The Corruption Raakshas

Corruption and Bribing has become a for-granted thing in India. It is not an exaggeration.
People aspire for big positions in Government organisations - traffic, police, customs agents, PSUs - asthat they have the potential to earn kimbalam (bribes).
It is a well known fact to be posted in a certain police station in the city, the candidate has to pay a few lakhs to facilitate a transfer. He is willing to give those few lakhs as he can "earn" them back by the huge amount of bribes he will receive everyday. (Poo kadai in Chennai.)


Almost nothing can be done without paying bribes. I am repeating this to insist of how gross it is over here. It is frustrating. Are we like this wonly? Can nothing at all be done to change this attitude?
Politicians...GRRRR. How did we become like this? From the independence days they have been swindling. The crores are unbelievably high. Almost no exception to this. Whatever happened to interest of the people.
(Of course, this is not to discount a number of honest people in public sector organisations or the vision of our statesmen.)
I am for this movement! Its about time we fight for what it should be. Calling it the second freedom struggle is damn right. 
The response to this is huge. Don't go just by television channels. This participation by the ordinary person is real. I was standing outside Oasis mall in Koramangala. Unbelievable - the crowd that had gathered! Non political, non religious. I am gratified that this has garnered so much attention. We want this! They cannot get away with it! This is not the norm.
Imagine how much better things would be without corruption and bribery! It is not utopia, but this cannot continue.


RS Kalha writes in Tehelka
However, it is easy to confuse the issue between democracy and an issue that has had an enormous impact on the everyday life of the people. Even democratically elected governments cannot go against the wishes or feelings of the people once they are aroused as strongly as they have recently been.
The issue of corruption in India is an emotive one for it touches the lives of ordinary citizens on every occasion and on even the most ordinary activity of everyday life. Whether it is the ration shop, or the transport office that issues licenses, or the passport office or the daily contact with the municipal authorities, few escape unscathed from the clutches of corruption if work is ever to be done. Thus, when the citizens see, after a hard day’s grind, their hard-earned money being frittered away on getting even the most innocuous work done in a governmental office, their anger is justified. And into this volatile and potent mixture is added additional anger when the high and mighty are seen getting away with huge unearned amounts of money, as in the recent scams.


The Guardian's Jason Burke writes
Though bribery, or "graft", is a fact of life for more or less everybody in India, the demonstrators are largely urban, educated and relatively well-off. "What you are seeing on the street is a middle-class rebellion," said Mohan Guruswamy, a former senior official in the ministry of finance and founder of the Centre for Policy Alternatives thinktank.


That said about the anti-corruption movement, more about the Jan Lokpal itself in the next post
*Raakshas = Demon