An average educated Indian tends to get angry these days because of the way he has to cope with the ever evolving scenario of sordid scams enveloping many of the leaders of the parties he supports. He feels ashamed of his identity as an Indian and begins to be skeptical of every man he comes across. He finds the atmosphere of public life heavy with what they term as corruption. At times he is at a loss not knowing what to do and curses all the parties saying that the same game of sharing gains and amassing wealth by unfair means will continue till the dooms day. But over the course of time his anger begins to subside when he is lured away by the promise of another leader from another party talking of action to change the whole system. He casts his vote and becomes a part of the new dispensation,that he believes like he has always done,will turn the world around him into a utopia.
There is a shattering climax when he comes to know from the papers he has been reading all his life that some prominent men from the dispensation he has helped to form are involved in some of the worst scandals he has ever heard of. Will he now give up and accept his life as an Indian with resignation? Will he finally conform to the view that the people who make promises and talk of better things in life will continue to be bogged down in the quagmire of corruption? Though the immediate reaction to the series of scandals involving the people we have lovingly followed is one of shrinking back into a state of despair, we cannot betray the great tradition of the country and the sacrifice of the people who have taught us to be good to ourselves as well as to the countrymen. We therefore have no choice but to take up cudgels against the people whose proclivities for money and wealth have left us red in the face and deprived the destitute, emaciated and famished people of the country of a better deal in life.
The spirit of dissent we have to keep up is not by switching our loyalties or by doubting the worth of the system of democracy in the country but by evolving an atmosphere of honesty and integrity. Even as we tend to blame the leaders for the wrongs they often commit with an alacrity, we forget to keep ourselves on a tight leash because of our obsession with the kind of material life we are leading.Whenever an opportunity comes our way we do not miss it to cheat and make the most of unfair means we adopt. Before we fight against corruption as an evil, it is important to do a bit of looking within and finding out if we deserve it. With a blind faith in the materialistic mode of our life and a determination to excel at any cost, we often adopt ways mean and selfish with complete disregard for values. This trend in our life rubs off on others making them equally corrupt and morally weak. While many of us are not of course dishonest or mean, the number of leaders who are found to have been corrupt are also small in number. Anything that is bad is bad with the potential to be the worst irrespective of any attempt to extenuate it. Therefore the next morning should see us resolving to be good and inculcating in our children and the people who are related to us the values of honesty and integrity. With our commitment to the ideals of honesty and and an unflinching determination to carry our fight to a conclusion, we would be a nation of lions chasing a few rabbits.
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