Wednesday, December 31, 2014

MEMO FROM NARA


 
 
Change… Change… Change…! Everyone talks about change without changing herself or himself. What change we want? Where do we want change? How to change?

Politicians in a democracy want change in order to capture the Government and to help their own family members and friends and friends’ family. In a country like India, which is over populated by all standards, the people belong to different States speaking different languages following different religions, belonging to different castes, having different levels of education, earning different family income and holding different kinds of jobs do want change. Such vast variability in our society is maintained by men and women by casting their valuable votes once in five years to elect a Government. They can bring about changes in the Government if they are not satisfied with the performance of the previous Government.

Of late such changes have been thought about in Arab countries which have been ruled by single families without giving a chance for the people of the country to participate in the governance. Protests were shown by people at different times without much success. But now the people after seeing the people in their neighbouring countries and their economic development, standard of life and employment opportunities started agitating in Egypt, Libya, Syria and other countries with great courage and determination. They are losing lives of many civilians who want democracy in their country.

In fact, the world had woken up to think and fight for the right. Human beings are in general, power-mongers. They even butcher the fellow humans to meet their goals. Those power-mongers live in high citadels with all comforts not understanding the conditions of their country-men who do all the work for the progress and prosperity of the country.

Another most important kind of change one has to bring about is to change oneself to suit the country’s development. If each one of us realizes the importance of change for the better, then a country can change for good. For instance, people talk about corruption which ruins the administration of a country without thinking about their own involvement in the process. The youth of our country came forward in countless numbers to support Anna Hazare, the champion of anti-corruption. One likes to think, how many of these youths bribed schools and colleges to get admission, how many of them bribed teachers for getting better grades, how many of them bribed the ministers to get a job and how many of them bribed the authorities to get a transfer to their native place? Even to get a constable job the candidate has to bribe, to get a Vice-Chancellor post one has to bribe and also to get a candidate seat to contest an election or a minister post one has to shell out crores of rupees as bribe to a political party. These are known to everyone including the media in our society. The bribe giver and the taker are also known; but how to eliminate such practices? Do you think anti-corruption law or Jan Lokpal Bill will solve it? I don’t think so and many others also think similar way. Each one of us has to change in not giving or not getting bribe at all levels. If we fail to do it then we stand as we stand today. Nothing will change…Don’t you think so?

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