As Citizens of this Nation, Our Duties and Responsibilities in Preventing Corruption

By: Ms. Pranusha Kulkarni 4th year (7th semester) B.B.A., LL.B. Karnataka State Law Universitys Law School Navanagar, Hubli 580 025 Karnataka E-mail ID: kulkarni.pranusha@gmail.com Residential address: Ms. Pranusha Kulkarni #603, Manya Towers, Manjushri Nagar, Sattur, Dharwad 580 009 Karnataka

Contact no.: +917829015642; (0836)2477603/2460196

We, the People of India, had once solemnly resolved to constitute ourselves into a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic Republic. We had also vowed to secure to all of ourselves social, economic and political justice, liberty of thought, belief, action, faith and worship and equality of status and opportunity. From the heart of our hearts, we had promised to promote amongst us all, fraternity which would strengthen the dignity of each individual. Whither the glory of this profound vision? Were these words merely fragile ropes of sand in the parched vastness of a ruthless desert? Whither our enlightened consciences which lead us into such an enviable beginning as a Nation? Whither the fearless marching forward into the riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma called the unknown and untouched future? How did the uncouth mad hound of our wild aspirations come to be tamed? Whither have we lost ourselves? Whither are we heading towards? Whither are we!? Corruption. This one word has kept us hostage for years now. Our senses have grown inure to it. We eat, drink and wake up only to behold scams after scams looting and pillaging our devastated Mother Nation, and we are being as complacent as complacence could ever get! Times were there when the very word sent a chill in our spines, and made our heads cow down in shame. The word was only seen to be hush-hushed in each others ears, but it was nothing less than a sin to spell it out loud in the open. But now, we find ourselves getting bombarded by this phenomenon day in and day out, and we have very nonchalantly made it a welcome part of our lives. We justify its existence in our lives, and deem life in our Nation impossible without it. Welcome, to the Brand New 21st Century Corruption-drenched India, my dear Friends! Yes, our economy is growing bigger, hand-in-hand with the bloating bellies and the underbellies of our respected elected representatives! Yes, the Mighty Corruption Tree has grown into a multitrillion dollar industry today, and the poor naked man on our streets continues to shiver in the cold, palpitate in the blistering heat, and die from want of food and water! Not to mention the inglorious bourgeoisie, which continues to wiggle and waggle, caught in the dreary vicissitudes of life, totally indifferent to the social concerns, and totally hapless and helpless as regards to coming up with a viable solution to treat the nation of the Corruption Canker. All of us seem to have been caught in the world of our own making, in our own dreamy webs, not knowing how we got there, and worst, not knowing how to get out of it. Reason is the last element dictating every single action of ours these days. Blind aping of the West, giving prominence to our greed, luxuries and wants, rather than our needs and requirements, parochialism, lack of farsightedness and a sheer moral, social, ethical and cultural decadence are ruling the roost. There are hundreds of social problems eating up the vitals of our nation, and here we are, dreaming of becoming the next super-power, at least by the turn of this decade! Transparency International, the anti-corruption movement spanning across the world, publishes what is called the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) every year, wherein the CPI, scores countries on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The score of India in Corruption

Perceptions Index 2012 is an abysmal 36. The publication on the website of Transparency International states, While no country has a perfect score, two-thirds of countries score below 50, indicating a serious corruption problem. Thus, on a global level too, Indias relative image seems to be dilly-dallying. The most pertinent question which is crying for an answer at this juncture is Who is responsible for this pathetic situation our Nation is in? The answer is as simple as the question itself It is, We, the People of India! If at all there is a multi-crore rupees industry thriving in India on bribes alone, if at all the States exchequers are suffering heavy deficits, it is because people like us exist, people like us who are more than eager to grease the already oily palms of the politicians; people like us who, in spite of the existence of legal mechanisms like Citizens Charters and the RTI Act to aid us in realizing an accountable, transparent, participative democracy, in fact choose to sit back in our homes as couch potatoes and hurl abuses on the corrupt Netas who are destroying India! We take pride in calling ourselves the largest democracy in the world. Yet, we being the citizens of the Nation, largely comprising of youth, do not own up our responsibility of electing our representatives. We recently saw Anna Hazare, a tiny old man trying to stand up against the Juggernaut called Corruption. We also saw Aseem Trivedi, a cartoonist, trying to depict the depth of morass and filth we are into through his cartoons, but they only got all hauled up by the authoritarian regime we are under. For every single voice which is raised from among the common man against the Behemoth called Corruption, a thousand drums are beaten up to form a fully functional cacophony. And we yet again drive ourselves into the endless quagmire of mudslinging and head thumping, yielding zero results. What is the solution? Or, the answer is better sought by the question, Who is the solution? To understand this question, we will first have to understand the present scenario we are being slapped with. The Indian society has been through a lot of tumultuous experiences and has had a chequered history ever since the British conquest of the land. It wouldnt be an exaggeration to state that the downfall of the Indian legacy started along with the gradual adoption of the Western ways by India, be it whatever field it may be in, like, education, governance, judicial system, administration, performance appraisals, rule-making, policy-making, et al. I do not intend to say that the West is per se bad. It would be a foolhardy to say so. But, due to the unique cultural and social milieu of India, as compared to Europe, the entire system which we have come up to have for ourselves is misplaced, which unwittingly has had its share of vitriolic repercussions. And, Corruption has emerged as one of the most caustic byproducts of this misplaced system. But, it would be pertinent to note that, the causes of Corruption are deep-rooted. No Anna or Kejriwal, single-handedly, can root out its tough tufts from beneath the deep layers of the Earth. It requires iron strength of literally every single citizen of this nation from the daily wage labourer to the big business honcho for the status quo to change. The following Tree represents the entire etymology of Corruption:

Moral decadence; Complacency Kickbacks/bribes Disrespect to the Constitution of India Hubris The Great Corruption Tree Indifference and apathy Black money Effects Inter-religious Hatred

Undue preference given to individualism, more than unity & fraternity No self-introspection/soul-searching

Lack of moral education No love towards Motherland Faulty/nil understanding of ones faith/religion/dharma Causes

Lack of dharmic, cultural, social and economic sustainability

Hence, friends, we clearly see above that the problem of Corruption is not linear, but is multipronged. A straight-forward approach to tackle it does not seem to provide us with satisfactory results. We see that, just as there are many roots to the gigantic tree of Corruption, so are there many branches (read, faces) of Corruption. It manifests itself in many different forms. In fact, the above diagram is only illustrative, and on introspection, we find that corruption gets entrenched in our minds right from the moment a thought of doing anything immoral or illegal takes its birth. Just as charity starts at home, corruption indubitably starts in the mind. In order for me to propose clear cut guidelines as to what are our duties and responsibilities, as citizens of India, in preventing corruption, we now need to know, why, in the first place, do people tend to go the corrupt way? And, given the fact that they do so, what kinds of people are more likely to fall victim to this Corruption syndrome? Is it only the people in power with insatiable greed for more, or even a hapless common man, out of desperation and want of an effective and reliable mechanism to get his mundane chores done? And, what feeds this Corruption-Canker Cycle? What sustains this perfectly organic model? Here lies the probable answer:

People in power/people in need

'Perception' that work gets done quicker by bribing

Power inebriation/Urgent need of something

Easy money available through huge number of 'bribers'/job done quickly by greasing the palms

Greed/Desperation

Thus, the above Corruption-Canker cycle shows us that the entire organism of corruption is kept alive by one single element in it the Perception that work gets done quicker by bribing. It is this perception that is the weakest point of this chain, and thus, therein lays the chains strength. If we intend to nip corruption at its bud, we will have to stop externalizing the problem. Corruption is not something external to our being. It is in us. We just cannot afford to say India is corrupt, or people are corrupt! India or even people are just ideas, India is nothing without us, all of us constitute people, and hence we should start addressing the problem within us first, and then move into the outer circles of our lives. The perception lies in our minds, and hence, therein lays the means to change it too. Rights-based Society the main culprit We live in a society guided and defined by the Rights-based jurisprudence, wherein individual rights are valued more than ones duties and responsibilities towards the society. In the environment we live in, we find ourselves fighting with each other, and also with ourselves, relentlessly to realize our rights, forgetting in toto, about our duties towards ourselves and also towards each other. When such is the scenario, it becomes very difficult to tame the wild beast of human endeavors. Thus, the best we can do, as responsible citizens of our nation, to revive and revamp our dying nation, is to revisit our Dharma our way of life, our roots. We need not transform ourselves into saffron-clad monks, nuns, and priests in order to imbibe Dharma in our lives. Dharma is no rocket science, and it is the beacon light to guide the bark of our lives, which looks on dreary tempests in the dark of the night and is never shaken. It is dharma that differentiates us from animals. There is an ancient Sanskrit verse which says, Food, sleep, fear and sexual intercourse

are common to both animals and humans. It is dharma that characterizes the uniqueness of humans; human beings, devoid of dharma, are just like animals. (ahara nidra bhaya maithunam cha samanyam etat pashubhir naranam; dharmo hi teshaam adhiko vishesho dharmena hina pashubhis samanah). Thus, obviously, dharma is not something that characterizes our physiological constitution. It is an inalienable and invaluable part of our culture, it is a defining characteristic of humanity itself. Therefore, dharma is to be traditionally propagated across our generations, especially if we want to eradicate a vice as headstrong and gullible as corruption. What is Dharma? In order for us to follow Dharma, we will first have to comprehend it thoroughly. As far as the connotation of dharma as that in which everything is grounded is concerned, it refers to the basic ontological reality itself, the ultimate truth. There is nothing higher than dharma in this ontological sense (dharmat param nasty Brahadaranyaka Upanishad I-IV-14). The connotation of dharma as that which sustains all refers to the cosmic law of righteousness. It signifies the ethical connotation of dharma that is, dharma that poses the most puzzling problems. Thus, there is no problem in accepting that dharma is the cosmic and subtle moral order, but the challenge lies in deciding which actions are the manifestations of that cosmic order on the worldly plane. What is the criterion for deciding between various competing and alternative lines of actions regarding their conformity with dharma? Which acts of ours are to be regarded as adharmic and hence have to be reviled, and which acts have to be epitomized as dharmic? How to distinguish dharma from adharma, that is, righteous action from unrighteous action? How to understand which of the various possible actions is in the greatest conformity with dharma? It is important to get answers to these questions for a precise understanding of the concept of dharma itself. Dharma has to be understood in terms of both its ontological and ethical connotations, as well as in terms of its denotative ethical actions. The juxtaposition of the connotative and denotative meanings of dharma is necessary for grasping its core concept. Dharmovivasya jagatah pratistha, lokedharmistha praja upasarpanthi; dharmena paapam panudati, dharme sarvapratisthitam tasmaddharma paramavandanti This ancient Sanskrit verse very clearly states both the connotative and denotative meanings of dharma. The verse means: Dharma constitutes the foundation of all affairs in the world. People respect one who adheres to Dharma. Dharma insulates (man) against sinful thoughts and actions. Everything in this world is founded on Dharma. Dharma, therefore, is considered supreme. Thus, the connotation of dharma as that which supports or sustains all, implies a subtle cosmic law that tends to get reflected at various stages of our actions. This divinely ordained law of

righteousness has to be diligently observed in all of our activities. The other connotation of dharma is that in which everything lies grounded (yasmin dhryate) and refers to the metaphysical truth underlying the entire universe. It stands for the ultimate reality. The nature of relationship between these twin connotations of dharma is very significant and illuminating.

Divinely ordained law of life

Ultimate truth/ reality Law of righteous ness

Dharma
Righteous action

Cosmic moral order

Transreligious; atheistic; agnostic

Peace, growth, welfare & harmony

The word dharma refers to the subtle and inviolable law of cosmic sustenance that must be observed in our activities for the sake of peaceful and harmonious sustenance and growth. Following dharma is neither a prerogative nor an obligation of any one particular religious community. In fact, all human beings irrespective of their religious affiliations are equally obliged to adhere to dharma for common welfare. Even those of us who do not believe in any divine order or higher reality should also adhere to dharma for the sake of common well being. Dharma thus takes the form of a non-religious universal precondition for peace, growth and harmony. Thus, it follows that every person, irrespective of his/her religion, or lack of it, by the very virtue of him/her being a human being, is impelled to follow dharma the Supreme moral and legal order, in order to prevent corruption. The following diagram denotes the sociological and political milieu of any person, intending to start the process of cleansing up. We should note that, we will inevitably have to start from our very own selves, and then move up the ladder towards our families, our neighborhood, our locality, our village/town/city, our state and then, reaching up to the echelons of our nation. Mind you friends, this aint no easy task and it needs an iron will to achieve the goal of dharmic cleansing.

Thus, no doubt we will have to start the process single-handedly, but, as we move towards the outer circles of our lives, we will inevitably have to join hands with our friends and break ice with many of our foes. We will have to relook at the way we look at our lives, and will have to widen our horizons, in order for this mission of ours to be successful. Too idealistic, impractical and Utopian? No doubt, I have put forward the proposition that dharma is the sole panacea which can guide us in bringing up India from the decadence she is rotting in. But, am I running the risk of sounding too impossibly idealistic and impractical? Are all these dharmic ideals sounding too utopian to be implemented and imbibed? Well, friends, let us never forget that, after all, we are Indians, and we will continue to remain so, irrespective of the clothes we wear and the language we speak in todays globalized world. And, Dharma has never been an impractical idea; it has been, and will forever remain the beautiful reality of life, and if understood and implemented clearly, would lead to such results, to achieve which the whole of humanity has been struggling since years.

Being Indians, we should never forget the ideals on which our great Sanatana dharma rests. The very fact that ours is a dharma and not a religion, stands testimony to the profundity of our glorious tradition. The problem lies with us, Yes, but the solution too is available with us. It is as simple as simplicity can get. So, what is the solution? Are we in contemplation of a revolution, a Holy War, another nationalistic movement, or a Jihaad in the name of Dharma and God? Should we all rise up in arms and go on a killing spree of our corrupt politicians? Are we conniving to execute a coop against the incumbent government? No. This is not what I meant by following our Dharma. If we even intend to follow any of the above-mentioned paths, then we are running away from the problem. We are running away from ourselves. We are externalizing our internal problem. Why do we always externalize the problem of corruption? Why are we so afraid of facing the demon inside all of us? Why dont we do a reality check of our own lives before pointing fingers at others? Why is it always us and they, instead of we? Why? The Solution What is the solution? To answer this question, we need an answer to another primordial question From whom are we expecting a solution? From them, or us? Are we talking about the rich citizens who literally have the laws in their hands, or the poor and the destitute citizens on the roads, who carry a third grade citizenship card with them, and whose well-being the fellow citizens are least bother about? Or, are we talking about the Police who rape women, and politicians who suck the blood of the lowliest, least and the last; the Judges who sell Justice and the whistleblowers who get murdered cold-bloodedly? Do we even consider the landless laborers, daily wage workers, street peddlers, vendors, hawkers, beggars, and prostitutes as citizens? Citizens who are students and lecturers getting arrested and jailed for having exercised their freedom of speech and expression, or citizens who are entrepreneurs and lawyers, coming up with new BPO-type business models to curb corruption? Todays religious leaders, who boisterously engage in sexual promiscuity, are also to be considered as our compatriots, isnt it? And, do we even have robbers, murderers, terrorists, naxalists, Maoists, dacoits, human traffickers and the underworld criminals in the list of who qualifies as a citizen of India? Isnt a Maoist in the forests of Jharkhand, or a naxalist in the Western Ghats, equally a citizen of India, like us? Would he be interested in preventing corruption? How can the very embodiments of corruption fight corruption? Why will the politicians, or the religious leaders, the police, the corporate leaders, who have all turned our nation into a Banana Republic, be ever interested in curbing corruption? Why will the powerful ever stop exploiting the powerless? How will the Proletariat ever break open from the shackles of the Bourgeoisie?

Friends, a war or a revolution is a highly improbable idea to pursue in the present labyrinthine societal structure of ours. Lundberg had once said: Any situation/behavior of the phenomena is complex when we do not understand it. Complexity is always relative to our understanding or mastery of a given behaviorour complexity is not definable in absolute or objective termsthe complexity of human society in other words, is always a function of our ignorance of it. Thus, it is also not recommendable to crib over the present situation as too complex to comprehend. Shankaracharya had once famously said: Asatvam bhavati satvam nachaiva sthaapakena; bhavati satvam yada bhavati tasya paripaalanam (Lie becomes truth, not just by its institution or inception, but by celebrating it). Similarly, it is also equally true that evil forces are rendered stronger than the virtuous, only when they are institutionalized, idolized and further entrenched in a societal fabric, till they no longer seem to be evil to the minds eye, but which insidiously eat up the very essentials of the society they live in, posing to be silent killers.

This being the fact, the only potion which can cure this ill is a clean conscience and a willing will to wipe out the evil from inside ourselves. When all of us take care of our insides, the outside world automatically gets cleaned up. The above diagram represents the break-up of the various classes of citizens in our nation. That is, the diagram is a graphical representation of all of us. Some of us are students, some others are lecturers; some of us are activists and leaders, and some others are judges, police officers, politicians and bureaucrats. We also have religious gurus, journalists, businesspeople, farmers, laborers, workers, beggars and criminals living amongst us. And when we speak of duties and responsibilities of all of us, with respect to mitigating corruption on our land, we will have to speak about all our interests. According to me, if only all of us do our duties efficiently, without letting corruption to creep in, on the whole, the whole of the Indian citizenry would be fulfilling its pious duty of safeguarding its Motherland. So, what kind of such pious duties can be common to such a diverse group of citizens? The Constitution of India the Supreme Law of the Land has an answer to this question. Article 51A of the Constitution of India, which is called the Paramount Parchment and the Founding Deed of our land, has bequeathed to us certain essential Fundamental Duties which have to be fulfilled diligently by all of us, irrespective of our social or economic status in our society. The Article states: It shall be the duty of every citizen of India (a) to abide by the Constitution and respect its ideals and institutions, .; (b) to cherish and follow the noble ideals which inspired our national struggle for freedom; (c) to uphold and protect the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India; (d) to defend the country and render national service when called upon to do so; (e) to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; .; (f) to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture; (g) . ; (h) to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform; (i) . ;

(j) to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement; (k) . Thus, it is evident from this that this Constitutional pronouncement addresses exclusively the citizens of India, and the onus rests on us to raise the bars of our standards of life for ourselves. The Allahabad High Court, in Ram Prasad v. State of Uttar Pradesh1, pointed out that Art. 51A is in a positive form with a view to striving towards excellence. People should not conduct themselves in a blameworthy manner. Excellence means surpassing merit, virtue, honest performance. Constitutional law givers have provided that the citizens of this nation shall perform their duties in an excellent way rather than perform them half-heartedly. The performance of these duties falls within the ambit of Constitutional law. I strongly opine that, we cannot plausibly come up with a more comprehensive list of duties for ourselves than this! If only we truthfully abide by these enunciations, together with following our dharma, our duties as citizens would be fulfilled! Also, instances are replete when ordinary citizens like you and I have fought against corruption with the help of legal machinery like the RTI Act, just to quote one example. We also have the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 to bring the corrupt civil servants under the book. We have various anti-corruption laws in India like the provisions under the IPC, 1860, Income Tax Act, 1961, Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, et al. We also have many anti-corruption police and courts like the Central Vigilance Commission, the Central Bureau of Investigation, Directorate-General of Income Tax Investigation, Anti-Corruption Bureau, and the like. Not to mention the hordes of civil society movements against corruption like the India Against Corruption, Janaagraha, Jaago Re founded by Tata Tea, etc. Despite the presence of so many anti-corruption measures, somewhere, we are lacking in our ambition to stand true to our cause. The Quis custodiet ipsos custodies? syndrome will surely pave way to our politia being governed by our conscientia, if we add the dharmic ingredient to whatever we are doing. Our Duties Our Responsibilities Our Nation: A New Preamble to a New Life Thus, We, the Dutiful and Responsible Citizens of India, should now solemnly resolve to constitute ourselves into a morally upright, ethically clean, and spiritually enlightened Nation, promising to every single one of us, a life free from moral turpitude and decadence. All of us should resolve to stay steadfast when strife strikes us and impleads in us to compromise on our cherished dharmic ideals, refusing to trade our souls to its treachery.
1

AIR 1988 All 309: (1988) 14 All LR 497: 1988 All WC 1082 (DB).

We, the Citizens of India, should forever remain truthful to our consciences and to our Mother Nation, and should in eternity swear to abide by the anti-corruption ideals we all have set for ourselves. We should as well be the most grateful to meet, greet and drive away from our minds and souls, the mighty demon called Corruption. We should have an Anti-Corruption Manifesto for ourselves, and stick to it, just like we stick to our daily routines. All of us, be us husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbours, lawyers, teachers, doctors, activists, leaders, businesspersons, scavengers, laborers be it whatever roles we play in our lives, should pledge never to deceive or cheat, since, deception in itself carries the bitter seeds of corruption. We should forever remember that this is OUR nation, and it is OUR wealth which is being looted by certain of our ignorant countrymen. It is our responsibility to bring the perpetrators to book, and to see to it that we stand united, come what may. Whenever situations call for it, we should never hesitate to raise a collective voice against the wrongdoers. Whenever situations call for it, we should never lose chances of befriending our so called foes in unitedly fighting against the evil. This may seem to us as a war, albeit, it is a war against our own petty selves, and the venom needs to be sucked out inch by inch, bit by bit, minute by minute, and hour by hour, and one day, in the distant future, we shall enter into that land of our very own making, where the stench of rotten morals is replaced by the sheen of iron wills glistening under the majestic Indian Sun, and only then shall we stand redeemed of all our sins! Friends, allow me to walk with you towards freedom, a walk with all of you, my compatriots, towards the heaven of sanctity, towards the heaven called India! I hear a deafening noise, Disturbing my inner poise. I see a lot of litter, Leaving behind a sight bitter. I feel my heart wringing Under the bells of Corruption jingling! Walking along the cramped path, A cloud of dust having me swathe, The dust of greed n envy Choking the breath of the needy bevy! I look into your eyes distressed, Only to find the same anguish buttressed! I come to you, n hold your hand, N we march past the burning band! Off were into the fields of light; Where truth n morality are our only respite!

They join us, n we join em N off we go into heavens realm! Heavens here, my friend! What are you up to, my fiend? Come join us in our walk! Theres no reason for you to balk! May the sentient Light prevail upon the momentary darkness we are wriggling in. Asatoma sadgamaya, tamasoma jyotirgamaya, Mrutyorma amrutam gamaya, Om shanti shanti shantih