By Aarthi Sundaram:
W e are all well aware of the media’s and the general public’s (that undoubtedly includes us) fickle minds. One story gains our interest for a day. News channels are always abuzz with busy talking-heads that rant out well-rehearsed spiels with remarkable fluency! Whether they make a strong valid point or not: Who cares? It’s enough to keep the channel look important for today!
And so, tomorrow they catch up on something fresher and move on with such efficient haste, that, we are forced to retrospect: Did ‘yesterday’ happen or not?! But this fickle-mindedness of the media greatly affects politics and influences government decisions, whether the media realizes this or not. Since no story or movement piques our interest for long, nothing leaves a mark in our highly volatile minds! The efforts put by the newsmakers eventually fade away!
Anna Hazare’s fast made news for a week or two (an extra-ordinarily long period of time according to statistics). I personally saw many of my friends vouching for him, repeating his slogans without ever having an inkling of what the Lokpal Bill actually is! They simply hear the word ‘anti-corruption’ and that is enough for them to jump on the band-wagon. They had no idea what Team Anna’s agenda was, nor had anyone a single idea as to what would happen if the Lokpal bill was passed or what was its significance!
The problem is: the people behind the movement fail to have a definite plan that outlines their actions. They don’t possess the willpower to keep the movement going strong and making their problems heard to the right people.
I know at this point many of you will shout back: “They conducted stringent fasts! They were brave enough to go to jail in support of their ideals! That isn’t doing nothing!”
But the sorry fact is that corruption isn’t a weed you can pull out at will. It is an inevitable commodity that ‘comes with a package: Democracy’
Now Baba Ramdev claims: “Congress hatao, desh bachao”. But how can the stepping down of Congress cause corruption to vanish? The problem is bound to occur with the next party. Merely passing a bill for an anti-corruption body and defeating a particular party in the parliament isn’t the solution!
Rather than directing all anger and energy against the government as a whole, more strong and rigorous measures can be taken to catch the bribing and black-money dependant politicians red-handed. The badly cheated income tax department can take sweet revenge lawfully, but conducting stringent investigations into the bank accounts and investments made by the politicians! Because all this sudden surplus money is no mystery: it’s our money!
It’s a long fight. But can be won, if the media and the general public assist the law in making our government transparent.