Corruption, Hypocrisy, Religion and Politics

It is common perception that these words are interrelated. I would venture to add media and reporting to this group.

Of late we have been hearing about Civil Society, post Anna Hazare’s resolve and call to the government to take quick action to enact the long awaited Lokpal Bill. As an un-common, common man, I infer that there exist   six  species of human beings in ‘MERA BHARAT MAHAAN’ i.e. India.

1.       Military (Armed Forces) Top Brasses –Mildly greedy sort who will acquire land, buildings and housing apartments , even at the cost of their subordinates called as NCOs and Other Ranks dead or alive. To achieve this goal, they may take the help of the second set of species described briefly, below.

2.       Netas (politicians, ministers), and Babus (Executives, IAS, IPS officers, Other policemen ) – Very greedy sort who will accept any illegal(?) gratification in cash, kind, positions, services etc. for their immediate requirements and the requirements of their off-springs and upto nth generation to follow. This group can be found in any colour and creed ­. Their hide, is generally thick and are not perturbed by slander, scandals and scams. They achieve their goal by indulging in smear campaigns, mud-slinging , sycophancy and lackeying. This group is also known to be most selfish. The language of the netas may be replete with profanities and expletives especially in Hindi. They are not civil in behavior. Their pronouncements should not be taken seriously. They make speeches for each other and for the occasion. They will not hesitate to retract their verbal gutturals when confronted. In such events they will blame it on the third set of species described below.

3.       Media and Reporters – Occasionally greedy sort. Most hypocritical of all the species. They think that, they know everything and are experts in all matters. Under this presumption they will offer their opinions, conduct media trials and even, pass judgements. When confronted, they will take the help of one of their own species. They are known to double speak. They have an association which indulges in mutual flattery i.e. you scratch my back, I will scratch your back. As they are faithful to their masters who are interested in revenues through advertisements and sponsorship of their programmes, they are not expected to speak the truth always, in accordance with their conscience. They think, they are super sleuths- CBI, CIA, FBI, RAW, ISI and whatever you can think of, rolled into one.  Last year it was comical to see them crack Aarushi Talwar murder mystery. They are trained to hunt with the hound and run with the hare. Quite often they exhibit arrogance. Sometimes they utter some words in such a style and speed, it is difficult to decipher them. This is adopted deliberately to confuse the audience, to make them think that whatever they uttered is of very high value. Some of them practice for giving running commentary in Olympics in the finals of Men’s 100 metres dash event. Whenever a scam is busted they compete with each other to claim that ‘your channel’ was the first to expose it. This year which can be labeled as the year of exposes on corruption and scams, it was ironical to see them conducting debates, to decide whethe  both, bribe giver and taker should be punished. No doubt they had some documents to prove that gross misdeeds indeed have taken place. I wonder how they laid their hands on these documents and how much they ‘SPENT’ for obtaining these evidences.  Classic examples (specimen) for this species are, Barkha Dutt, Vikram Chandra, Arnabh Goswami, Vinod Sharma , Nidhi Razdan, Sagarika Ghosh.

4.       Civil Society- Most selfless , least greedy and sensitive to all human problems. Very thin skinned, most persecuted (like the Jews). They do not have any political aspirations. They are quick to perceive any opposition to their view points and mud slinging against them. They are the most revered and respected for their expertise. The common man looks up to them for guidance and salvation from the clutches of the second species described above. Typical examples for this species are Anna Hazare, Santosh Hegde, Kiran Bedi, Bhushans, Cho Ramaswamy , Abdul Kalam.

5.       Aam Aadmi or the Common Man- Most exploited lot with sheep mentality and very gullible. They are similar in nature as their counterparts outside Bharat. This species is like God- they are omnipresent. In democracy, even if they vote for an eventually winning candidate or political party, this species always ends up on the losing side. They are very flexible with high resilience. They put up with every non-sense. The most pliable part of their body is their stomach. They can tighten it with a few inches long belt. They fall for every trick of species No.2. Of late they have started looking up to species No.4 for emancipation and liberation.

6.       Self proclaimed honest man- Most businessmen (I am not talking about the vegetable vendors, paan beedi  shopwallahs or small scale industrialists – these people fall under species No.5) , few Godmen,and PM  fall under this category. They work in coordination with and cooperation of species 1, 2 and 3. They use the gullibility of Species No.5.

As I was writing this, I watched the News of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Saibaba passing away.While it was heartening to note Zahir Abbas, Arjuna Ranatunga speaking about the Baba, who was a  spiritual guru to many and was leading them to do the right thing, it was indeed pathetic to see Ashok Chavan of Adarsh ‘fame’ talking about the Baba. Media could have been more sensible by editing such pieces. Media is just interested in filling up the broadcast timings. They are least worried about the contents of some broadcasts aired by them.

Coming back to Anna Hazare movement (?), I have my own opinion. It is not merely a mass movement galvanized against the corrupt establishment to right the wrong. It is a referendum of sorts, asking the government to act against corruption at all levels which is the need of the hour. Instead it is observed that the government (by proxy of course) is trying all tricks like shouting against PAC chairman, using other diversionary methods to prevent people from knowing the truth.

While at it, Anna Hazare & Co. should anticipate the worst,s like Anna falling sick because of his age and hurry up with the Lokpal  bill, lest the govt. and the other highly corrupt take the opportunity to go back to square one and put this into cold storage for the next 5 decades. After all, all the netas and babus have their own agenda and priorities.