Biraja Mahapatra

Corruption is reflection of a state of mind of a person to grab something that he or she is not legally entitled to get.

Every human being while in the process of grabbing something (means either in terms of favour or cash or kind), fights with himself for a moment whether he or she should do it or not. If one succumbs to his desire to grab, then that person becomes corrupt. If the person withstands his temptation of earning that something, which is illegal, then he or she becomes honest at that spur of the moment. Therefore honesty is a matter of practice

Collins dictionary defines corruption as “dishonesty and illegal behaviour by people in position of authority and power”. This definition may not be correct. Corruption involves at least two persons. One is beneficiary and the other is the victim. Again there could be a situation where the victim may also be corrupt. Some times it is a chain involving so many people, who are victims and beneficiaries as well.

To give an example, a gentleman was standing in a long queue at a Delhi Railway Station counter for a ticket. He came to know that all tickets would be exhausted for the train by the time his turn would come to reach at the counter. But to his good luck, there was a young boy who came to him and told him that he could fetch a ticket for just an extra Rs 50 buck. The gentleman immediately and without any hesitation handed over that Rs 50 and a little later got his ticket and subsequently he withdrew himself from the queue. So this gentleman became a victim as well as a beneficiary. He was not in the position of authority and power. But frankly speaking, he is no less corrupt.

Be that as it may, had he have refused to accept the offer, he would have been in trouble. He fought with himself and succumbed to pressure from within. Thus his behaviour became illegal and he became corrupt at that point of time. Most of us would argue, what he had done in the circumstances was right. It is because we are accepting this method as a way of life.

A campaigner colleague who is in Build India Group has once told his cleark that he should not hesitate to cough up few hundred rupees for getting photocopy of an order for his client and that he could not afford to see harassment for his client to come to the court time and again for just copy of an order. Most of our educated and wise people would say there was nothing wrong in it. But have you ever thought how it influences the thought and character of the pampered Babu?

There was a recent example. In Sambalpur in Orissa, a government servant could not get his pension papers ready before his retirement.
The official was honest and not used to taking bribe. After retirement, he found the job more difficult. The clerk concerned did not process his pension paper. Eight years passed. The man became older. He had developed the problem of kidney stone. He had no money for the operation. And then he became mad and this fact was brought to the notice of media by his wife.

What is this? Is it any way less than terrorism? But the babu concerned cannot understand and the babus, who justify giving and taking money for small favours. cannot understand the colossal damage they are causing to the teachings of the tradition. This is actually white terrorism. If somebody is involved in corruption, he cheats the whole country. He definitely deprives somebody of some legal entitlement. Take for example the UTI scam in which several thousands of old people had deposited their money with an expectation of high returns and their entire money was lost. Many died in shocks, due to heart attack and many suffered from blood pressure. We have seen many bridge collapse cases due to use of poor material. We have seen many hardened criminals going scot-free due to favour from police officers or even at times magistrates at a price. The examples could be many.
Therefore, corruption is fraud on the country and thus anti-national.

We talk too much of corruption but we never hesitate to take out of turn favours, howsoever; honest we may be in our day to day practice.

Then the million dollar question is how to bring down the level of corruption? India is one among the top five corrupt countries in the world, it the report of the watchdog Transparency International is believed to be correct. Policing and laws have failed because the people manning them are also generally perceived to be corrupt.

Let us peep into the primitive society when there would not have been any regulation on sex. A father could have had intercourse with his daughter and a brother with a sister. Today it sounds perverse and ugly. How did it happen? Marriage came up as an institution making sexual relation between husband and a wife sacrosanct while prohibiting the same kind of sexual relationship among others as immoral. A stigma was attached to sexual relationships between a male and a female other than the one through marriage. Thus stigma worked with marriage coming up as an institution.

We have also attached stigma to crimes like rape or murder or even terrorist activities. All these are illegal behaviour, and a civilized man would not resort to such activity. When such stigma comes as ordain from pope or prophet or religious gurus, this could do wonders.

Therefore we need to have a festival for unleashing hate against corruption and terrorism and at the same time loving our own nation and protecting its interest at any cost and for this all our religious gurus need to play a role in shaping an institution like marriage.

This is what Build India Group propounds through a unique programmed of pledge festival to spread the message of “LOVE YOUR NATION, HATE CORRUPTION AND DEFEAT TERRORISM”.