Congratulations

 

Congratulations , to Karthik  Gorjala , a grade 8 oakridger for securing the first place  in a state wide competition on Anna Hazare and Anti Corruption.

 

Corruption, the spoiling of ethical or morale values in a society. This is often misunderstood as just corruption to do with money but there are many other forms of corruption, but in India today and for a period of time corruption to do with money has been a growing and is now a major problem. A corrupt society has no value for personal feelings or morale values and this is how our country is becoming today. People take what they want and don’t even notice the amount of damage they have done towards the society, the poor, and the environment. This has to be stopped. Corruption in this country is something that just didn’t start overnight, it’s been a growing problem for the past several years and it gradually grew to the miserable state that we’re in right now. It didn’t start overnight so it can’t be dealt with overnight. Corruption as a whole in India has to be wiped out and eradicated just like the way we would deal with a disease or an epidemic. It is something that affects the whole society except the corrupt.

Some of the most recent scams and corrupt deals have all been made by politicians who have used their power to their advantage. This just shows that the solution to the problem lies not within the civilians, but within the government itself. If the people who are supposed to govern us and set an example are unfair and striking these corrupt deals and scams then what is that supposed to show to the rest of us? The easiest way to deal with a problem is to work out who is behind it and how it has started.

A few of the most recent scams are the 2G Spectrum Scan, the Commonwealth Games Scam, the Telgi scam and the Satyam Scam. Interestingly a lot of these scams were run by very important politicians high up in the constitution. So if these people who are very high up in the totem pole are running these deals with the help of their power, then how many more are there like these? Yes, of course there are normal civilians who are also corrupt and are making unfair deals but a majority of the corruption in this country is run by either celebrities, politicians and noteworthy people who have their name in the news on a regular basis. The problem with catching these people is that even after they are caught they bribe the policeman or investigator to let them go. This goes on and on, right down to the lowest level and here in lies the problem.

We have to raise the next generation of people in this country with a very strong sense of values and they cannot have the same feeling like you can get anything you want if you bribe someone. The future investigators for one, have to get the simple rule instilled in their systems that you can’t let anyone bribe you. Corruption cannot be eradicated overnight. It’s something that will take time to dispose of with the comings and goings of the new generation of Indians who live in this country. The values that we teach our future kids to have set the bar a lot higher than what it is right now.

There will always be bad minds who are trying to cheat the people and be corrupt. It’s not possible to completely destroy corruption in the country but our foremost aim is to keep the amount of corruption as low as possible and not the huge amount that it is right now. According to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, India tops the list in the amount of black money. Indian owned Swiss bank accounts are believed to hold a huge amount of black money. The survey states that there is more Indian black money than the rest of the world combined at a whopping amount of 1456 billion US dollars which is 13 times the country’ s national debt.

Another solution I think that would make a big difference is to set up an independent agency which looks only into corruption with members from the CBI and other national investigation agencies. I think that this idea would help a lot because it would be an agency which looks specifically into corruption in the country unlike other investigation agencies which look into various other departments at the same time. This independent agency would make a huge difference because its scope would be very specific looking into only one type of crime. Also the problem with the CBI prosecuting people when they find people guilty of corruption is that the process is very long and the Supreme Court overlooks the whole process so in the end the guilty group can cover their tracks and get off scot free. This idea has already been thought of and their many branches in various investigation agencies but these all work alongside other branches and have the same problem as the CBI with the time issue.

Also another fight against corruption is Anna Hazare’s fight for the Lokpal Bill which is a bill that fights the way in which India tackles corruption. The main ideas of this bill are that a separate agency, separate from the government will be set up in each state and no minister or anyone part of the government can interfere with this agency’s investigations. Also this bill has a long list of rules and regulations for fighting corruption like the guilty person who is being investigated by the agency has to be convicted within a year so as to save the time factor. This is Anna Hazare’s main goal as he realizes that his bill is a revolutionary idea which could be the major idea in taking away the amount of corruption in this country. His fight against corruption has included a hunger strike and this just shows that he is willing to sacrifice his own pain to fight India’s already huge and growing amount of corruption. His movement is hopefully the start of something big for the fight of India’s fight against corruption and hopefully we can dispose of it as much as possible.

Karthik

8H