Indians suddenly getting obsessed with corrution is akin to saying Scandinavians getting obsessed with cold. Certain things are inseparable. Many options are doing the rounds from group protests to legislative changes, from individual-led rights movement to government-led suppression of expressions of legitimate demands of their citizens. I think one can sum up the solutions in three simple steps using the principle that kick-starts democracy. No, not the vote, neither rotten bureacracy nor freedom of speech, that much abused element of democracy these days. This can be resolved by referring to one's basic human rights. There is a charter of human rights which within a democracy if for a moment we accept that India is one (despite the gratuitous disregard to human rights that characterise its governance on a daily basis) that makes everyone equal in terms of their freedom to be granted certain rights. IN that regard a minister is equal to a fakir, a Baba is equal to a judge, a prositute is equal to a sports-hero, and so on. That's the kind of rights-led and rights-based western libertarian democracy most NRIs in the west live as do all westerners. Its a concept unthinkable for those who have not lived abroad in the western Europe or Northern America, Australia and New Zealand. I dont include those who live int eh middle east for that's anything but democratic, or Africa, Russia, South East Asia or indeed South America. The democracies there are perhaps less evolved than Indians. And no, I also dont mean those living abroad on borrowed time as students, tourists, posted diplomats or touring sportsmen. I mean residents with all the rights. If one has lived this way, the solution to the corruption problem is a 3-step simple solution.
First principle: Basic human rights that the Indian constitution grants must make a reasonably serious government have laws for those rights to be upheld. For example if I am paying taxes for the municipal corporation to clean the roads and make it reasonably smooth, then there must be a law that compels certain departments with an accountable head to be responsible for its delivery, failing which I the citizen have the right to complain to another department, an ombudsman if I am not satisfied with the respone and ultimately the right to seek redressal through courts. Clear penalties are established rapidly in courts with quick dispensation of justice.
Second principle: Indians must have civic centres in every town, village and hallis. The role of that centre must be to provide information on rules and regulations on pretty much everything. From what to do if the garbage collectors dont colect garbage to whom to contact if there is no water supply to how to proceed against a tenant unwilling to vacate a house. These centres could concievably include advice on who to approach if your GP indulges in negligence or your solicitor does not pay you your fees as an expert witness. In India such centres do not exist or if they do, one has to pay a little bribe to a little Babu who has his time in the sun and warmth in pocket. Information is power and much of small level corruption is driven upon one's need for information on issues that are governmental in nature ,e.g. what to do if you need to get your name changed by a poll-deed (note: private agencies provide as much information when they';re trying to get business, but little when they're about to lose it). Its in the pursuit of the right process that needs to be carried out through the right and proper channel that much of India's corruption takes place. Once citizens get their information first from a reliable source (which is audited annually for customer satisfaction and financial effectiveness) and approach officials from a postion of knowledge and civility rather than ignorance and bribe (or violence and connection or 'pairwi') the real catalyst for corruption is taken out. If the work recommended is not done in a timely fashion, there must be a grievance redressal system, which taps into principle one above.
Third principle: if a society cannot survive on trust and mutual respect and honour much as India cannot given its age-old fragmenters such as caste, regional dialects/languages, religion and increasingly wealth driven class system, then one must have terms and conditions for reasonable interpersonal exchanges between individuals. Much as in tort laws, if one does not honour one's side of the contract, then one resorts to a legal complaints system. For all of the above to take shape and turn India into a modern democracy, the law must be updated and millions of them created and changed on a regular basis. The lokpal bill is a step in the right direction only if both sides abandon their egoes and really get to solve the problems rather than throw brick-bats at each other. If the above fails, then we can resort to a simple formula. Let us start asking our elected representatives if they are ensuring the above in their constituencies for their constituents and if not, why not?
PS: This is what I experience in the west everyday and so do millions of others like me. The west was more barbaric and undeveloped 600 years ago than the east. They've catapulted ahead by establishing the pricniples of democracy starting with the first principle - ensure that every person's human rights are protected and if not, create sensible legal strategies to ensure that it is. Everythign else follows from that. In copying the west the fathers of Indan nation forgot that one needed to eradicate the fodder that feeds the mindset of a fragmented society with haves and have-nots that the Hindu caste system has established over millenia that education-driven class system has promoted which finally wealth and power driven political system has perpetuated.
