crab House at Pier 39 is great. Work continued to be gruelling though. However managed to get a good break during the Memorial Day long weekend. Visited two college friends in NY and went around visiting Washington DC, Baltimore, Atlantic City and bits of NJ and Virginia too. A whirlwind tour it was, but quite refreshing. Soon after I got into a deluge of work and till end June I was all occupied with work. Good food and zero workout left me bloated by 8 Kgs during the first half of the year. More work also meant I could not go take pictures of the famed places that the Silicon Valley is known for - Google, Yahoo!, Cisco, Oracle, Intel. I left San Jose a day before the US Independence Day with a hope of coming back again to CA, especially to Silicon Valley. Oh yes, I had a painful RCT done just a day prior to flying out and no driving lessons yet.

Next assignment was in Toronto and I lived and worked in the Downtown area. This had by far been my best stay outside my country. Canada I heard was very much like the US. But Toronto, I saw, was so so so much different. This was so much more a cosmopolitan city than any other US city I visited and lived in. There were several reasons for liking the place - the eating joints would be at the top among them. I'd discuss about the city in a different post, perhaps. Work was comparatively less and I had a good time the 5 months that I stayed here. The Summers to my surprise were very pleasant - against the stereotype that I had in my mind before visiting the place about Canada being covered in a blanket of snow all year round. Stupid me. Visited 1000 Islands and Ottawa during this stay. I wanted to visit Vancouver and Montreal too but Winter started setting in and I had to move on to a different Project.

So, I escaped the Canadian Winter during 1st week of December and decided to head Home before the new assignment. I had three weeks before my new assignment in the Silicon Valley again (\o/). Visited Bangalore, Kolkata and my native place Guwahati during these three weeks. Met brother after 3 years, met parents after 1.5 years, met best friend after 1 year, a few old college friends after 4 years and some school friends after 9 years! It felt good.

I flew back to SFO on the evening of Christmas. This flight was especially tiring because of the fact that we had to fly via Dubai and the second stretch of the flight was nearly 17 hours. Regardless, I was glad to be back in San Jose after 6 months. And here I am penning these thoughts in a well deserved (pat-on-the-back) couple of leisure hours. One month has passed since I came back and the Winter here is pleasant. Reminds me so much of the pleasant winters that we had back in Guwahati. The Bihu was good here with two of our friends flying in from NJ to visit SFO. And this is when we paid our 2nd visit to Alcatraz. Also visited Napa Valley, the Mystery Spot, the Golden Gate Bridge - everything that I had missed during my first stint in SFO/San Jose.

As I look back now, I do see that my last one year had been real packed with work, with sprinklings of some fun once in a while. That should probably be one of the reasons of not writing here. And yes, spent a number of hours watching good movies as well. More on movies later. I have so many random thoughts going in my mind and I wish so much to put them into words here. It would be better I believe to do that during the hours that I waste browsing nothing on the Web. I will try - not a promise, but a hope to do so.