An Evolutionary Revolution

What Made IAC The Largest Social Revolution Of India? 

THE SOCIAL CARRIER

19^th August, 2011 the date that could change the future of the world’s largest democracy, India, forever. The date was when the India’s modern day Gandhi, ‘Anna Hazare’ declared to restart his protest against corruption. The protest which has the potential, power and support to be one of the largest ever revolution in India’s history. As of now, am not going to comment who’s right (…you will be reading that soon)….But something more interesting and that’s about the support that the protest has been able to garner.

No revolution or protest in independent India has ever seen such a youth participation, especially when it is lead by an old man (Anna Hazare in this case). A person, who till a few months back was unknown and could not even bank upon his celebrity status (like Baba Ramdev). So what was different this time around? It’s Technology. Team Anna didn't shied away from usin
g technology for the promotion of their cause and protest. The revolution, ‘India Against Corruption’ has inarguably become India’s biggest social revolution. Whether it’s social networks, bulk mails and SMS’s or phone lines, the campaign initiators and supporters have used all the networking channels available to ensure the success of the campaign. As is quoted in Wall Street Journal, the campaign is ‘previously unseen social media-fuelled revolution’. The movement has more than 8.2lakh likes on Facebook, while twitter has more modest 35000 followers. It's twitter page experience more than 3 tweets every minute. The missed call hotline number of the organization got more than 1.3crore rings. Just look through these statistics and you would come to know about the main cause of such a huge support IAC has been able to get. Their marketing team has ensured that no one is left unaware about the movement.

MYSPACE 

The event has clearly shown the power of communication, the power of social networks!!! They have shown that as is generally thought, technology is not only for the youth….it’s universal and should be used by other organizations in active manner to promote their cause. However, it has also increased the fear of stricter government control over the virtual lives of people, as they are becoming more and more wary of the consequences that such unmonitored communication could result in.

But as of now, am supporting ‘INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION’.




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“सरकारी नौकरी में उपरी कमाई बहुत है ”(There’s lot of additional income in government jobs). Ask any person why he prefers the government job over the private one and this will be one reason every person will tell, for sure. In fact, the problem has become so grave that people are not as worried about their legal income as they are about their so called additional income.

Talk to these people about corruption and there will give you two responses. The first one being that, with such a high inflation there’s no option other than asking for bribes, for survival. And what’s included in there list of survival is cars, bungalows, jewellery and servants.

In case of second excuse, it’s much trickier to gauge their views. They will tell you that government should hang the corrupt but scope to earn an additional income(bribes) is one of the reasons to join public service.

However, in light of these notorious views, exchanging the bribes has become a routine exercise and it is now asked so often and openly, that many even don’t call it a bribe. They think, it’s their right to earn for what they do, forgetting that they are already paid to do so.

Show Me The Money

So what's the reason that bribery has become a part of our society? I think it's their Confidence. Confidence that government will not take any action against the culprits. Government employees are assured of their job security so they do whatever they want. People know that until proven guilty (which usually take years) they are not going to be punished. This makes corruption a great tool of earning due to negligible risk to return ratio.

In a country, where ‘Dr. Sen’ was given life term for just speaking against the government, people wander around freely even after acting against the country. So, should Raja not be terminated from parliament or his perks and salary be withhold? Or should election commission not bar him from appearing in next term elections? The answer should be a YES, but unfortunately it's not.  And as long as it remains so, there’s no reason why Raja or Kalmadi or any other person should not commit such a crime.

The only way to prevent corruption from further expanding its wings is transparency. And to start, government should make it compulsory for each and every government employee ranging from ‘President’ to ’Peon’ to be open to public scrutiny and bringing them under the purview of RTI. A strong 'Lokpal Bill' could be the perfect start but as of now, it looks like GoI is not serious on eliminating corruption. The proposed bill have left all the lower level employees out of its ambit and it lacks enough teeth to nab the culprit.  

In addition to this, those under trial should be barred from getting any compensation or perks against their work till proven guilty. If proved, he should be immediately suspended without giving the arrears and should not be allowed in other government jobs and if proven innocent all their arrears should be cleared. This will go a long way to reduce corruption as the punishment will be immediate and eminent.

In addition, government should make it rewarding for people to inform about corrupt officials by giving them preference for their work and jobs.

All these may be small baby steps but if implemented properly , it will certainly clip the wings of corrupt.