Tackling corruption
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: December 28, 2013 -

In an interesting coincidence, while young student participants in our weekly essay competition on the topic of “The Impact of Corruption in Manipur” were speaking out their minds on the root causes of this social evil and its far-reaching consequences in the society, Vice President of All India Congress Committee (AICC) and projected Prime Ministerial candidate of the party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, 2014 Rahul Gandhi made a clarion call for fighting against corruption in a meeting of Chief Ministers of all Congress-ruled States at the National capital on Friday wherein he reiterated that his party is dead serious on tackling the menace of corruption both at the national and State levels.

Faced with numerous corruption charges against its Ministers both at the National and State levels, it is no sacred how the image of Congress party, which used to rule over the entire country at one time, has suffered in recent past and lost its stronghold one after the other.

In the recent Assembly elections to five States, the party had to relinquish power in the most humiliating manner possible in Delhi and Rajasthan.

Out of the 28 States and 7 Union Territories in the country, today Congress is in power in only 12 States, namely Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Assam, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala, Meghalaya and our own State Manipur.

Whether the announcement to enact new Lokayukta legislation in all Congress-ruled States before 28th February 2014 would be able to change the face of the party in the fight against corruption or not is yet to be seen, but still it is good to know that the party has finally awoken to the rot deep within, the neglect of which could very well lead to writing of its own obituary.

Well, talking of corruption, we normally look upon it as the misuse of entrusted power by those in authorities for their private gain or the use of public office for their private gain.

In another words, the use of official position, rank or status by an office bearer for his or her own personal benefit. This is also how the Transparency International (TI) has defined corruption.

But the menace of widespread corruption that we see around today is not anymore confined within the parameters of how IT defines corruption.

It is no longer limited to politicians or the public servants, who misuse the power entrusted upon them, but it has become very common amongst almost every section of the society and at every level.

Today, corruption is a social malaise prevailing not only amongst the filthy rich who are greedy in spite of already possession enough ill-gotten money but also among the same poor who are crying over the deprivation of their rights and benefits in an unjust social system.

In other words, if not due to greed, indulgence in corrupt practices has become almost a compulsion in today.

In such a situation, whether any number of newer and stronger legislations enacted to fight against corruption would be able to solve the problem or not is becoming a billion dollar question.

Nonetheless, with the impact of corruption hurting everyone in the society, prevention and eradication of corruption is an absolute necessity for better social and public life.

So, the first step towards bringing an end to corruption should start from you and me: Lets us not pay or take bribe, obey law and encourage others to do the same.

Will this be like wishing for the moon?