INTROSPECTION – THE NEED OF HOUR

The campaign of Anna is almost over for the Janlokpal bill, but there still exists a wave around the country that whether the janlokpal bill would be able to curb corruption from society. Corruption is impossible to remove from society until each and every citizen of this country does not inspect himself or herself. It is the time when people of India should start introspecting themselves. Introspection means checking out our acts whether they are correct or not from all points viz. - socially, legally and morally, the point of economically (profit) comes after these three points. It is very easy to raise fingers on someone who is doing something wrong. Check out honestly how many times you have given a thought when you do something wrong? Not even a single time, you would have manipulated in your mind that it was correct. How many times do we follow traffic signals, until there is traffic police standing as surveillance? People even don’t know the use Zebra crossing. How many times do we try to escape the traffic police when caught, by paying a small bribe? We don't even care for the wrappers and chips packet while throwing them on the public places or anywhere. Yes,dustbin is not easily found but if you have a will you can find anything. These small things make the big difference. For escaping a huge line at any public offices, we try to find the agents related to that office and by giving them their fees, we try to escape the internal working of the offices because we are rich enough and then we condemn our system. Who are we to condemn our system, not being the part of it? This is the reason why only poor’s and lower middle class suffer in this country, upper middle class and riches escape by giving money. The cases might be viz. applying for a driving license, Pan Card, vehicle registration, issuing a birth or death certificate, applying for a Passport, even a school seat needs a bribe.

We may say that our time is more important than paying a small amount, but then who are these people to raise questions on someone’s integrity. They have no right to correct someone else before correcting themselves. You cannot ask someone to follow the rules, until you teach by your own example, it is one of the most effective way. Is your time more important than your country? If yes, then you will die fulfilling your sense gratification and cannot serve anyone selflessly. The fight against social evils is morally a fight to retain our traditional values. It's a fight to preserve our fundamental rights, our land, our forests, our judicial system, our faith in ourselves. If we lose all these values, of what worth is all the name and fame in the world? Your past may have passed doing such acts, but if your future continues as same ,then there is no difference between you people and animals. This appeal to the readers may prove to be futile, but I’m sure at least few minds will be ignited after reading this article.

SILENT KILLING

You might be wondering about the topic , I think it is very difficult for you to imagine the inside story behind this topic. I will try to put up few basic questions just to bring your attention on one of the serious issues of the times. Do you know why poison is prohibited ? We all know that consumption of poison leads to immediate death , in most of the cases, so it is illegal to be in possession of poison. You might be thinking that there are various other products available in market which also leads to death but not immediately. Now you might be wondering about those products . Few of those are liquor, smoking, sheesha, gutkha, and various other stuffs. But do you know why these products are not prohibited ?Think a little ….. you'll find the answer. Both the stuffs lead to killing of people ….. one legal and another illegal .... Sound strange ….!!! There might be efforts such as increase in age of drinking, printing cancer photographs on cigarette packs, etc. Do you think this much is enough ? The consumption of liquor, both the local and branded leads to high revenue for both central as well state govt. Is it morally correct to put the citizens under trouble for few percent of revenues. The opening of new bars , pubs and sheesha lounge would cover more population coming in contact with these stuffs , thereby increasing revenues. But few people might characterize this as a sign of developing society, I characterize this as a influence of western culture. In this country taxes on petroleum products is more compared to liquor because govt. knows that petroleum products have become necessity. Poison is one-time revenue generator where as smoking and liquor consumption increases exponentially. Most of the people don't discontinue these habits until they are dead.

                                       The govt. says that person above 18 yrs is mature enough to differentiate between right and wrong. If the person is mature enough to decide his fate , then he should also be allowed to decide between Poison and Liquor or cigarettes. Then why there is a need to ban poison. I'm not saying that poison consumption should be allowed , rather I'm putting a Question before you that whether liquor , smoking should be banned or not? I've just tried to put up the basic facts and the govt. policies towards safeguarding its citizens. I hope this post is helpful for bringing the attention of the people of this country on such a serious issue of Silent killing. 

Bringing The Jan Lokpal

Before Anna ji's fast on 4^th of April , I haven't heard about Jan-Lokpal , but since then I'm committed towards Jan-Lokpal and learning more and more about the bill because of value it contains. The problem is that only a percent of country's population knew what the lokpal bill is all about, remaining are just happy by seeing that civil society is doing something good for this country and few others are also critisizing the govt. This is the time for every individual to warm up thier chairs and learn about the bill and then decide whether the govt. or Anna's team is correct. What Anna has done is a voice of common people, they are frustrated by paying bribes for pitiful works to be done . They want complete freedom from this day -2-day corruption prevaling in the society and want complete security of what they pay as Income tax and various other taxes. We want an effective agency similar to CALL 108 or CALL 100 ,etc which could be called for help when there is a demand for bribe. We don't pay taxes to be the part of wealth of a minister or a MP or any other bureaucrat, but for nation's development. The govt. is trying to fool the people of this country by saying that –We can't allow a parallel govt. to function , that's a safe excuse .To what extent this is correct let us analyse. What govt. has proposed in the bill is very strange -:

1. If the complaint is found to be false or vexatious then it has proposed a min. of 2 yrs of imprisonment for the complainaint whereas if govt. servant is found to be corrupt , then min. imprisonment of 6 months.
   
2. Accused can register a cross-case against complainaint in a special court,before any preliminary investigation in which govt. would provide a free advocate to bureaucrat.
   
3. All NGOs would be covered at center as well as state(even a small group in village will under Lokpal) whereas govt. does not want this bill to be implemented at State .A matter of fact is that only 0.5% of govt. employees would be under purview of Lokpal.
   
4. Govt . wants only higher bureaucracy to be included in the lokpal ….. knowing that 120 crore people interact with lower bureaucracy where it is bribed for small works like : Ration card, Driving license, getting a Loan, dealing with traffic police, buying or selling property, getting a transfer, etc…..
   

I think it is the last chance to make or break LOKPAL