Fight against the cancer of Corruption.

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.