Corruption and the miserable life of a common man are linked
together in a vicious circle. Corruption
is an osmotic process that transfers wealth from poor masses to the corrupt
politicians and bureaucrats. I do not
think that the rural poor are not for the anti-corruption movement. It is only that they have been misguided to
think that asserting their social identity is the real issue and NOT
corruption. However this delusion can be
sustained only as long as they do not attain critical minimum level of
education and income. The astutest
amongst the politicians realize this and oppose all policies that can truly
uplift the common man and other trodden sections. And the tool that they have perfected for the
purpose is the politics of identity management. This is the reason that all
economic reforms have been put on the backburner for such a long time. What is most unfortunate is that many of the
practitioners of this devious politics are from among the downtrodden
themselves!
So it is an unfortunate truth that there are few takers for
the anti-corruption movement beyond the middle class. And yet this battle
against corruption can be fought only by gaining political power and
aggressively pursuing policies for the economic upliftment of the masses so
that can see the real issue and bring about the change this country so badly
needs. There is no other way.
Anna Hazare is worried about the sky-high costs of
contesting elections. The costs have
been deliberately pushed up by our current breed of politicians with a view to
keep the entry barrier high. The
communication technologies available today can help pull these costs down. Televisions, CD players and projectors, SMS,
internet connections in e-chaupals can all be leveraged to bring the costs
substantially down. The challenge lies
in making the rural and urban poor see that corruption IS the core issue.
I think that Anna's skepticism notwithstanding, Mr.
Kejariwal and his team have taken just the right decision. Many in the middle class will be willing to
provide the funding for the low cost electioneering using the tools mentioned
above.
